still unclear

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner and city leaders still searching for answers after water plant failure

Turner fielded questions about the plant this week.

Photo courtesy of Mayor's Office, City of Houston

With the boil notice finally lifted, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner is still searching for answers.

"Stuff happens, whether I like it or don't like it," Mayor Sylvester Turner tells CultureMap news partner ABC13. According to Turner, a transformer at the water plant failed, as well as the backup transformer. Generators never kicked in.

The city has a long-standing $56 million contract with NRG Energy Services to have backup power generation equipment at the East Water Purification Plant.

"Well, we did have generators, but when the transformers failed to operate, it prevented the generators from being connected in order to provide the additional power," Turner adds. NRG told ABC13 Investigates the problem was with the two city-owned transformers and was not on its end.

"We do know that the two transformers malfunctioned. One was a backup to the other. It was just one of those unique circumstances in which you have these transformers that malfunction and then you have the backup that malfunctioned," Turner says.

When asked by ABC13 how this could have happened, the City of Houston staff have few answers.

"(We're) working through the issues to understand exactly what the failure was to make sure we have every step in place that we make sure this doesn't happen again," Carol Haddock, the Houston Public Works director, tells ABC13.

-----

Continue reading this story, with accompanying video, on our news partner ABC13.

money woes

Houston has 2nd most financially distressed residents in America

Photo by Adrian Newell on Unsplash

Houstonians are feeling the financial stress in 2026.

A new study has confirmed what many Houston residents are already feeling: Houston has one of the highest shares of people in financial distress in the nation.

Houston ranked No. 2 in WalletHub's just-released report, "Cities with the Most People in Financial Distress," which analyzed 100 of the largest U.S. cities across nine personal finance metrics: average credit scores and year-over-year changes; the share of residents with accounts in distress and year-over-year changes; the average number of accounts in distress; year-over-year change in bankruptcy filings from September 2024 to September 2025; and "debt" and "loans" search interest indexes.

For the purpose of this study, WalletHub defined "financial distress" as having a credit account in forbearance or with deferred payments.

Chicago, Illinois led the nation with the No. 1 most financially distressed residents, and Las Vegas, Nevada rounded out the top three.

According to the report's findings, Houston residents signaled a "strong need for borrowing" after having the highest search interest nationally for terms like "debt" and "loans." Houstonians also had the 10th highest increase in bankruptcy filings from September 2024 to September 2025.

"Houston has a high share of the population with accounts in distress compared to most other cities, at over 8 percent, and it also has a high number of accounts in distress per person," the report said.

Here's how WalletHub broke down the rest of Houston's overall ranking:

No. 32 – Credit score rank
No. 35 – Average number of accounts in distress rank
No. 39 – People with accounts in distress rank

High unemployment rates and inflation are major factors contributing to most Americans' financial woes, the report said, and rising property taxes can create an even bigger burden for homeowners and renters alike. Texas residents may feel a greater burden than residents elsewhere in the country after the Lone Star State was dubbed the No. 1 most most financially distressed state in America in 2025. And digging oneself out of the "downward spiral" isn't easy, according to WalletHub analyst Chip Lupo.

"You may get temporary relief from your lenders by not having to make payments, but all the while interest will keep building up, making the debt even harder to pay off," Lupo said.

Though no Texas city is feeling the financial squeeze as much as Houston, three more of the state's biggest cities also ranked among the top 10 most financially distressed places in America: Dallas (No. 4), San Antonio (No. 6) and Austin (No. 9). Fort Worth ranked 12th overall.

The top 10 most financially distressed cities in the nation are:

No. 1 – Chicago
No. 2 – Houston
No. 3 – Las Vegas
No. 4 – Dallas
No. 5 – Los Angeles
No. 6 – San Antonio
No. 7 – Atlanta
No. 8 – New York
No. 9 – Austin
No. 10 – Phoenix

finance wallethub houston