Source: Houston Chronicle/Hearst Newspapers via Getty Images / Getty
Cleanup continued round-the-clock throughout the weekend after Thursday’s devastating storm that claimed 8 lives, as service companies, city officials and neighbors alike worked to pick up the pieces. While there is still a long way to go, progress has been made in many areas of the Houston area.
A lot of this progress has been made in the restoration of power to several areas in and around Houston. 85 mph winds had pulled down transmission towers and severely damaged CenterPoint Energy’s electrical infrastructure.
Nearly 922,000 customers were without power after the storm had rolled through southeast Texas, according to CenterPoint Energy. Crews working overnight into Friday morning restored power to nearly 180,000 customers. Thanks to the thousands of linemen and vegetation professionals, by late Monday morning, close to 700,000 had their power restored as temperatures climbed into the 90s.
CenterPoint aims for full restoration of power to areas affected by the storm, according to Paul Lock, a spokesperson for CenterPoint Energy.
“We expect everyone to be back on by end of business Wednesday,” Lock said.
Parts of the Houston community came together to help facilitate an easier environment for cleanup efforts to take place. Humble Civic Center, Rodeo Houston and Tomball ISD allowed for linemen crews to use their spaces as staging areas. METRO Houston provided workers transportation to sites affected by the storm.
Dozens of food and water, cooling centers and other resource distributors opened their doors across the area to assist those in need. Neighbors helped neighbors remove fallen trees and other debris from their homes, yards and cars.
While power has been gradually returning to those without it, there are some areas that may take more time to get up and running again.
Parts of downtown Houston, which was ravaged by straight line winds, are still closed off due to cleanup after hundreds of windows were blown out. A three-block by three-block section – from Louisiana Street to Travis Street and from McKinney Street to Polk Street – is closed off as glass and other debris is removed from the area, according to ABC13 Houston.
This area includes CenterPoint Energy Headquarters, Enterprise Plaza, the Kinder Morgan building and Wells Fargo Plaza. A spokesperson from the Downtown District said a survey of several owners and managers of the affected buildings was conducted, and it’s estimated that it’ll take several months to get replacement windows, according to ABC13 Houston.
