Center point
More than 1.2 million CenterPoint Energy customers were still without power as of Wednesday, two days after Hurricane Beryl knocked out power to more than 2.2 million customers.
The company has restored power to 1 million customers so far, but progress has been slow throughout the day. At about 6 a.m. Wednesday, 1.37 million people in the Houston area were without power, according to CenterPoint’s tracker. As of 5:30 p.m., that number was 1.24 million, meaning only about 130,000 had power restored during the day.
CenterPoint released a map late Tuesday showing the status of power restoration efforts in Houston. The map shows areas that currently have power, areas where assessments are underway and areas where circuit repairs are scheduled. On Wednesday, the map showed restored roads in Downtown Houston, West University Place and other areas of central Houston.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire said he expects power companies to follow through on their promises to restore power to frustrated customers.
“We all share the frustration of Houston residents about the lack of power,” Whitmire said.
RELATED: Cooling centers, evacuation shelters open across Houston area in aftermath of Hurricane Beryl
However, customers on social media have questioned the authenticity of the map, which also doesn’t provide a timeline for when power will be restored, with company officials saying they couldn’t provide a detailed timeline because they hadn’t yet completed their assessment of the damage.
The company has come under heavy criticism for its response to the outages and its communication with customers. When asked about the company’s preparedness, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick said he had asked for details about CenterPoint’s preparations.
“CenterPoint will have to explain themselves as to whether they were prepared and ready. The state was prepared and ready. Once we have our full report, we’ll let you know if we’re satisfied,” Patrick said Tuesday.
CenterPoint said the outages it has addressed so far were related to its power distribution system, which was designed to be shut off to prevent further damage.
CenterPoint removed its original outage tracking map from its website in May, citing technical issues and increased webpage traffic after the deadly derecho left nearly 1 million customers without power. Some Houston residents decided to get creative this week after social media users pointed out that the Whataburger app could serve as a de facto outage map because it showed which fast-food restaurants were open and which were closed in the wake of Hurricane Beryl.
RELATED: What-a-power: Houston-area residents desperate for power outage information turn to Whataburger app maps
CenterPoint said in a press release that although Beryl “directly impacted a large portion of its 5,000-square-mile system, causing fallen trees, branches and other debris to impact utility poles and lines,” its entire system functioned largely as intended.
CenterPoint is assessing damage in southeast and northwest Houston, according to a power outage map.
“While we made steady progress following Hurricane Ike and outperformed in restoring power to our customers, there is significant work ahead as efforts become more complex and time-consuming, especially in the hardest-hit areas,” Lynne Wilson, senior vice president of the Electric business, said in a statement.
“We know many customers expect us to do their jobs as safely and quickly as possible, and that will continue to be our number one priority,” Wilson said.
Before the storm, CenterPoint had fewer than 5,000 workers on standby. Critics say the company did not have enough out-of-town workers in place before the storm made landfall early Monday. After the storm passed, CenterPoint more than doubled its staffing, company spokeswoman Alicia Oshodi said. Field workers to about 12,000 workers.
“Based on the projections we had, we believed our staffing was adequate and requested additional resources to join the effort. Then, as often happens with weather, something unpredictable happened and our area was impacted more than was predicted,” Oshodi said.
Customers sweat
With temperatures expected to rise into the low 90s Fahrenheit, many Fort Bend residents were without power for a third day.
Natalie Weber/Houston Public Media
At the Blend Inn Coffee Club in Sugar Land, customers packed the building for a chance to take advantage of the Wi-Fi and air conditioning, many working on laptops or scrolling through their phones in an area with spotty cell service.
Katrina Bollman came to the coffee shop with her fiancé after scrolling through Instagram and seeing that it was open.
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“(We’re) just looking for a place to get out of the heat and do our work,” she said.
Store manager Aaron Atkinson said it was the first day the store has been open since the hurricane. Atkinson has worked for the company since 2017 and has been through other storms.
“This is actually the longest we’ve had a power outage,” he said. “We’ve managed to keep the power going during previous storms.”
Thousands of areas across the county remain without power.
Silent Killer
The storm has caused another emergency the Houston Fire Department is warning residents about: carbon monoxide poisoning.
Often referred to as a “silent killer,” Houston Fire Chief Samuel Peña said that’s led to an increase in calls for firefighting.
“We’re seeing more than three times the normal number of calls. We’ve had over 200 calls of carbon monoxide poisoning in the last 24 hours,” Peña said. “It’s extremely important that if you’re going to use these generators, that you do it the right way and that you use them outside of your home.”
Chief Peña said calls also include people leaving their cars running with the doors closed to charge devices in their garage.
“If you have symptoms like nausea, dizziness, fatigue or fainting, those could be symptoms of carbon monoxide and could also be dehydration.”
“Increasingly serious”
Energy consultant Doug Lewin said local planners need to take the risk of future hurricanes more seriously.
“I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but yes, these hurricanes are going to get more intense in the future. The data is clear. Climate change is going to mean these storms are going to get more intense in the future,” he said.
Experts say CenterPoint needs to install more durable poles, but that process is costly and controversial. When the company installed weather-resistant poles in residential areas of west Houston last year, residents pushed back, saying they blocked sidewalks and called the poles an eyesore, says Ed Haas, an energy researcher at the University of Houston.
“Oh my goodness, the noise was astounding. You know, these are massive columns that are reinforced to withstand storms, to withstand hurricane-force winds,” Haas said.
With extreme weather events occurring more frequently, the historic power outages and lack of planning for this Category 1 storm have raised concerns about whether the region will be prepared for even stronger storms in the future.
Natalie Weber, Matthew Thomas, Dominic Anthony Walsh and Ariel Worthy contributed to this report.
