Red Flag Warning in effect for large portions
of Texas and the Greater Houston area from noon to 9 p.m. on Saturday; high wind gusts, low
humidity and fire risk anticipated
CenterPoint has taken a series of actions to
prepare equipment and approximately 1,000 workers ready to respond
today
Company continues to communicate with
customers about the potential for temporary outages in some areas
due to wildfire conditions
HOUSTON, March 15,
2025 /PRNewswire/ -- CenterPoint Energy is
taking a series of precautionary actions to help protect customers
and communities and address elevated wildfire risk in parts of the
Greater Houston area, as the
National Weather Service has issued a Red Flag Warning from
noon until 9 p.m. today. CenterPoint
has actively prepared for potentially dangerous weather conditions,
including high wind gusts, dry fuels and low humidity, by
conducting pre-inspections of electric and natural gas equipment,
adjusting power line safety settings in higher-risk areas,
communicating with customers and working closely with local
emergency agencies. Today, CenterPoint has approximately 1,000 line
and vegetation workers prepared to respond to the evolving weather
conditions.
Over the last day, CenterPoint has notified customers in the
Cypress, Fort Bend and Katy areas through the company's Power
Alert Service about the possibility that extreme weather and
wind conditions could result in some temporary safety outages this
afternoon or tonight.
"While we have had some precipitation with the passing front
this morning, we must remain vigilant. As fire weather conditions
quickly evolved and escalated across the state, CenterPoint has
been actively preparing for potential impacts to the system and is
ready to respond to the heightened risk today. Over the last
several days, our teams have completed a series of actions to help
protect our customers and communities, including inspecting
critical equipment, clearing hazardous vegetation near power lines,
adjusting safety settings in higher-risk areas and pre-positioning
crews to quickly restore power if temporary safety outages occur.
We will continue to keep customers informed of our efforts and how
they can stay prepared before and during extreme weather," said
Don Daigler, Senior Vice President,
Emergency Planning & Response.
Key Actions to Help Keep Customers Safe
CenterPoint's
safety preparations over the last several days include the
following key actions:
- Inspecting and Hardening Key Power Lines: Inspecting
power lines in areas of heightened fire risk, clearing hazardous
vegetation near power lines and conducting repairs where needed,
ahead of potential extreme weather.
- Inspecting Natural Gas Facilities: Inspecting gas
facilities in areas of heightened fire risk and clearing hazardous
vegetation near facilities ahead of potential extreme weather.
- Adjusting Safety Settings: Adjusting the settings on
some power lines for safety between noon and
9 p.m. today.
- Bringing on Additional Crews to
Respond: Positioning CenterPoint crews and additional
contractors to respond to any power outages or natural gas service
interruptions that may occur. Additional resources will be utilized
to safely restore service as quickly as possible when conditions
allow.
- Coordinating with Local Emergency
Partners: Proactively sharing information with state,
county and local leaders.
- Communicating with Customers: Proactively
communicating with approximately 330,000 customers in the
Cypress, Fort Bend and Katy areas by phone, text or email about the
potential for temporary safety outages due to high fire
danger.
Important Safety Tips for Customers
CenterPoint encourages all customers to stay informed about
weather conditions and make a plan to stay safe, including during a
potential power outage. Customers can also get the latest
information on CenterPoint's preparedness and response efforts and
view important safety tips by visiting
CenterPointEnergy.com/StormCenter. Additional preparation and
safety tips are available at Ready.gov.
How to Stay Informed: Sign Up for PAS
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 by
phone call, text or email. Customers can also stay up to date with
CenterPoint's new and improved, cloud-based Outage Tracker,
available in English and Spanish, which allows customers to see
outages by county, city and zip code.
Customers can also follow @CenterPoint_TX to receive the most
up-to-date information on the company's operations in the
Greater Houston area and across
Texas.
For the latest weather information for the Greater Houston area, view updates from the
National Weather Service Forecast Office in Houston/Galveston at weather.gov/hgx.
For more information, contact:
Communications
Media.Relations@CenterPointEnergy.com
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SOURCE CenterPoint Energy
