CenterPoint Energy activates emergency response plan in preparation for Hurricane Beryl

CenterPoint Energy activates emergency response plan in preparation for Hurricane Beryl

Crews, resources and equipment will be ready to support company's electric and natural gas restoration efforts

Sunday-July-7-2024

​Houston - July 7, 2024 - CenterPoint Energy continues to closely monitor the latest forecasts and prepare for the potential impact Hurricane Beryl will bring to its electric and natural gas systems in south Texas, along the Texas Coast and across the Greater Houston area. With the hurricane expected to make landfall overnight and move inland on Monday morning, the company has activated its emergency response plan.

As is CenterPoint's longstanding strategy for any severe weather event, its emergency response plan is an all-hands-on-deck approach for the company, its contractors and the resources brought in from other areas of the country to support.

For its Houston Electric operations, CenterPoint is pre-positioning crews, resources and equipment to be ready to safely and quickly address areas expected to be impacted by the storm. The company is establishing four staging sites across Greater Houston for onboarding mutual assistance resources and providing them with equipment and supplies.

CenterPoint's restoration workforce of approximately 4,500 includes skilled lineworkers and vegetation management professionals, who will be responsible for removing trees, branches and other vegetation that impact power lines. In addition to the local workforce, also included in the 4,500 are requested mutual assistance resources to assist in restoration efforts. CenterPoint will assess the use of and deploy, when able, its temporary mobile generation units to provide temporary power restoration to certain critical facilities, such as cooling centers, healthcare facilities, first responder locations, senior centers, and educational centers.

"We stand at-the-ready to respond to Hurricane Beryl's impact to our region and are confident we have more than appropriately prepared for our potential response," said Lynnae Wilson, Senior Vice President, Electric Business. "We understand our customers depend on us for these critical services, and once it is safe to do so, they should rest assured they will see crews, trucks and vehicles throughout our service territory assessing damage to our system and determining restoration solutions. From that point forward, we will work around-the-clock to get the lights and air conditioning back on for those who are able to receive service from us as quickly as possible."

Because there are flood risks as Hurricane Beryl moves through CenterPoint's service territory, its natural gas operations have been preparing crews, resources and materials to respond to customers' emergency calls and reports of meters under water.

During pre-storm preparations and post-storm recovery efforts, CenterPoint urges customers to stay informed of weather conditions and warnings or advisories issued by local authorities by paying close attention to announcements from local news outlets for important information regarding ongoing conditions and recovery efforts.

The company will continue proactive preparedness communications to the public through its various communications channels leading up to Hurricane Beryl's arrival. Once the storm moves through the area and damage assessments begin, the company will communicate information regarding the extent of damage and restoration updates.

Although real-time updates from Outage Tracker are currently unavailable, CenterPoint's electric customers are encouraged to enroll in Power Alert Service^® to receive outage details for their locations, estimated restoration times, as available or determined, and community-specific restoration updates in the event of severe weather. With the option to receive updates via phone call, text or email, Power Alert Service^® helps keep customers informed of restoration progress during an outage event. CenterPoint will continue to provide general outage information such as total outage counts - updated every 15 minutes - at CenterPointEnergy.com/StormCenter.

For natural gas and electric safety tips, additional information and resources on hurricane preparedness, visit CenterPointEnergy.com/StormCenter and follow @CenterPoint for updates during inclement weather events.

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