Worst-case scenario for power outages 5-7 days, CenterPoint says

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — The good news is power is steadily coming back on for many of CenterPoint Energy’s southeast Texas customers in the wake of Hurricane Nicholas. But for many, it’s just not soon enough.

On Tuesday evening, more than 100,000 CenterPoint customers remained without power as the storm, which has since weakened to a Tropical Depression, moved across Houston. Earlier Tuesday morning, as many as 450,000 customers were without power.

One of them was Willowbend resident Shelby Kibodeaux in southwest Houston.

“We were just sitting here and I was going to go to work and all of the sudden it just went ‘Boom,'” said Kibodeaux, who lost power Tuesday morning.

CenterPoint Energy said 3,200 crews were out in the Houston region as soon as it was safe, working to restore power.

When Nicholas intensified overnight, its sustained winds were 75 mph with gusts at over 90 mph, causing widespread outages.

CenterPoint’s customers in the southern, central and eastern areas are the most impacted. Wind damage is the main issue in Brazoria and Galveston counties, so far.

The company told ABC13 in an interview that the worst-case scenario would be that the outages last for five to seven days, based on national hurricane standards, but they don’t expect it to take that long.

“It was much more of a wind event than we ever expected,” said CenterPoint Vice President Brad Tutunjian. “Everything we talked about was rain and flooding, but obviously the wind damage was much more than we anticipated.”

The restoration process begins with facilities vital to safety, health and welfare, including hospitals, water treatment plants and public service facilities.

“Obviously the area around the coast was impacted a lot more,” Tutunjian said. “I do feel like it’s going to take much longer for the restoration in [that area] than in other areas.”

Throughout central Houston, we heard from frustrated residents across the city. In the Heights, electricity was out along the famed 19th Street shopping corridor as well as iconic Heights and Yale streets.

“It definitely needs improvement,” said Heights resident Gricelda Lindstrom, whose family bought a generator last year. “It’s becoming a habit now, it’s becoming routine.”

Spring Valley homeowners were without power for several hours. While in Bellaire, we found the 5200 block of Beech Street with no power. Several large trees fell on a power line, and crews were expected to work for the next two days to repair and restore the lines.

While the reasons for the power outages are completely different than the generation issues that caused statewide outages during the February freeze, it was clear that Houstonians were getting weary of the lights not turning on.

“I think it’s pretty weird, that this is Houston, Texas, and uh… they can’t even handle this,” said Kibodeaux. “What happened?”

Hundreds of thousands of CenterPoint customers want to know when the power will return. Here’s what we know from the company.

CenterPoint says residents do not need to call and report outages because the company can see who is affected through smart meters. Instead, residents are asked to keep phone lines open for electric or natural gas emergency calls only.

CenterPoint says that it has also requested help from mutual assistance crews to restore electricity, activating four or more staging sites across Houston.

CenterPoint customers can sign up to receive text messages, emails, or phone calls to alert you when the power is out for your home, and get updates on how the work is progressing to have electricity restored.

The company notes, however, that due to Nicholas, some outage notifications may be delayed.

Still, it may see more help out in the field soon.

A third of CenterPoint’s crews were in Louisiana to help restore power in that state after Hurricane Ida, but those workers returned Sunday to rest.

Closer to the Gulf Coast, another roughly 30,000 customers were without power by 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, according to electricity provider Texas-New Mexico Power.

TNMP advised customers that complete power restoration is expected to be complete by 6 p.m. Friday.

If you see a downed power line, stay away and call 911, officials advise.

Before Nicholas made landfall, ERCOT said they were preparing the grid to maintain reliability in the face of rain, winds and potential flooding. They reportedly made plans to reduce maintenance work that could impact power availability in areas most likely to be impacted by the storm.