HOUSTON — If you’ve been looking for a fleet of power repair trucks and haven’t been able to find them in Houston, there’s a reason. Most out-of-town crews are not yet in Houston to begin repairing the extensive damage caused by Hurricane Beryl.
A CenterPoint spokesperson confirmed to KHOU 11 Investigates that unlike in past hurricanes, outside help was not staged locally before Beryl came rolling through.
“I believe that we've staged beforehand,” Alyssia Oshodi, CenterPoint Director of Communications, told us.
“In this case, we had our requested resources and we knew that they were ready to respond. However, they were not already in the area prior to Hurricane Beryl hitting,” Oshodi said.
When asked why outside help wasn’t called in earlier, Oshodi responded “I don’t have that specific information.”
The spokesperson conceded that Beryl packed more of a punch than what many believed would happen, and also veered off its initial projected course that “more heavily impacted CenterPoint’s footprint.”
“What we've seen now is more impact than what we originally thought that we were going to see,” Oshodi said.
Strong storms knocked out power to more than 2.5 million customers in the Greater Houston area. Oshodi said that CenterPoint has 1,500 local crews that have to first assess damage and cut downed trees and vegetation before restoration can begin in earnest.
"It's really too early to get more specific with our restoration timeline,” Oshodi said.
“Right now, the mutual assistance are in route, then they’ll go through the safety training first thing tomorrow and then there’ll be boots on the ground working around the region,” added Paul Lock, manager of local government relations at CenterPoint Energy said during a news conference with Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo.