[Chron/CenterPoint] : Millions of residents face another dark night

I've been at my parents' the last 2 nights because they have power. The other side of their street does not. Everyone has run extension cords across the street to share electricity with the neightbor across the way. If your neighborhood is half-lit, share the electricity.

My house in the Third Ward does not seem to have electricity anywhere.

I'm actually rather disappointed in CenterPoint, though I suppose I shouldn't be surprised when a monopoly doesn't perform as well as I'd expect. This online map of outages should have been developed years ago, not when a hurricane made it really relevant. They also were completely overwhelmed by the call volume. And, their cooperation with other TDSPs for linemen doesn't seem to run too smoothly. Of all companies, CenterPoint should have an especially robust disaster recovery plan, and they don't seem to.

 

Thanks very much Ms Moe!

 

Honestly, though, what do you expect. We are about 3 days out from the hurricane and about half the city is without power. Considering the MASSIVE number of blown transformers and downed power lines, I'm not sure how we could expect much more.

Last I heard, they expected to have most up by the end of the week. The worst hit areas will take a few weeks.

In Alicia, we were out for two weeks. In most disasters, this is just the case.

I would never defend a power company (and this point is not directed at you, JuanValdez), but there are times I wonder just how impatient we have become. Did we think all the stores would be open within 24 hours and the power would be on in a couple days?

This is a very unpredictable situation and there is massive work to be done for weeks. I want power back as much as the next guy but I get the delay.

 

Yea, under the circumstances ...I understand the delay and remain patient. Given what they got, I think they are doing what they can.

HOWEVER, transformers were blowing all over in midtown/Rice/Museum areas starting around 9pm ...hours before hurricane strength wind hit. Why is the system so fragile in the first place? I was downtown during the storm on the 15th story of my building. There was no rain and the trees didn't look like there we blowing too hard. I watched green flash after green flash between 8pm and 10pm. Why can't we build a more wind-proof system when we live in the gulf coast?

Also, we were told they had 7,000 workers ready to go after the storm. It turns out, it'll be Wednesday before the final 4,000 show up. Why does it take 4+ days to get everybody here when we knew about the storm 3+ days in advance? Not a huge deal but it seems like they could have been more efficient dealing with the logistics.

 

I don't understand why some of the houses at my subdivision ahve power. If it's a grid problem then all houses should have power.

 

I JUST WANT GAS!

For the second day in a row I was almost next in line after a wait and was turned away as they AGAIN ran out. This is friggin' ridiculous!

 

You can't be serious.

Centerpoint is doing a damn fine job. I am in the same situation as you. I have spent the last two night with my parents while the power is out in my house in the Galleria area.

When an entire city worth of power is knocked out, over 2 million customers without power, you expect it to be restored overnight? This is a disaster. When Centerpoint realized that they could not do this alone, they called in backups as far as Canada. Freakin' Canada.

Overwhelmed by the call volume? What do you expect? No matter how many people they have answering phones, if two million people are calling them, they will be overwhelmed.

They have trucks out there restoring power as best they can, with limited power for them to communicate, and hundreds of different companies helping out.

I applaud the work they are doing. Why don't you stay at your parents house and not b**** because there are people dead in Galveston that wish they were alive to b**** about the real problems down there.

 

me too. my parents neighborhood like 80% has power except 2 streets (which my parents are in)

 

My biggest concern about Centerpoint was the lack of preparation. Centerpoint should plan ahead by keeping trees properly trimmed. If trees had been properly trimmed I bet there would have been fewer power outages.

 

I'd give CenterPoint a break. The work that they (and many other eletrical workers from several other states) are doing is extremely dangerous and they are often working around the clock to get the job done. This isn't a simple outage, it's a major hurricane that ravaged an entire region.

 

Be thankful that you have Centerpoint and not Entergy

 

Details as of 10 a.m., Sept. 16, 2008: Outage Map | Outages by Zip Code

 

Come on, we can't expect power to be restored quickly...we're talking about Houston, freakin 4th largest city in USA.

CenterPoint is doing the best they can.

Just thank god that the weather is cool at this time!

With FEMA, I don't want to touch that issue.

 

i think it's too much to expect them to cut and trim every tree within the vicinity of every single power line. maybe the burden should be put on the home owner.

 

I think this is outrageous. How can a homeowner be expected to trim their own trees? You've displayed your ignorance once again.

 

Your right how can someone that is perfectly healthy go outside and help out yourself and other people, how outragious is that! come on mlwoo its a freakin natural disaster, help people out. that is what is wrong with the world today. people wanna say thats not my job but you have 15,000 people out there pulling double shifts, so you can have lights. Be a little more compassionate

 

On point 1, this is not the only place with issues. In the north, lines freeze. Near the coast, wind blows limbs onto lines and transformers. Lightning strikes them. Electricity is dangerous and has problems. It's like saying, "why can't they build a plane that doesn't break when it crashes?" As for tree trimming, they trim trees all the time, but I don't know if you've been around the city and seen all the downed trees. Many fell on lines.

As for the rest, I know guys that go to other cities during disasters. They did not know 3 days in advance that the worst hit area would be Galveston and Houston. In fact, we didn't know FOR SURE until 24 hours before. At that point, they have to get requests, approval and then load equipment BEFORE hitting the road from as far away as Canada.

We all need to exercise a little patience. I know that is tough in our instant gratification society, but that's what it is.

 

My neigbhor is an entergy customer and they got power.

 

----->

WHOOSH!


I invented this emoticon image to symbolize something flying over a person's head.

 

Except homeowners are not suppossed to trim trees near power lines and tree trimming companies refuse to do that work. Here is a story about how it is the power company's obligation and about the link to power outages.

I do think Centerpoint is working hard to get power back up, but I think some work ahead of the storm would have helped.