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CenterPoint Energy's online outage tracker crashes as thousands of Houstonians wake to no power

CenterPoint Energy trucks are being deployed around the city.

Photo courtesy of ABC13

As thousands of Houstonians wake up to to no power, CenterPoint Energy's online outage tracker has crashed.

"We’re sorry, but Outage Tracker is temporarily unavailable. We hope to have service restored soon. Thank you for your patience," reads the site. Early CenterPoint Energy estimates reported some 98,000 customers without power around the Houston area as of 6 am Monday, February 15.

Locals should be prepared to be without power for the rest of the day, according to a CenterPoint tweet. CultureMap was unable to reach CenterPoint for comment.

Unfortunately, if you are a customer who is currently experiencing an outage, you should be prepared to be without power for at least the rest of the day. #houwx #hounews 5/10

— CenterPoint Energy (@CNPalerts)

February 15, 2021

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner also tweeted: "These are not rolling blackouts. We are dealing with systemwide power outages across the state." Locals across the city, especially in Inner Loop neighborhoods such as Montrose, The Heights, and Greenway Plaza, report no power.

Elsewhere in Texas, some 2.3 million customers were without power on the morning of February 15, according to poweroutage.us.

Texas power grid managers have declared an emergency after record-breaking energy use strained utilities beyond capacity thanks to the winter weather event.

As CultureMap news partner ABC13 reports, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) declared an "energy emergency alert three" also called an EEA 3 early Monday, as the third of three alert phases. In the first phase, the state looks to get electricity from other grids. The second stage shuts down large industrial users who've agreed to cut power in an emergency. The third phase is rotating outages.

ERCOT has issued an EEA level 3 because electric demand is very high and supplies can't keep up. Reserves have dropped below 1,000 MW and are not expected to recover within 30 minutes.

Rolling blackouts could repeat, all the way through the morning of Tuesday, February 16, according to ERCOT.

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Saturday warned that all of Texas faces an unprecedented winter storm and issued a state disaster declaration, ABC13 notes. President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration for the state of Texas and ordered federal assistance to supplement state and local response efforts.

This is a breaking news story; CultureMap will update as news develops.

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what's new at the zoo

Houston Zoo welcomes Kirby, a newly-born Asian elephant

The Houston Zoo Asian elephant herd increased by one last week.

Photo by Kevin Kendrick/Houston Zoo

Kirby is a healthy baby girl elephant!

The Houston Zoo is going to need a very big rattle for its latest addition. On Friday, November 15 at 3 pm, the zoo’s amiable Asian elephant matriarch Shanti, 34, gave birth to a baby girl named Kirby. This is Shanti’s seventh baby with longtime pachyderm boyfriend, Thailand, 58.

Kirby weighed 314 pounds at birth, quite a bit smaller than her older sibling Nelson, born in 2020, and slightly larger than her big sister Joy, born in 2017. Shanti’s pregnancy lasted 21 months, a common length for Asian elephants but still the second longest gestation in the mammal class after their African cousins.

Within six minutes, Kirby was on her feet, and she was walking within a half hour. The birth took place in the McNair Asian Elephant Habitat cow barn, where Shanti and Kirby will spend several more days before being sent out to public viewing.

The Houston Zoo’s elephant breeding program has been a vital part of increasing the Bornean elephant population since it began in 2007. Portions of entrance fees go toward the work of Dr. Nurzhafarina “Farina" Othman, who specializes in local education and activism in Borneo to ease the tensions between humans and elephants. Elephants have been known to decimate crops leading to conflict. Othman’s work has helped landowners in Borneo fund solutions that keep the elephant population alive. The zoo’s support was partially responsible for doubling the Bornean population in 2018.

Elephants have been a part of the Houston Zoo since it was founded. In 2017, the zoo opened the McNair Asian Elephant Habitat, a massive new enclosure with walkways for visitor viewing and pools for the elephants to frolic in and escape the Texas heat. The exhibit includes everything from fountains to a specialized puzzle tree that elephants can blow into for treats.

The zoo has also been on the cutting edge of animal medicine. In June, 40-year-old Asian elephant Tess was given the first ever mRNA vaccine for elephant endotheliotropic herpesvirus (EEHV) 1A. Baylor College of Medicine pioneered this fight against a particularly deadly disease among elephants. All in all, it has been a big year for the zoo’s biggest residents.

houston zoo elephant

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what's new at the zoo

Houston Zoo welcomes Kirby, a newly-born Asian elephant