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Since losing power from Thursday’s devastating storm, Jade Benjamin says she has literally and figuratively been left in the dark by CenterPoint Energy.
Benjamin, a 32-year-old business owner and single mother, spent the weekend driving her 62-year-old mother with cancer and her 11-year-old son from their house in the neighborhood of Bridgeland in Cypress to areas with power so they could cool off and charge their phones to search for updates on power restoration.
She has received no direct communication from CenterPoint and says the company’s online power outage map mistakenly labels her neighborhood as one that had its power restored Sunday.
Her power was still out Monday afternoon.
“I’m not going to be not ungrateful because God has spared all of our lives,” Benjamin said. “It might be hot and sweaty at night, but we’re here.”
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How to find resources to cope with the Houston-area power outage and storm damage
Benjamin is one of nearly 200,000 CenterPoint Energy customers who remained without power Monday as the utility company raced to restore electricity in storm-ravaged service areas.
With temperatures reaching the low 90s in Houston, the company said in a Monday afternoon statement that all its available resources are going toward power restoration, and it hopes to be mostly completed by Wednesday evening.
“We understand the past four days have been very difficult as our customers have worked to recover from the devastating impacts of last week’s severe weather,” Lynnae Wilson, a senior vice president with the company, wrote in a statement.
“We also understand those customers who are still without power are dealing with extra levels of anxiety and concern in their lives, especially given the hot weather,” she added.
‘Significant damage’ from the storm
More than 700,000 customers who lost power from the storm have had it restored, according to CenterPoint’s power outage webpage. CenterPoint said it is encountering “significant damage” that is impacting the pace of restoration efforts, primarily in parts of Bellaire, Spring Branch, the Heights, Lazybrook/Timbergrove and Cottage Grove.
There, crews are finding equipment buried under debris and large trees blocking roads, according to the statement. Rainfall since the storm is further hampering efforts, the company added.
The hardest part of the extended outage has been the additional expenses on an already tight budget, Benjamin said.
“It’s been very expensive and extremely inconvenient,” Benjamin said. “I think that’s the killer for people who are not high up in income, it eats into budgets because you were not prepared.”
‘CenterPoint is doing everything they can’
Signs of damage from the storm, which has killed at least eight people, were still widespread in the Houston area Monday.
Houston Mayor John Whitmire continued to urge residents to avoid nonessential travel in damaged areas on Monday as traffic remained snarled across much of the city from damage traffic lights.
“You’ve got to slow down and not only look after yourself, look after the other person,” Whitmire said.
Of the city’s 2,500 traffic lights, 401 were impacted by the storm, Whitmire said. Fort-five were severely damaged by the storm’s winds, Whitmire added.
The Texas Department of Transportation is installing generators to traffic lights without power while crews make repairs, Whitmire said.
Several city blocks downtown — Louisiana Street to Travis Street and McKinney Street to Polk Street — were labeled by Whitmire an “exclusion zone” to the public as crews continue to clean broken glass on the streets and repair shattered windows on the high-rises above.
“CenterPoint is doing everything they can,” Whitmire said Monday, noting that more than 900,000 homes, businesses and other utility companies had been without power. But he was worried that many communities are still without electricity.
“This is a priority for CenterPoint,” Whitmire said. “But I’m fixing to make it a priority of priorities.”
Cooling centers open during Houston power outage
The first death due to carbon monoxide poisoning was reported by the city Sunday after a man in his 60s died at a home near Spring Branch a day earlier. The Houston Fire Department has responded to more than 80 carbon monoxide incidents since Thursday’s storm, Chief Samuel Peña wrote on social media.
“We understand the challenges residents are facing during this difficult time, and safety must remain a top priority,” Peña wrote in a statement. “Carbon monoxide poisoning is entirely preventable with the proper precautions and swift actions if exposure is suspected.”
Local officials continued to open cooling centers and distribution sites for residents without power.
Houston city services will continue as scheduled this week, the city announced Monday. Solid Waste Management is beginning debris pickup and asked that residents leave any debris by the curb without obstructing the roadway.Houston municipal courts will resume normal operations on Tuesday.
Schools continued to be disrupted in the storm’s aftermath on Monday.
Fifty-five Houston Independent School District schools were closed Monday due to the storm. Several HISD schools — Heights High School, Lamar High School and Reynolds Elementary School — were open but dismissed students early because of building problems.
Cy-Fair Independent School District, Spring Branch Independent School District, Galena Park Independent School District and Channelview Independent School District were closed Monday.
Spring Branch ISD will remain closed on Tuesday because one-third of its buildings were still without power Monday afternoon, the school district said. Cy-Fair ISD will also remain closed Tuesday, the district said.
FEMA assistance in Houston
The storm did not disrupt the start of early voting for the May 28 primary runoff elections, despite six early voting centers being knocked offline by the storm. Forty-four voting centers will be open through Friday from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. for early voting, according to Harris County Clerk Teneshia Hudspeth.
Whitmire will ask Houston City Council to extend his local disaster declaration on Wednesday, the mayor’s office announced Monday.
Residents are also being encouraged by local officials to apply for Federal Emergency Management Agency disaster relief. A federal disaster has been declared in Harris, Liberty, Montgomery, Polk, San Jacinto, Trinity and Walker counties.
Residents can apply for disaster assistance at DisasterAssistance.gov or download the FEMA app. They can also call the FEMA Helpline at 800-621-3362 from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. daily. The help is available in multiple languages.
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