Efforts continue as crews work to restore power in Houston

TEXAS – Utility crews continue to work to restore power to more than a million people after Hurricane Beryl hit Houston. Those crews include workers from Austin Energy.

“It’s a huge job. Houston is a huge metropolitan area and the destruction from Hurricane Beryl is widespread,” said Matt Mitchell, public information manager for Austin Energy.

It’s a team effort after Houston’s utility, CenterPoint Energy, put out a call for mutual aid for surrounding areas.

Currently, Austin Energy has a crew of 20 workers in Houston working to restore power.

“We were very pleased to respond to this request. We help each other after natural disasters, both within our state and sometimes as far away as Florida or Arizona,” Mitchell said.

Photos show Austin Energy workers at work on Huffsmith Road in Houston on Wednesday to repair a downed power line for the 1,000 customers on that particular circuit without power.

Mitchell says their workers should be there for a week, but it could be longer.

“It looks like this restoration process is going to take some time, so it’s really up to CenterPoint how long they want to have these mutual aid teams in town,” he said.

It was not an easy task. Mitchell says the extent of the damage, combined with the heat, made it a real challenge.

Ultimately, Mitchell says workers are doing this to help and are working as quickly as they can to restore power to Houston.

“These are men and women who feel the need to do this kind of work and do it selflessly to help the Houston community,” he said.