HOUSTON – Standing side by side, community leaders spent Friday afternoon stressing the importance of residents needing to get ready for the Arctic blast on the way.
“This is a serious situation. And so today’s message is about urging everybody to take action right now to prepare,” Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said.
“I cannot underscore the importance of people staying off the road,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said.
Community leaders are asking residents to make plans on staying home from Sunday evening until Tuesday morning and have all of your essentials ready like food, water and blankets.
“This is going to be a long duration event. It is not going to be one day, it is not going to be one night. It is going to be multiple nights and multiple days,” Jeff Lindner, with the Harris County Flood Control District, said.
According to city and county leaders, they’re working alongside TxDot to keep an eye on the roads and treat any possible trouble spots.
Several warming centers will also soon open their doors to help keep people safe from the bitter cold including one at the GRB.
According to the mayor, METRO will suspend services on Monday through at least Tuesday depending on the conditions.
Both the county judge and mayor said COVID-19 vaccination and testing sites will be closed in the comings days and appointments will also be rescheduled because of the weather.
“To be clear, what we’re about to see is not your typical annual hard freeze,” Judge Hidalgo said.
CenterPoint Energy said they too are closely monitoring the weather conditions and have already staged materials and resources throughout the area ahead of the possibility of ice and downed power lines.
As they plan to respond to any potential power outages, they want customers to also be ready.
“These outages could be very isolated, they could be a little bit more broad. So we encourage them to have a plan and be able to alter and adjust as outages may occur,” said Randy Pryor, the vice president of distribution operations for CenterPoint Energy.