When will power turn restored? CenterPoint finds’significant damage’ to their system
CenterPoint Energy warned customers to “be prepared for extended weather-related power outages.”
By Jaime E. Galvan
HOUSTON — CenterPoint Energy confirmed their system suffered “significant damage” after fast-moving storms hammered the Houston area Thursday.
In the midst of the outages, over 900,000 homes and businesses were without electricity. Workers who were not essential were advised to stay inside after the power outages caused the loss of traffic lights in some areas.
CenterPoint Energy warned customers to “be prepared for extended weather-related power outages.”
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo confirmed that 10 transmission towers had been damaged by the storms. She said it could take several weeks to repair the power supply in certain regions. She advised visiting libraries in the public or other institutions that are open all time of the day.
As of right now 4,400 utility employees are headed towards Houston as well as Harris County to help restore the power supply.
“We’ve had the transmission line of 10 (towers) that are located across our territory seven of them are located in Harris County. We’re hoping to get our outage tracker in operation soon, but this will be a multi-day event. considering a multi-day event,” Paul Lock, CenterPoint Energy, said.
The problem grew into the suburbs of the city as emergency officials from the nearby Montgomery County describing the damage to transmission lines as “catastrophic” and warning that the power grid could be affected for a few days.
CenterPoint issued the following statement to customers. At 9:45 a.m. There are over 722,000 people without electricity, with massive outages in the west of Houston along with the Cypress region. It’s less than 750,000 as of 4:20 a.m.
“There was damages to a number of our facilities located in our Houston-area service area. Since the severe weather is making its route through our region, it’s appropriate for our workers to assess the damage, but we are able to confirm that there has been severe damage to our infrastructure. The restoration efforts will start this evening (Thursday evening) however, they will intensify in the daylight hours as the damage becomes apparent. We will work to restore power to our customers efficiently and safely as is possible.
“When trying to restore power, we first address the facilities that are essential to security, health and well-being such as hospital facilities, water treatment facilities and public services. When we address critical infrastructure, we apply the priority restoration procedure by repairing electrical installations that will restore power to the greatest amount people first. Then, we continue in the process of restoration, prioritizing fixes that help the most customers until power is restored to all. In the course of restoration, we remain in contact with the local emergency management organizations including news media, as well as public officials.
“We’d want to remind customers to remain at a minimum of 35 feet from downed, low-hanging power lines, or lines that might contain standing water. contact 911 immediately and report the incident to us at 713-307-2222. “
CenterPoint Energy warned customers to “be prepared for extended weather-related power outages.”
