Hundreds of thousands of people in southeastern Texas are still without power a week after Hurricane Beryl caused devastation on its path through the state.
About 288,000 energy customers were in the dark Monday morning, according to PowerOutage.us, leaving many without air conditioning as a persistent heat wave brings temperature of up to 93 degrees.
More than 119 million people were under extreme heat warnings Monday, with the National Weather Service forecasting temperatures of 100 degrees or higher in the mid-Atlantic and the Southeast.
CenterPoint Energy, the main electricity supplier in greater Houston, says it has reconnected almost 2 million cus tomers — about 90% of the those affected — since Beryl brought down scores of power lines and sent trees crashing into homes.
Gov. Greg Abbott demanded at a news conference Sunday that the company explain how it is improving its hurricane preparation plans before the end of the month.
“The failure of power companies to provide power to their customers is completely unacceptable,” he said, adding that the state’s first priority is to preserve life and that the lack of power is a “life-based issue.”
Abbott said CenterPoint had until July 31 to provide his office with “specific actions to address power outages and reduce the possibility that power will be lost during a severe weather event.” That includes details about how “vegetation” that threatens power lines will be removed.
Failure to do so, he said, could result in an executive order “geared to keep the power on.”
Abbott also directed the Public Utility Commission of Texas to launch an investigation into why it has taken so long to reconnect households.
“It is unacceptable that millions of Texans in the Greater Houston area have been (or were) left without electricity for multiple days,” he wrote.
“It is imperative we investigate how and why some Texas utilities were unable to restore power for days following a Category 1 Hurricane,” he continued.
In response, CenterPoint said in a statement: “Our top priority is restoring power to the remaining impacted customers as safely and quickly as possible.”
The company said its crews were working around the clock over the weekend to restore connections and working in areas with “significant structural damage.” CenterPoint added that it has “heard and understood” customers’ frustrations.
CenterPoint also pointed out that initial forecasts said Beryl would miss Houston and that when that changed it deployed 3,000 staff members to respond to any damage.
On Saturday, Abbott added 17 counties to a Federal Emergency Management Agency individual assistance program, allowing anyone whose home or business has been damaged to apply for financial help.
Eight people in Harris County, which includes Houston, are known to have died as a direct result of Hurricane Beryl, according to the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.