10/09/2024 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 11/09/2024 00:25
CenterPoint Energy Preparing for Impacts from Tropical Storm Francine Across Gulf Coast Service Area
Company continues to communicate to electric and natural gas customers in Texas, Louisianaand Mississippiand coordinate with emergency partners.
HOUSTON, Sept. 10, 2024- CenterPoint Energy continues to actively monitor Tropical Storm Francine and prepare to respond to potential impacts in Texas, Louisianaand Mississippi. The company has been monitoring the weather, coordinating with emergency and agency partners and mobilizing resources across its service area to be prepared to respond to impacts and outages. CenterPoint's Emergency Operations Center has been activated since Sunday, September 8. Today,1,300 vegetation workers are continuing to trim and remove higher-risk vegetation from power lines across the Greater Houstonarea ahead of the storm.
"We continue to take this storm very seriously and are preparing to respond to any potential impacts of Tropical Storm Francine on both our electric and natural gas networks so we can restore service to our customers as safely and as quickly as possible. Even as we continue to coordinate with our emergency partners and take steps to respond to this major storm, we strongly urge our customers to ensure they are taking steps to keep their loved ones safe," said Darin Carroll, CenterPoint's Senior Vice President of Electric Business.
"We have been preparing for the potential of a storm event since the weekend, with a focus on safety messages for our customers and communities, and preparing our employees, resources and equipment. We will continue to coordinate with local, state and federal officials, first responders and emergency management agencies. Our focus is clear: to get ready to respond and restore service to our impacted customers," said Bo Murphy, CenterPoint's Vice President of Louisianaand Mississippi Natural Gas.
Preparedness Actions in Texas, Louisianaand Mississippi
Among the steps the company is taking to prepare and respond to Tropical Storm Francine include:
Responding to Potential Impacts Across Service Territory
Across its service areas in Texas, Louisianaand Mississippi, CenterPoint is carefully monitoring Tropical Storm Francine and is preparing to deploy frontline crews to efficiently clear storm debris, repair system damage and restore electricity and natural gas service to impacted customers. Given the current track of the storm, the company is also mobilizing natural gas workers from across its service territory to support the response in the Gulf Coast region and any of the potentially hardest-hit areas.
Safety Tips for Natural Gas Customers
CenterPoint is reminding customers to stay safe prior to, during and after Tropical Storm Francine by following these natural gas safety tips:
Important Information for Electric Customers
CenterPoint electric customers are encouraged to enroll in the company's Power Alert Service® to receive outage details, estimated restoration times and customer-specific restoration updates via phone call, text or email. Customers can also stay up-to-date on outages with CenterPoint's new and improved, cloud-based Outage Tracker, which allows customers to see outages by county, city and zip code. The new tracker is capable of handling increased traffic during storms and is ADA- and mobile-friendly.
CenterPoint Encourages All Customers to Have a Plan to Stay Safe
CenterPoint is encouraging all of its customers to prepare and have a plan to stay safe during Tropical Storm Francine. Customers can get storm-related electric, natural gas and flooding safety tips at CenterPointEnergy.com/StormCenter. Additional preparations best practices are available at Ready.gov.
For the latest updates, follow CenterPoint on X (formerly Twitter) for real-time updates. For more information and other resources, visit CenterPointEnergy.com/NaturalGasSafety.
About CenterPoint Energy, Inc.
As the only investor-owned electric and gas utility based in Texas, CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNP) is an energy delivery company with electric transmission and distribution, power generation and natural gas distribution operations that serve more than 7 million metered customers in Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohioand Texas. With approximately 9,000 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 150 years. For more information, visit CenterPointEnergy.com.
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SOURCE CenterPoint Energy