What you need to know
During the emergency meeting, a number of residents from Creekside Park and Sterling Ridge spoke out regarding issues with the CenterPoint outage map’s accuracy as well as delayed restoration dates.
The frustrations were echoed by board members, who requested an item on the next township agenda to create an ad hoc government relations committee to coordinate communication during any hearings that might be held concerning CenterPoint Energy in the Texas Legislature.
“We need to make a legislative priority [for] the township to advocate for Entergy to take over,” said Brad Bailey, The Woodlands Township board member. “We need to have a major presence [in the Texas Legislature] starting now, because this is a huge issue.”
Entergy serves villages in The Woodlands in Montgomery County, while CenterPoint Energy serves Creekside Park in Harris County.
CenterPoint Executive Vice President Jason Ryan told the Public Utility Commission of Texas in a special hearing July 11 there were a number of factors leading to delays in the restoration of power.
“Where we have to rebuild large spans of infrastructure, with poles that snapped in half laying on the ground, ... that is the kind of work that's going to lead to those extended power outages,” Ryan told commissioners.
Zooming in
Monique Sharp, president and CEO of The Woodlands Township, said staff received limited updates from CenterPoint during the week of July 8 after Hurricane Beryl struck. At one point, Sharp said the township created its own outage map to provide restoration times to residents in Creekside Park, but it did not receive any data from CenterPoint needed for the map.
“We used our own resources to produce a map specifically of Creekside Park by neighborhood and asked them to give us updates by neighborhood on what was restored with power,” Sharp said July 14. “We did this several days ago; we do not have a response as of yet.”
What else?
Township officials also received an update on debris removal in the township. Montgomery County approved contracts to remove vegetative debris from Hurricane Beryl in a special session July 9.
Chris Nunes, chief operating officer for the township, said township parks crews had cleared 70% of the pathways in The Woodlands by July 12. Nunes also said the township had received around 450 work orders for trees and debris on homes and in backyards, with another 100 work orders relating to clearing pathways.
“I do want to thank our team, our leadership team, as well as staff who have worked tirelessly since last Saturday, and 24/7,” board Chair Ann Snyder said during the July 14 meeting.
