Over 2 million people in Texas were without power Monday evening, and extended outages due to Beryl could soon become life-threatening. AccuWeather RealFeel® Temperatures are forecast to top 100 degrees later this week in Galveston, Bay City, and Port Lavaca, Texas.
This will be especially dangerous for people working hard in hot conditions to clean up after the storm without the option of utilizing an air conditioner.
CenterPoint Energy released a statement Monday afternoon saying the storm impacted the company’s customers, systems and infrastructure more than it anticipated, resulting in outages to more than 2.26 million customers at its peak.
The utility maintains the systems that deliver power to most residents in Harris and Fort Bend counties, along with several other areas of Greater Houston. About 2.8 million Houston-area customers rely on CenterPoint, according to the company.
“We are mobilizing all of our available resources, as well as mutual assistance resources from other utility companies, to begin the process of quickly and safely restoring power to our customers,” said Lynnae Wilson, Senior Vice President, Electric Business at CenterPoint.
“We understand how difficult it is to be without power for any amount of time, especially in the heat. We are laser-focused on the important and time-sensitive work that lies ahead.”
Centerpoint says crews have begun clearing away storm debris so they can assess the damage to the electric system and reroute power on unaffected lines as quickly as possible. After the full extent of damage is determined, CenterPoint says it will begin publishing estimates for substantial restoration.
The company added that it hopes to deploy mobile generation units to provide temporary power to critical facilities like cooling centers, hospitals, first responder locations, senior centers, and schools.
CenterPoint’s Power Alert Service provides community-specific outage information, including estimated restoration times via phone call, text or emails. Customers can sign up for the alerts through their CenterPoint online account.
