TEXAS CITY, Texas — Power outages that left nearly 20,000 customers in the dark have been restored, according to officials.
The outages, which were estimated to be completed around 3 a.m., were restored before midnight. Officials are still unsure what caused the outage, which lasted about five hours.
The initial outages happened around 8 p.m. as temperatures dropped to 34 degrees.
Approximately 20,000 Texas-New Mexico Power customers, which accounts for about 14% of Galveston County, lost power on Friday night.
By 10 p.m., about half of the customers got power back, according to TNMP.
"Our team is looking into what caused equipment to fail and trigger the outage," TNMP said in a statement. "We recognize it's a chilly evening for customers and we're getting everyone back on as quickly as we can while working safely."
The Texas City Police Department said there was no refinery fire. The large power outage caused plants to flare in order to burn off product.
Local schools were also impacted by the unexpected power outage Friday night.
A basketball game between Galveston Ball and Texas City was cut short when the school lost power.
Students used their phones to light up the gym, but the game was ultimately postponed with one minute left and Texas City leading by four.
The game is set to resume Saturday morning.
What is flaring?
Flaring is a process that removes dangerous gasses with minimal harm to the environment. It's used in regulating pressure in chemical plants and also handling natural gas release in wells.
At industrial plants, flare stacks are usually used for burning off flammable gas released by safety valves during unplanned events. Flaring is also used for the planned combustion of gasses in short periods of time during startups and shutdowns.