When Will Power Come Back to Houston, Residents Wonder

HOUSTON — Houston’s largest utility came under increasing pressure Wednesday over its response to Hurricane Beryl I, as nearly 1.4 million homes and businesses in the area remained without power and frustrated residents sought places to cool off, refuel and grab a bite to eat.

City Councilmember Abbie Kamin called the prolonged power outage since Monday’s storm a “life safety issue.”

“We’re saying we’re doing everything we can to get the lights back on. In my respectful opinion, they should be on,” Kamin told a CenterPoint Energy executive at a board meeting.

Mayor John Whitmire said CenterPoint “has to do a better job” of restoring power. “That’s the consensus of the people of Houston. That’s my consensus.”

Residents looking for community centers to rest, enjoy air conditioning and a meal wondered how the nation’s fourth-largest city would weather a storm less severe than many that have hit the region over the past two decades.

Beryl made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane, the weakest type, but has been blamed for at least seven deaths in the United States – one in Louisiana and six in Texas – and at least 11 in the Caribbean.

“They thought maybe it wouldn’t be that bad, but it had a huge impact. They had to be better prepared,” said Carlos Rodriguez, a 39-year-old construction worker, as he picked up apples, oranges and ready-to-eat meal kits at a food distribution center. His family, which includes two daughters, ages 3 and 7, was struggling, he said.

“We have no electricity, we go to bed late and I use a fan made from a piece of cardboard to give my children some relief,” Rodriguez said.

Power outages peaked at 2.7 million customers after the storm made landfall in Texas on Monday, according to PowerOutage.us.

Brad Tutunjian, CenterPoint’s vice president of regulatory policy who faced pointed questions from the city council, defended the company’s response. He said more than 1 million customers had their power restored as of Wednesday morning, though the company’s online tracker put the number at just under 1 million at the time.

“To me, I think that’s a monumental number,” Tutunjian said.

The company acknowledged that most of the 12,000 workers it had mobilized to help with relief efforts were not in the Houston area when the storm hit. Early forecasts called for the storm to track much farther south, along the Gulf Coast near the Texas-Mexico border, before heading toward Houston.

The company will not ask freelancers from other companies and municipalities to position themselves upstream and “wait” during the storm, “because it’s not safe,” Tutunjian said. Instead, they are being asked to be as close as possible to respond once the storm passes.

One of the main challenges in Beryl was restoring power after trees and branches fell in the area, Tutunjian said.

“When we have storms like this, with trees completely falling down…taking out our lines and poles, that’s when all the time comes into play to do restoration work,” he said.

But council members asked the general manager why the company, which has been in the Houston area for about 100 years, hasn’t been more aggressive about trimming trees in calm weather or burying more power lines. The company has been burying new power lines in residential areas for decades, Tutunjian said.

One of the main challenges in Beryl was restoring power after trees and branches fell in the area, Tutunjian said.

“When we have storms like this, with trees completely falling down…taking out our lines and poles, that’s when all the time comes into play to do restoration work,” he said.

But council members asked the general manager why the company, which has been in the Houston area for about 100 years, hasn’t been more aggressive about trimming trees in calm weather or burying more power lines. The company has been burying new power lines in residential areas for decades, Tutunjian said.

Two city council members said they received a text message about a house that burned after they reported a downed power line. The texts indicated that firefighters said there was nothing they could do and that utilities had not responded.

This is not the first time the Houston area has faced widespread power outages.

In 2008, Hurricane Ike made landfall on Galveston Island as a Category 2 storm, causing flooding and wind damage in the Houston area. It knocked out power to about 2.2 million CenterPoint customers, according to the Harris County Flood Control District, which said 75% of power was restored within 10 days.

Houston was hit hard in 2021 when Texas’ power grid failed during a deadly winter storm that brought freezing temperatures, snow and ice. Millions of Texans were left without power and had to wait out the storm in freezing homes or flee.

Last May, storms killed eight people and left nearly a million customers without power.

Raquel Desimone has lived in the Houston area since about 2000 and has experienced many storms. Yet she was surprised and frustrated to once again have to scramble to find electricity and shelter from the heat.

“I’ve dealt with Rita, Ike, Imelda and Harvey,” Desimone said. “The fact that the infrastructure can’t handle a basic storm and it’s a Category 1 storm seems kind of crazy to me to have to do that.”

Sharon Carr, 62, a lifelong Houston resident, was also frustrated by the constant disruptions.

“Every little event affects us that way. It’s too windy, we don’t have power. It rains for a long time, we don’t have power,” Carr said. “And it takes three, four, five days for the power to come back on. Sometimes that’s too long for people who are sick, who can’t handle the heat or who don’t have transportation to get to the cooling centers.”

Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, who is serving as interim governor while Gov. Greg Abbott is on an economic development trip to Asia, said Tuesday he would wait until after the recovery efforts are over to focus on CenterPoint’s response and whether the company was ill-prepared.

“CenterPoint will have to answer for their actions, whether they were ready, whether they were in position. Their company is responsible for that. The state was in position,” he said. “I’ll tell you whether I’m satisfied or not when I have a full report of where their crews were when they were asked to come.”