What residents need to know
The National Weather Service reported high winds of over 100 mph and two tornadoes swept through the Greater Houston area May 16. CenterPoint Energy has been working to restore power to nearly 1 million customers since then, and officials now estimate power repairs to be “substantially complete” by the evening on Wednesday, May 22.
According to a May 21 news release, crews have seen significant damage, including large downed trees, coupled with difficult repairs near:
- Bellaire
- Spring Branch
- The Heights
- Lazybrook/Timbergrove near Cottage Grove
Since the start of repairs on the evening of May 16, CenterPoint has restored power to 85% of those affected by outages, according to the release. As of 2 p.m. May 20, Community Impact reported 220,000 customers were still without power.
“While we have made good progress, we will not be satisfied until every last storm-impacted customer has their service safely restored,” said Lynnae Wilson, CenterPoint Energy senior vice president of electric business, in the release.
Breaking it down
While many residents may wonder why others have power but they don’t, CenterPoint officials said this could be due to “nested outage,” which occurs after restoration has been completed in an area and other secondary problems may persist from unseen damage or overloaded systems, according to the release.
Streets may also be on different electrical circuits, which could present varied restoration times based on damage and repair order, or the issue could be more localized damage related to:
- Fuses
- Transformers
- Meters
- Electric lines
CenterPoint officials urge customers to check their weatherhead, which is the point where power enters the home and are typically pipes located on the side of a home or building. If the weatherhead is damaged, power can’t be safely restored to the home until an electrician has made repairs, according to the release.
Those who receive underground service will not have a weatherhead, but other equipment damage could require electrician services.
What else?
To keep customers informed of outage updates and anticipated power restoration times, CenterPoint has released an interactive map on its website.
However, there have been some areas still without power that have been shown as restored on the map. Wilson said the company apologizes for the confusion caused to customers and is still aware of those outages.
To view the interactive map, click here.
