Hurricane Nicholas: Over 100,000 Still Without Power Near Houston

HOUSTON, TX — Much of the possible impact in Houston from Hurricane Nicholas was avoided, and now the goal of Houston officials is to get city operations back to normal by Wednesday, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a news conference Tuesday morning.

As of the National Hurricane Center's 10 a.m. update, the center of Nicholas, which has been downgraded back to a tropical storm, was over Harris County, but most of the dangerous weather has passed Houston. Tropical storm warnings expired in Harris County around 10:30 a.m., according to National Weather Service Houston.

"The center of circulation is actually on the south side of Harris County, but the tropical storm force winds are well to the east, so that's the reason that tropical storm warning was dropped for our local area," NWS Houston meteorologist Dan Reilly said in a video brief. "Additional rain is expected, but not really in our area."

Turner said there was only one high-water related call during the storm, which was for an evacuation, and he said the biggest concern in the aftermath was downed power lines and power outages.

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As of 6:12 p.m., Centerpoint Energy listed 131,339 customers without power in its service area, which includes most of Harris County and parts of Austin, Brazoria, Colorado, Liberty, Matagorda, Montgomery, Waller and Wharton Counties as well as Galveston Island. That number is down from 399,046 customers without power at 10:33 a.m.

Turner said approximately 150,ooo customers in Houston were without power during his morning news conference. He added that Centerpoint Energy had about 3,200 people working on restoring power, with another 2,000 expected to help those efforts Wednesday. Turner said much of the lost power would be restored over the course of the day Tuesday and that it should be fully restored Wednesday.

Turner cautioned people to avoid downed power lines and to continue to stay home Tuesday unless necessary so that recovery efforts can move quickly. He said that municipal courts, garbage pickup, schools and airports should be back to full operations by Wednesday.

Turner reported that there were 394 cancellations at Bush International Airport and Hobby Airport between Monday evening and Tuesday, and he indicated that the airports could resume full operations as soon as 2 or 3 p.m. Tuesday afternoon.

The 43 barricades put in place Monday throughout Houston were still in place as of Tuesday morning, but Turner said they would likely start coming down throughout Tuesday as city officials assess street conditions and clear debris.

"I want to thank the people of Houston," Turner said in the news conference. "We asked that you stay off the road, and for the most part you did. There were no fatalities, which is a huge accomplishment for the fourth-largest city in the United States."