CenterPoint Energy continues monitoring the tropical weather situation in the Gulf of Mexico and we have activated our Emergency Operations Center as of 8 p.m. on Sunday, Sept. 8. We are executing our plan and urge you to have a plan in place ahead of Tropical Storm Francine, which is currently expected to make landfall on Wednesday, Sept. 11.
Today we:
- Have approximately 1,850 frontline workers and 600 vegetation workers working the system and conducting pre-storm activities.
- Are planning for potential storm impacts by preparing staging sites and equipment; communicating safety actions to customers; and continuing to secure additional frontline resources from mutual assistance companies.
- Secured an additional 700 contract vegetation workers to augment our teams.
- Have activated an additional 1,625 mutual aid and damage assessors.
- Identified more than 5,000 additional mutual aid frontline workers to augment our teams, if needed for response.
We remain in contact with federal, state, county and city officials and continue to communicate our pre-storm activities and readiness efforts.
Customers whose electricity is delivered by CenterPoint are encouraged to sign up for Power Alert Service® (PAS) to receive timely updates about outages, estimated restoration times and community-wide updates during severe weather. While we cannot guarantee uninterrupted power during severe weather, please know that our top priorities are safely keeping power on and restoring power quickly if it goes out.
Prepare for the storm:
- Emergency plan: Develop a plan to keep your family safe. If you rely on electricity for life-sustaining equipment, please have a backup plan in place to ensure your safety.
- Hurricane kit: Include non-perishable food, water, flashlights, batteries, first aid supplies, necessary medications, a battery-powered radio, and a portable charger for mobile devices.
Stay informed:
- Outage Tracker: Visit our new and improved Outage Tracker to get up-to-date information about electric outages and restoration activities in your area.
- Power Alerts: If your electricity is delivered by CenterPoint, enroll in PAS for outage details, estimated restoration times, and community-wide updates.
Safety first:
- Electric:
- Keep freezers and refrigerators closed during outages to preserve food.
- Use portable generators only in well-ventilated areas to avoid carbon monoxide poisoning.
- View more electric safety tips.
- Natural gas:
- If you smell natural gas — which has a distinctive, strong odor, often compared to rotten eggs or sulfur — leave the area immediately on foot, and tell others to leave, too. Do not turn the lights on or off, smoke, strike a match, use a phone or operate anything that might cause a spark, including a flashlight or a generator. Once safely away from the area, call 911 and CenterPoint at 713-659-2111, and we will send a trained service technician immediately.
- Do not turn off your natural gas at the meter. Instead, turn off the gas at each appliance if necessary.
- View more natural gas safety tips.
Stay connected: Follow us on X (formerly Twitter) for real-time updates and visit our Storm Center for more information.
We will continue to monitor the weather and be vigilant and prepared for any impacts on our service territory along the Gulf.