HOUSTON – Though CenterPoint Energy has been working to restore Houstonians’ faith after Hurricane Beryl, some local business owners on Westheimer may have a hard time coming around.
KPRC 2 reporter Rilwan Balogun was at J.A.M Viet Kitchen, located in the 11700 block of Westheimer near S. Kirkwood, with owner Jimmy Nguyen when CenterPoint restored power to his restaurant.
“I feel relief,” said Nguyen. “After a whole month of constantly waiting and waiting to have power again and seeing all of these employees come in, they didn’t respond to me, but I guess they saw my message. And look how happy. I can tell you they’ve been with us since 2020; all of them. We all had that hope we’d get to open the door one more time.”
Nguyen’s sigh of relief comes four weeks after his restaurant lost power during Hurricane Beryl.
CenterPoint tells KPRC 2 the delay in restoration was due to “damaged customer-owned equipment.” But several business owners tell Balogun, the plaza landlord hired an electrician days after the storm to make repairs.
Today wasn’t the first time CenterPoint crews visited the strip mall.
Nguyen said crews were on site, eight days after the storm. He chronicled his effort to restore on social media, keeping customers updated.
On Instagram, a video dated July 15 shows crews replacing a blown transformer behind the strip mall.
The power didn’t come on. Nguyen said the landlord then hired an electrician to come out but again no power.
“This morning, I did receive an email that we’ll get power by noon, so I’m hoping by noon,” he explained. “If not, then we’ll have to look into all the top options of what we can do.”
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When asked, what those options were, Nguyen replied, “Honestly, nothing.” Still, after about a month of his business being inoperable due to the lack of power, he remains optimistic.
“We have to let our employees know that they have to start looking for their next jobs, but I don’t think that would be the option because I believe that we will get all power back very soon, and I’m not giving up hope yet,” he said. “This is something I always love to do; love to be in the kitchen, love to cook. And then I’ve been doing this for so long, I don’t know what else I can do besides.”
After wrapping up his interview for this report, however, Balogun learned that Nguyen’s restaurant was not the only business impacted by the power outages.
Several other businesses and restaurants in the plaza have been without electricity and forced to close due to the inclement weather.
Among them include: Memorial Hermann Urgent Care, Five Guys, Starbucks, and Halal Guys. Those who have remained open like Verizon or The Good Life CBD have been able to do so through generators.
Nguyen was also able to rent a generator temporarily and saw CenterPoint crews out working, but things kept getting delayed and it became harder to hold onto hope.
“It’s like a rollercoaster,” Nguyen said. “You’re so happy that ‘hey look, there’s a power generator we can operate for the next few days, and then the next day you want to put hope on the people above us, who know more than what we all actually know, but then it’s just like you want to give up, but then you can’t because I have so many employees that depend on us.”
Shortly before noon, CenterPoint crews arrived at the plaza and got to work. The two men told tenants, watching them work, that they would restore the power today.
CenterPoint tells KPRC 2 the delay in restoration was due to “damaged customer-owned equipment.” But several business owners tell Balogun, the plaza landlord hired an electrician days after the storm to make repairs.
“The idea that we should be sitting here today on August 5th talking about having no power a month after an event like a hurricane in the city, it makes no sense,” said Geoff Herbert, President of AYG Foods which owns and operates seven The Halal Guys restaurants. “Nobody in their right mind would have expected that this would have been the outcome.”
By roughly 2:45 p.m. Balogun watched as an electrician went store-to-store helping each employee get the power back on.
Nguyen hopes to partially open Wednesday.
Herbert said his team at The Halal Guys are checking all equipment to make sure refrigeration gets down to proper temperatures.
The health department is scheduled to visit the plaza Tuesday morning.
CenterPoint’s full statement:
“Following repairs to damaged customer-owned equipment, CenterPoint Energy crews have safely returned power to this location. The businesses that remain out may have damage to the customer-owned equipment feeding them directly. Our Operations team has connected directly with the customer and onsite electrician to avoid further delays and safely restore power as soon as all necessary repairs are complete.”