HOUSTON – As we enter Day 3 of cleanup and restoration, there are still nearly a half million customers without electricity in the Houston metro area.
Many of you have asked questions like, “When will I get power back? How do I know if I’m on a prioritized grid? Why do my neighbors have power but I don’t?”
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KPRC2′s Gage Goulding asked those questions to CenterPoint Energy Spokesperson Michelle Hundley. We highlighted items that we are frequently asked.
Read the full transcript of their conversation:
Gage Goulding: “Let’s start with this, an update on how you and your team are doing. I know y’all kind of had some damage in the downtown facility. How’s how’s everybody doing?”
Michelle Hundley: “Thank you so much for asking. Yes. No, everybody is. Well, you know, we are not going to be working out of that office for some time. And next week, those that can work from home will be working from home. But just like our community, some of our employees also have been without electricity. So, we are doing our best to restore, all of our communities, including those, our employees as well.”
Gage Goulding: ‘Absolutely. Let’s talk about the progress that CenterPoint has been able to make. Where are we at? You know, kind of today versus where we were on Thursday at the start of this.’
Michelle Hundley: ‘Sure. Thank you. So first of all, we’d like to thank our customers for all of their patience during this process. You know, the entire region was hit pretty severely with these storms. And I know you seen some of the dramatic footage of some of the destruction from those from those storms. And I know some homes were also, impacted. So it’s just, again, like to thank our, our communities for their patience and of course, our emergency management personnel, elected officials and all those that are working tirelessly to get our customers up and running again. So as of 10:30 a.m. this (Saturday) morning, we had just under 500,000 customers still out, of electricity. But, in the meantime, we, you know, I at the peak, we had 920,000 customers out, so, more than 82% of our customers or 2.3 million people do have power this morning.”
Gage Goulding: ‘And we kind of talked yesterday, those high voltage transmission lines and those big steel towers that kind of seem to be the biggest of the problems, right?”
Michelle Hundley: ‘That’s one of the issues. Yes. Those towers, you know, we do have, those, transmission and distribution electric systems that were severely impacted, like those, although, you know, crews are continue to make progress. They made some progress, overnight and, and, and we do have some mutual aid assistance that have come in, this morning. So, we have about 2,200 mutual assistance professionals that have arrived, have been on board and currently assisting. And so we’d like to thank those organizations, companies like CPS Energy, Texas-New Mexico Power, Quantas, Interphase Mid-Con and CSR, You know, they’re they’re taking time to come in and assist so that we can get our customers up and running as quickly as possible.’
Gage Goulding: “In total between CenterPoint staff, contractors and the mutual aid. Do you know how many people y’all have out in the field working to get power back on?”
Michelle Hundley: “So right now we have 4,400, employees and contractors. We’re still waiting for another additional, about 2,000 more.”
🦸♂️ Heroes have arrived in Houston! Thousands of utility workers from as far away as Indiana are making their way to H-Town to help get the power turned back on.
— Gage Goulding - KPRC 2 (@GageGoulding) May 19, 2024
Hundreds of thousands of people still remain in the dark after a rash of severe weather on Thursday.
📸: @CenterPoint pic.twitter.com/rhLRwzQJ6B
Gage Goulding: “A lot of people are frustrated as the days and the hours go on. Put this into words. This isn’t your run-of-the-mill thunderstorm that knocked over a couple power lines. Can you give us a look at the gravity of the damage to the infrastructure?”
Michelle Hundley: “Yeah. So again we’re still assessing the, the the infrastructure at this time. Like you said. You know we we have had significant damage. It is not run-of-the-mill. But we are, updating some of that infrastructure information on X. If you follow at CenterPoint, you can see some of the photographs that we’ve taken that some customers have taken and others, to show the damage. And then also on ex, we’re updating the information as quickly as possible.”
Gage Goulding: “And for people at home, they’re frustrated, I get it. I’ve been out without power and after a disaster as well. It’s not a fun time. If many people are looking for just a timeline, what can you tell them in those hardest hit areas? What is their timeline?”
Michelle Hundley: “Oh thank you. So, you know, we we certainly, appreciate and empathize with the people that still don’t have electricity at this time. We are doing our best. Safety is our number one priority. And so we are doing our best to get them as quickly and safely restored as possible.
Again, we are looking to continue, restoration today and into tomorrow with, hopefully, getting the majority of those customers that can receive power, back up and running by the end of Wednesday.
In the meantime, you know, we would like to suggest to our customers to, you know, not only with CenterPoint energy infrastructure damage, but their own home infrastructure may be damaged or business infrastructure may be damaged. And so, to check the weather here, that’s the point between our infrastructure and their infrastructure to make sure that it is still working. If, if it’s damaged, then they need to call an electrician to have that fixed, that they can then receive power safely.
SEE ALSO: CenterPoint Energy aims to complete power restorations by Wednesday
We’d also like to remind our customers that, you know, those that may want to use generators to please be sure that it is connected appropriately, not to use them inside or in a garage. You know, use them safely. If those generators are not connected appropriately, it could potentially back feed into the system, which could cause harm to, the public, to them and even our CenterPoint Energy’s energy customers or, employees and contractors. And then also just to remind our customers to stay 35ft away from any of the electric infrastructure. It could be energized if they see it up to, please, call 911 if they see, if there’s any concern and then or 311 to report a downed line.
And then also, I like to remind our customers, as we’re starting to restore, their electricity and some damage that may be, occurring on their homes that, any trash or anything that they like to set aside for the garbage to pick up to keep it away from natural gas meters. Because our, our, you know, the garage, the garbage service may be utilizing some machinery to pick up that garbage, and we’d hate for them to accidentally hit one of those meters. If they do smell natural gas. They certainly can report that. But, just to be mindful of these things and fences that are down, things of that nature. To make sure to call 811 before they or, any contractors that they may hire go digging into their yards. Make sure that they call 811 so that we can come out and safely identify where the utilities are and they can safely do their work.”
Gage Goulding: “You said Wednesday would be for some folks. Do you foresee that being 100% restoration to those that can receive power, or do you think there could be some that are still waiting after Wednesday?”
Michelle Hundley: “The goal is for Wednesday. For those that can receive power.”
Gage Goulding: “For folks that have medical conditions, they need oxygen. Maybe they need their medicine to be in a fridge. A lot of people, you know, it’s hard to pinpoint down to my address or my neighborhood when power will be turned back on. What is CenterPoint recommendation for people in those shoes? You know, as we go into, you know, day three. Obvious. What is CenterPoint recommend for those if they’re just not sure when they’re going to get power, turn back on. What should they do?”
Michelle Hundley: “Yeah. So certainly we recommend that they find alternative means or locations, in order to in order to meet their, their needs.”
Gage Goulding: “In talking about the big high transmission lines, those towers. That’s not something that you just dig a hole, put a new wooden pole on the ground and throw some wires up on it. Can you discuss the rebuild process on that? Because that’s what feeds the other substations which go into homes. Can you talk about how that rebuild process will be and potentially a timeline on that?”
Michelle Hundley: “Sure. So at this time, those construction, those I’m sorry, the transmission towers that are currently you’re referring to. We have rerouted electricity. So, all of the transmission lines, that are fully operational, are. And as well as, a little over 50% of our distribution. So, those particular, lines, although that they are still, damaged. The power’s being rerouted. And so, it will probably take a few days for, or more for those to be fixed, but, currently we are. The electricity has been rerouted, at those those locations so that we can still feed electricity into the system.”
Gage Goulding: “Any thought. I mean, after an infrastructure failure like this. Any thought from CenterPoint on undergrounding these electrical lines. Is that something that they can do now, or is that a project that have to do in the future?”
Michelle Hundley: “Yeah. So right now we’re focused on this current situation. And so any future, you know, infrastructure, opportunities or conversations we can certainly have at another time. At the moment, that’s not something that we’re focused on. So we can certainly look into that in the future.”
Gage Goulding: “All of this happening right on the cusp of hurricane season to our crews also working on preventative maintenance, as you know, God forbid we see a hurricane come our way.”
Michelle Hundley: “That’s a great question. Thank you. So we actually, had recently had a hurricane preparedness workshop. And so all of our emergency personnel, our, you know, emergency operations center personnel, etc. we had a training, a couple weeks ago where we worked through this process, but we, have ongoing training. We have ongoing, communications. And, we’ve already been preparing for the hurricane season. So this is actually just, I think, and one opportunity where we’ve been able to bring together all of those individuals that were in that training already. And so we are prepared. We’re ready. And, you know, I mean, within 24 hours, we were able to get a significant number of people up and running, and we continue to restore power steadily. So, we are certainly we’d like to share with the committee, we are certainly prepared and ready for the hurricane season and will continue to, to engage all of our stakeholders, as necessary in order to make certain that, that we are, ready to go for hurricane season.”
Gage Goulding: “We had some viewers ask us, why do I not have power? But my neighbors across the street have power. Any insight that you could give us as to how that happens?”
Michelle Hundley: “Sure. There’s a number of reasons, that that could be happening. It could be that they may have damage to some of their own infrastructure, like I mentioned the weather had earlier in our conversation. It could be that they could be on a different circuit than their neighbor. There could be a multitude of reasons. And so it’s hard to speculate without knowing specifics about that home or that area.”
Gage Goulding: “Is it true that there are prioritized circuits or grids that you work to get on first? And if so, how do I know if I’m one of those prioritized grids or circuits?”
Michelle Hundley: “Yeah. So we certainly work to prioritize, those facilities that are critical, like hospitals, you know, emergency, response centers, fire houses, things of that nature. And then following those, priorities. And we go into circuits that have the largest number of people, on that circuit that can be served. And then we work our way from there.”
Gage Goulding: “Is there any way to see if my home or business is looped in on that?”
Michelle Hundley: “So the best way to see, your where, where you stand, we actually have is to sign up for a Power Alert service. And that will give you, an email or text, depending on how you would like to receive the information on your restoration time.”
Gage Goulding: “Is there anything else that I didn’t ask that is pertinent that you want the community to know those without power to know?”
Michelle Hundley: “Again, I just want to thank, all of our community members for their patience. I mean, certainly we are all feeling, the effects of these storms. We were not, necessarily, we didn’t necessarily know that it was going to be, of this magnitude in the area. So, again, want to thank everyone for their patience or understanding. Again, we’re working very closely with our elected officials, emergency personnel. We’d like to thank again all of those, mutual assistance, organizations that are coming in from not only our area and region, but from other states like Indiana to assist us so that we can get power up and running as quickly as possible. And please know that we are going to work tirelessly. We’re going to work over night, as much as we need to, until the very last customers connected. So we appreciate everyone’s, understanding and we will continue to work diligently for you.”
Gage Goulding: “You brought up a good point. How far away are some of these mutual aid assistance organizations coming from? You said Indiana, what are some other area that they’re coming from?”
Michelle Hundley: “So right now, I’m just aware of Indiana being, the other state because we do have, contractors as well as, CenterPoint has operations in Indiana and Evansville, Indiana. So that’s why we have people coming from there at the moment.”
Gage Goulding: “Any idea on the financial burden, how much the repairs and infrastructure damage will cost? CenterPoint?”
Michelle Hundley: “And now it’s too early to assess at the moment. Right now, we’re focused on just getting, restoration efforts completed.”
Gage Goulding: “Michele, thank you so much for your time. I really appreciate everything.”
Michelle Hundley: “Of course. No. And thank you for the opportunity to, to speak with you, to give our customers an update. You know, we can’t do this and get our messaging and this information to our customers without your help. So we truly appreciate that. Thank you so much.