CenterPoint expects some Houston-area power outages to extend into weekend – Houston Public Media

CenterPoint Energy, which is working to restore power to nearly a million Houston-area customers who lost power during last Thursday’s deadly storm, said Wednesday that some outages would likely extend until ‘see you this weekend.

Nearly 70,000 homes, businesses and schools in the region remained without power as of midday Wednesday, according to the company’s online outage tracking system. There were about twice as many outages as of midday Tuesday, and CenterPoint said power restorations should be “substantially complete” by the end of the day Wednesday.

Spokespeople for the company, which provides electricity to the Houston area, did not respond to emailed questions seeking clarification on how many outages would persist once restorations were deemed “essentially completed”.

About 922,000 customers lost power during the height of Thursday’s derecho — a strong windstorm that spawned two tornadoes and damaged buildings, trees and infrastructure, causing at least eight deaths. More than 850,000 of those customers, or about 92 percent, had their power restored as of midday Wednesday, according to a CenterPoint news release.

“Any remaining outages after Wednesday evening will primarily be isolated cases in certain locations where there is significant damage or where customers cannot receive power due to severe damage to the home or damage to customer-owned equipment , such as weather heads,” the company said. “CenterPoint expects some isolated outages to extend into the weekend.”

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An interactive outage map on the CenterPoint website showed that most of the remaining outages Wednesday were in the Spring Branch area — west of West Loop 610 and roughly between Interstate 10 and the US 290. There were also cluster outages along the 290 corridor extending northwest to Jersey. The Village and Cypress areas as well as places north, northeast and east of downtown – such as along Little York Road east of I-69/US 59, the area east of North Wayside Drive and south of Ley Road and in the Town of Jacinto and Cloverleaf areas.

Colleen DeGuzman/Houston Public Media

There were also clusters of outages in the Bellville and Waller areas northwest of Houston.

“We thank our customers for their patience and understanding during a very difficult time,” Lynnae Wilson, senior vice president of CenterPoint, said Wednesday. “Our crews will be laser focused and working around the clock to restore power to the last customer.”

As tens of thousands of Houston-area residents enter their sixth day without electricity or air conditioning, temperatures across the region are gradually rising as summer approaches. Daily high temperatures in the 90s are forecast for the rest of the week, according to the National Weather Service, which predicts a high of 94 degrees on Sunday and 96 on Monday, which is Memorial Day.

The heat index, or felt temperature, is expected to reach 101 on Wednesday.

RELATED: Food, water and cooling centers among resources available to Houston-area residents hit by deadly storm

CenterPoint said Tuesday there could be cases in which some Houston-area residents have power but their neighbors do not, due to what CenterPoint described as a “nesting outage” in which the problem main has been fixed but there might be smaller secondary issues related to unseen damage or overloaded systems. Homes on the same street may also be connected to different electrical circuits, which could result in varying restoration times, according to the company.

Texas Department of Transportation

CenterPoint also encouraged affected customers to check for damage to localized equipment such as weather heads, which are the entry points for electricity into homes. Weatherstrips are often pipes located on the sides of homes or buildings, depending on the company.

“If the weather head is damaged, we cannot safely restore service to the home until a licensed electrician makes the necessary repairs,” CenterPoint said. “Customers served by underground service will not have a problem, but their equipment could still suffer damage that could require maintenance. »

CenterPoint offered the following safety tips for Houston-area residents who remain without power or are participating in cleanup efforts.

• Stay at least 35 feet from downed power lines and damaged utility equipment. Pay attention to downed lines that may be hidden and treat all downed lines as if they were live.
• Be careful with work crews and give them plenty of space to assess damage and make repairs.
• Use a portable generator only in a well-ventilated area. Never operate it indoors or in a garage to avoid carbon monoxide fumes, which can be fatal.
• Never connect a portable generator directly to your building’s electrical system during a power outage, as electricity could flow back into power lines and potentially endanger workers or members of the public.