With National Weather Service forecasting 8 - 14 named storms this year, CenterPoint highlights Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative (GHRI) improvements, enhanced weather monitoring and opening a new Emergency Operations Center to better prepare and ready its response for customers this hurricane season
CenterPoint encourages customers to sign up for its Power Alert Service® to receive real-time updates about their service throughout hurricane season
HOUSTON – June 2, 2026 – Today, with the start of the 2026 Atlantic hurricane season, CenterPoint is kicking off its “Hurricane Readiness Week," building on Governor Greg Abbott's proclamation last week recognizing May 25 - 30 as Hurricane Preparedness Week in Texas, and sharing a series of critical actions completed to date and underway to strengthen the energy system and keep customers informed.
This season, the National Weather Service predicts 8 to 14 named storms for the Atlantic basin, with 3 - 6 forecast to become hurricanes. To prepare, CenterPoint has prioritized critical resiliency and storm preparedness actions, and throughout the summer will continue to coordinate with local emergency officials and local stakeholders and help customers better prepare for potential severe weather by hosting community events across Greater Houston.
“Preparing for emergencies, like hurricanes, is a year-round priority for our 8,800-strong CenterPoint team. From leveraging state-of-the art weather models and our own network of weather stations, to enhancing how we stage personnel and resources, our teams are prepared with the advanced tools and technology needed to perform at our best for our customers. We're also making critical investments in Houston's energy grid to improve storm resiliency and prepare our crews to respond safely and efficiently when storms strike. Together with local emergency leaders, we stand ready to support our communities before, during and after any severe weather event," said Don Daigler, CenterPoint's Senior Vice President, Emergency Preparedness and Response.
Preparing for the 2026 Hurricane Season: Critical Actions
CenterPoint has taken a series of actions to prepare for the upcoming hurricane season, including:
- Completing critical resiliency upgrades, including installing storm-resilient poles, clearing higher-risk vegetation and undergrounding power lines across the system to improve system reliability and preventing 150 million customer outage minutes by the end of 2026.
- Introducing a new way for customers to track GHRI upgrades and enhancements through a new online Community Progress Tracker.
- Opening a new Emergency Operations Center to support CenterPoint's year-round situational awareness and emergency response readiness and coordinate closely with emergency response partners, local and state officials, media and other key stakeholders.
- Enhancing real-time weather monitoring with 150 new advanced weather stations and state-of-the art models to enhance storm prediction and preparedness.
- Executing a full-scale emergency exercise to practice a cross-functional response to a simulated category 3 hurricane with more than 400 CenterPoint team members participating and approximately 100 state and local officials in attendance.
- Leveraging advanced technology including improved weather tracking, improved damage models and crew resource management to restore power for customers more efficiently following a storm.
- Completing more than 25,000 hours of FEMA trainings across more than 800 employees.
- Improving the damage assessment and restoration process to support faster damage identification and power restoration.
- Leveraging mutual assistance and vendor partnerships to expand our frontline workforce, when necessary, by up to 20 times to support our future storm or emergency response.
Keeping Customers Informed
During its Hurricane Readiness Week and throughout the 2026 hurricane season, CenterPoint will share updates and resources to help customers stay informed and prepare via social media, advertisements, direct-to-customer emails and through a series of community hurricane preparedness events. Important preparedness and safety information will also be shared before, during and after any major storm or hurricane.
As part of its hurricane preparedness campaign, CenterPoint encourages its customers to enroll in Power Alert Service® (PAS) to receive outage details, estimated restoration times and customer-specific restoration updates via free texts, phone calls or emails. For example, during the storm period from May 21 to May 27, CenterPoint sent more than 1,383,987 PAS alerts to customers with restoration information to keep them informed in real-time. PAS is critical to provide updates to customers, as well as family and friends. 90% of CenterPoint's customers are enrolled in PAS, and utilizing a variety of communication tools, CenterPoint will be encouraging all unsubscribed customers to sign up to ensure they receive timely updates. Customers can visit CenterPointEnergy.com/PowerAlertService to sign up and learn more.
During emergencies, CenterPoint's Outage Tracker provides customers with outage information and the estimated time of restoration by address, via an interactive map. Customers can also report an outage or hazard with a few simple clicks and is available at CenterPointEnergy.com/OutageTracker.
To help its Critical Care customers prepare, regardless of the weather, CenterPoint performs regular outreach, including phone calls, texts, emails and direct mail, throughout hurricane season. Customers can visit CenterPointEnergy.com/CriticalCare to register or learn more.
For more about CenterPoint's preparedness actions and critical resiliency improvements across Greater Houston, visit: CenterPointEnergy.com/TakingAction.
For b-roll of CenterPoint's full-scale emergency exercise in preparation for the 2026 hurricane season, undergrounding efforts, pole replacements and other resiliency work, click HERE.
