About 11,500 workers mobilized to restore power to more than 2 million people in Houston area after Beryl

HOUSTON – CenterPoint Energy says thousands of resources and approximately 11,500 workers have been mobilized to help restore power to more than two million customers who lost electricity due to Hurricane Beryl.

The company said it had been preparing for and closely monitoring the expected impacts of Hurricane Beryl. However, the storm veered off course and had a greater impact than expected on the company’s customers, systems and infrastructure. This resulted in outages for more than 2.26 million customers at its peak.

“We are mobilizing all available resources, as well as mutual aid resources from other utility companies, to begin the process of quickly and safely restoring power to our customers,” said Lynnae Wilson, senior vice president of CenterPoint’s electrical division. “We understand how difficult it is to be without power for any period of time, especially during extreme heat. We are focused on the important and urgent work ahead.”

CenterPoint says the first priority after the storm will be to assess the type of damage to the electrical system and redirect power to unaffected power lines. In addition to assessing the damage, crews have already begun a cutting and cleaning process, which allows them to identify and isolate damaged areas so they can more quickly restore service to customers on unaffected sections.

“Once damage assessment is complete, CenterPoint will begin issuing estimates for substantial system restoration. As restoration progresses, CenterPoint will supplement with more specific service restoration timelines. Customers in the hardest-hit areas may experience extended outages and should prepare accordingly,” the company said. “To supplement the company’s 1,500 internal resources, CenterPoint is bringing in an additional 10,000 resources from other utilities to assist with restoration efforts. CenterPoint is also expected to increase its staging locations in the region to 12.”

The company is evaluating the deployment of its mobile generating units to provide temporary power restoration to certain critical facilities, such as cooling centers, healthcare facilities, first responder sites, senior centers and educational centers.

“CenterPoint will continue to provide general outage information, such as total outages, updated approximately every 5 to 15 minutes, at CenterPointEnergy.com/StormCenter. CenterPoint electric customers are encouraged to sign up for the Power Alert Service® to receive outage details and community-specific restoration updates as they become available. At this time, there have been no significant impacts to the company’s natural gas distribution system in South Texas, along the Texas coast and in the Greater Houston area,” the company said.

Some CenterPoint customers received a message on their phones saying that power might not be restored for several days.

“Hurricane Beryl continues to batter our region with heavy rain and high winds, resulting in widespread power outages. We are aware of your outage, and damage assessment and restoration efforts will begin as soon as it is safe to do so. Due to the severity of the storm, outages may last for several days, and our ability to communicate restoration updates may be delayed or unavailable at times. Your patience and understanding are appreciated during this difficult time,” the message has been read.