after nicholas
More than 400,000 Houston-area residents without power, CenterPoint Energy reports
Hurricane Nicholas — which weakened to a tropical storm early Tuesday, September 14, has left hundreds of thousands of locals without power, CenterPoint Energy reports.
Some 444,000 residents were without power as of September 14, CenterPoint noted. However, that number has risen — 15,000 more were reported by 8:30 am. Customers in the southern, central, and eastern areas are the most impacted, CenterPoint notes.
On Twitter, the service provider added that crews assisting with Ida relief in Louisiana are headed back to Houston to help.
Nicholas’ sustained winds exceeded more than 75 miles per hour, with gusts at over 90 miles per hour, causing widespread outages, CultureMap news partner ABC13 reports.
In response to the outages, CenterPoint has started restoring power to facilities vital to safety, health and welfare, including hospitals, water treatment plants, and public service facilities, according to a statement.
“We are committed to restoring service to our customers as safely and quickly as possible,” said Kenny Mercado, executive vice president, Electric Utility of CenterPoint Energy, in a statement. “However, patience will be important as some areas of our system and equipment may be difficult to reach for our crews due to safety-related issues, such as downed trees.”
Customers shouldn’t call CenterPoint to report outages; the company is aware, Mercado tells ABC13. Instead, customers should preserve cell phones for emergencies.
CenterPoint’s real-time outage meter can be found here, as well as text update services.
