Nicholas: Power Restoration Nearly Complete In Houston Area

HOUSTON, TX — CenterPoint Energy has restored power to most people affected by the power outages caused by Hurricane Nicholas, and the company expects to have all but a few isolated outages resolved by the end of Wednesday.

At approximately 6:10 p.m. Wednesday, only 52,579 people remained without power throughout CenterPoint's 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's down from a peak of just under 500,000 people without power Tuesday.

The company said in a release it will complete electric system assessments Wednesday, and will restore power to most of the remaining outages. Some isolated outages will remain.

Live in Houston? Click here to subscribe to our free breaking news alerts delivered to your inbox and mobile devices. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter, and download our free mobile app on Android or iPhone.

Customers do not need to contact CenterPoint if they are without power, but there are a few instances where action is required. If Hurricane Nicholas caused damage to the house's power system, such as to the meter box or the weatherhead — where the power line enters the house through a pipe — customers should call an electrician to fix the problem before service can be restored, according to the release.

"We have made excellent progress so far safely restoring service to our customers who were impacted by Hurricane Nicholas, and our crews continue to work diligently and around-the-clock to address all remaining outages as safely and quickly as possible," said CenterPoint Executive Vice President of Electric Utility.

On Tuesday, Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said CenterPoint had 3,200 people working to restore power to Houston-area residents. CenterPoint said in a tweet that mutual assistance teams also are helping CenterPoint restore power to homes.

Customers can sign up for text messages, emails and phone calls from CenterPoint for alerts on power outages and updates on progress for power restoration.

In addition to CenterPoint customers suffering from power outages, there is a pocket of over 18,000 Texas-New Mexico Power customers without power south and southeast of Houston in Brazoria and Galveston Counties.