HOUSTON – The damage caused by the May Derecho and Hurricane Beryl is continuing to impact residents across Houston.
CenterPoint Energy has vowed to strengthen its infrastructure to prepare for future storms, but their repairs are causing concern among residents, including some of our youngest.
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KPRC 2′s Gage Goulding previously reported on a chunk of an old pole that was dangling from the new pole CenterPoint Energy installed in the Garden Oaks neighborhood.
It was high above the busy street and walkway before Gage’s reporting led to CenterPoint removing it.
Another concerned resident tipped us off about a different piece of an old pole, strapped to a new one above a sidewalk where hundreds of students walk home from school every day.
The intersection of Eastside Street and West Alabama Street is right by Lamar High School in the River Oaks area.
While this piece of pole looks more secure, we spoke with several students who say they do not feel safe.
“It’s dangerous if you don’t see, it could just fall on you,” said Manuela Rodriguez, a senior at Lamar High School
“A lot of people actually walk more than they do the bus routes... It’s really important to have it be safe... A strong wind could just like knock it down,” Rodriguez added.
Sophomore Gabriella Bobb said she and her mother have been concerned about wooden utility poles in general, and they want them to be replaced.
“We always talk about how they need to get rid of the wooden ones... A few weeks ago, when the storm happened, the wires would be like swinging. It does not look very comforting.”
CenterPoint provided the following statement regarding the issue:
In addition to our Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative, a series of immediate actions to improve resiliency and reduce the risk of outages from the next major storm or hurricane and more than 40 critical actions in total to strengthen the electric grid and improve our customer communications and emergency coordination, we are continuously focused on improving outcomes for our customers. That will always mean a mix of installing new facilities to serve homes and businesses, as well as near-term maintenance work to enhance safety, reliability and resiliency.
As part of the pole replacement process – whether it is related to our initiative or part of our day-to-day safety, reliability and resiliency work – when our crews are unable to transfer the non-CenterPoint attachment on one of our poles, we communicate with the attachment owner to perform this work. In this specific case, the wires and attachments are not owned by CenterPoint and must be transferred by the responsible company. The attachment at this location has been flagged and assigned for resolution.