One week after Hurricane Beryl, nearly 240,000 people remain without power in the Houston area

July 15 (UPI) — Nearly 184,000 Houston-area residents remain without power a week after Hurricane Beryl struck the state, and the main utility, CenterPoint, expects power to be restored to 98% of affected residents by Wednesday.

The news comes as part of an investigation by the state regulator, the Public Utility Commission, into CenterPoint’s power outages and its response.

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People without electricity represent about a quarter of almost the entire population. $700,000carried out on Saturday.

About 2.26 million CenterPoint customers were initially without power after the Category 1 hurricane killed at least 10 people in the Lone Star state.

Poweroutage.us lists 183,867 customers in the state without power, including 160,973 with CenterPoint, as of Monday evening.

CenterPoint serves 2.6 million people in the state. In total, the state has 13.8 million customers.

“We know that remaining customers are counting on us and we are committed to restoring power to all remaining customers who are able to receive it,” Lynnae Wilson, CenterPoint’s vice president, said in a statement to the Houston Chronicle. “As we close in on the remaining outages, customers should ensure that their bridgeheads are not damaged and that they can receive power.”

A weather stripping bridges the gap between a power line and a customer’s property.

“Our restoration crews are now converging on the remaining areas with significant structural damage as well as localized outages to restore lighting to customers who are without power,” CenterPoint said in a statement Sunday.

The utility, which has been criticized by customers and government officials for its response times and communication issues, said it was conducting “a thorough review of our response to support our customers and community, particularly when they need us most.”

The state regulator, the PUC, said it is investigating the situation. Chairman Thomas Gleeson said commission staff will recommend changes CenterPoint could make before the end of hurricane season on Nov. 30. And the agency will report to Gov. Greg Abbott and legislative leaders in December on potential changes to state law.

“I think it’s clear that the quality of their infrastructure, their ability to maintain it and their communication with their customers has been called into question,” Gleeson said at a news conference with state and local leaders.

Abbott said Monday: “CenterPoint completely dropped the ball” when it came to restoring power.

The governor set a July 31 deadline for the company to provide him with recommendations on how to improve its response to a situation like Beryl’s.

Houston restaurants filed a class action lawsuit against CenterPoint after losing power.

All Houston light rail lines began operating again Monday.

Elsewhere, parts of Galveston are also without power, including Isla Del Sol, Sea Isle and Jamaica Beach.

Most power lines are overhead.

According to CenterPoint, in the Houston area there are 21,763 miles of underground distribution lines and 26 miles of underground transmission lines.

“Transmission circuits are extraordinarily expensive, much more expensive than the ones behind your house,” Don Russell, an engineer who teaches at Texas A&M, told KPRC-TV in May.

The estimated cost is several billion dollars, researchers say.

In Florida, the main utility, Florida Power & Light, is working to bury more lines.

Since 2018, the company has focused on its Storm Secure Underground program, which replaces overhead power lines in neighborhoods with underground lines.

“I think it’s important to know that no system is completely hurricane-proof and never will be,” FPL spokesman Conlan Kennedy told GulfShore Business. “When a hurricane or major storm hits, there will be outages, and it’s really important for customers to be prepared for that.”

This includes laying underground power lines in about 90% of new neighborhoods.