CenterPoint Energy had reduced storm-related power outages to 184 customers across the Greater Houston area by Wednesday morning, Sept. 2, after Tropical Storm Edouard swept through Southeast Texas.
The utility reported roughly 750 customers lost power at the storm's peak Tuesday morning. By 11 a.m. Tuesday, crews had already restored about 1,000 customers. By 4:45 p.m., only 45 remained without power, according to KPRC 2's live tracker. The Wednesday figure of 184 suggests some additional outages occurred overnight as rain bands continued.
CenterPoint has not released outage breakdowns for individual cities, so it is unclear how many customers in Friendswood, Webster, Seabrook, Nassau Bay or Clear Lake Shores were affected.
2,700 workers deployed
The company mobilized approximately 2,700 frontline workers and contractors for the storm response. Crews are using what CenterPoint calls a "cut-and-clear" process, isolating damaged sections of the grid so power can be rerouted to unaffected areas faster, according to KPRC 2.
Nathan Brownell, CenterPoint's vice president of resilience and capital delivery and incident commander for the Edouard response, said Tuesday that the company's team was focused on restoring power safely and quickly.
CenterPoint said it would publish a full-system restoration estimate within 24 hours of the storm leaving the Greater Houston area. That estimate had not been released as of Wednesday morning. The company said updates would follow at least once a day after the initial estimate.
Storm weakens, flood risk lingers
Edouard made landfall near Johnson Bayou, Louisiana, around 2:25 p.m. Tuesday with maximum sustained winds of 60 mph, according to the National Hurricane Center. The storm has since weakened to a tropical depression. It should dissipate by Wednesday night, the National Weather Service Houston said.
Southeast Texas received 4 to 12 inches of rain in the 24 hours after landfall, according to KPRC 2. A flood watch remains in effect through Wednesday evening, and a wind advisory with gusts up to 45 mph runs through 1 p.m. Wednesday.
As we reported Tuesday, the storm brought heavy rain and flash flood warnings to the Clear Lake area as it approached.
How to check your power status
CenterPoint customers can track outages by county, city or ZIP code on the company's Outage Tracker. The company's Power Alert Service sends restoration updates by text, email or phone. CenterPoint said it sent nearly 1 million storm-related communications to customers and more than 1,000 targeted messages to customers enrolled in its critical-care and chronic-condition programs ahead of the storm.
The next CenterPoint system-wide restoration estimate is expected Wednesday, Sept. 2.
