HOUSTON – With Houston residents approaching the fifth day without power, we’re getting a clearer outlook on when the lights will be back on for the now thousands of customers still in the dark
In a press release emailed Thursday, CenterPoint Energy says its 12,000 crew has already made significant progress, noting that by Friday it expects to provide restoration dates for substantially all impacted customers. That means if the work continues to progress as it has, power may be restored sooner than expected.
As of Friday afternoon, CenterPoint Energy said it has now restored power for more than 1.4 million customers.
“We’re building significant momentum in our restoration efforts, which is a testament to our crews’ hard work and dedication to restoring power as safely and quickly as possible,” Lynnae Wilson, Senior Vice President of Electric Business said in a press statement. “Our first priority is getting the lights back on. At the same time, we have seen firsthand the devastation our neighbors are facing and our commitment to the community goes beyond restoration efforts.”
In light of growing frustrations and patience wearing thin for the more than 875,000 customers (as of Friday, 7:45 a.m.) still without electricity, CenterPoint says it is working to communicate better and provide transparency.
“We are encouraged by the tremendous progress we have made as we track ahead of our restoration expectations. We are not going to stop until every impacted customer is back online,” Wilson said Friday afternoon. “Many of the outages we have resolved have related to trees and other vegetation damaging our electrical equipment in the sustained high winds we experienced during the storm. Since Monday, crews have replaced over 2,000 poles and addressed damage from more than 6,000 trees impacting lines and other electrical equipment.”
They’re also working to debunk any false rumors spreading such as pay gaps for linemen.