Updated 11 a.m. Feb. 19
The Lake Houston Family YMCA is open Feb. 19 as a warming center for local families looking for reprieve from power outages or water loss, according to a Feb. 19 news release. The YMCA, which is located at 2420 W. Lake Houston Parkway, Kingwood, will be open to the community from 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Feb. 19.
The facility joins a list of several other YMCA locations across the Houston area operating as a warming centers. This is the first and last day the Lake Houston Family YMCA will open as a warming center, as the news release stated it is the last day the YMCA of Greater Houston will open as centers.
According to the news release, the YMCA will monitor and limit capacity per location to follow COVID-19 health guidelines.
Although the Humble Civic Center is no longer a warming center, Harris County Precinct 4 will be distributing water from the center between noon-5 p.m. Feb. 19. Click here for more information.
Tens of thousands of power outages across the Lake Houston area have been resolved since Feb. 17, according to outage maps from Entergy and CenterPoint Energy. As of 10:30 a.m. Feb. 19, fewer than 200 homes are without power in the seven ZIP codes that comprise Community Impact Newspaper's Lake Houston-Humble-Kingwood coverage area.
ZIP codes 77338 in Humble and 77339 in the western portion of Kingwood have the most remaining outages, with 159 and 25 affected customers, respectively.
Originally posted 6:55 p.m. Feb. 17
As Winter Storm Uri rages on, more than 29,600 Lake Houston-area residents continue to experience unplanned power outages as of Feb. 17, according to power outage maps from Entergy and CenterPoint Energy, Texas' two main electricity providers. Only 667 of the outages in the area are Entergy customers, with the rest being CenterPoint Energy outages.
As of 6:30 p.m. Feb. 17, 29,644 residents across the seven ZIP codes in Community Impact Newspaper's Lake Houston-Humble-Kingwood coverage area—77044, 77338, 77339, 77345, 77346, 77365 and 77396—are without power. The numbers fluctuate every few hours; more than 26,000 customers regained power between 2-3:30 p.m. and about 14,800 customers lost power between 3:30-6:30 p.m., according to outage maps.
With the widespread outages, Harris and Montgomery counties, the city of Houston and the state of Texas began opening warming centers to keep local residents safe amid freezing temperatures. However, among the four mentioned agencies, only a handful of centers were operating in Humble, Kingwood, Atascocita, Summerwood, Fall Creek, Porter and New Caney areas as of Wednesday afternoon.
Local resources
Humble City Manager Jason Stuebe said via email the city opened its own warming shelter at the Humble Civic Center on Feb. 17 to give local residents reprieve from areas without electricity. He said it will likely be open for several more hours but will not be open overnight. There was not word as of press time whether it will reopen Feb. 18.
"Unfortunately, we do not have the resources (manpower or supplies) to staff something like this 24/7. That is why we rely on [Harris] County as part of their Emergency Management Plan," he said.
Lamb of Gob Lutheran Church at 1400 FM 1960 Bypass Road E., Humble, opened Feb. 16 as a warming center for the city of Humble, according to Facebook posts from the church. Church officials said via Facebook messenger that the church is open Feb. 17, will remain open 24 hours and will be open to the community again on Thursday, Feb. 18.
Community Impact Newspaper reached out to Houston Mayor Pro Tem Dave Martin's office, which represents District E in Kingwood, for information on whether a warming center is open or will open in the Kingwood area. A comment was not returned by press time, but this post will be updated with more information if it becomes available.
Montgomery County resources
Montgomery County Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management opened several locations across Montgomery County, but many are located along I-45 or in the Conroe area, Community Impact Newspaper reported.
Montgomery County Precinct 4 and the MCOHSEM prepared two buses to provide mobile warming stations as well as opened a warming center at the East Montgomery County Community Center in Splendora on Feb. 16, according to a Facebook post from Montgomery County Precinct 4 Commissioner James Metts. The community center is at 16401 First St., Splendora.
While local residents without water can also use the showers at the community center, Metts stated in a Feb. 16 and 17 Facebook post that it is not a 24-hour shelter and it will only remain open until 9 p.m.
Statewide resources
The Texas Department of Emergency Management released a map of warming centers. However, the nearest center to the Lake Houston area is the National Association of Christian Churches at 16605 Air Center Blvd., Houston, according to the map.
However, due to continuing power and water outages, not all of the listed locations were necessarily still operational, Community Impact Newspaper reported. As of the afternoon of Feb. 17, the Houston Texas YMCA posted on Facebook it was closed through Feb. 18, and the George R. Brown Convention Center was reportedly at capacity, according to a Twitter post by Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner on Feb. 16.
Harris County residents can call 3-1-1 for information on the nearest available shelter.
