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CenterPoint Energy Preparing for Impacts from Tropical Storm Francine Across Gulf Coast Service Area

2024-09-10T05:00:00Z

Company continues to communicate to electric and natural gas customers in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi and coordinate with emergency partners.

Emergency Operations Centers remain activated in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi to prepare for, and respond to, the effects of Tropical Storm Francine.
More than 1,300 vegetation management crews continue to trim and remove hazardous vegetation in the Greater Houston area and 2,350 frontline workers are on standby across the Gulf Coast service territory to conduct necessary restoration work.
CenterPoint is making available 1,000 frontline mutual aid workers to assist other utilities in need as storm tracks eastward.
More than 2.25 million natural gas customers in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi have been urged to take proactive safety measures ahead of the storm's landfall.

HOUSTON, Sept. 10, 2024 - CenterPoint Energy continues to actively monitor Tropical Storm Francine and prepare to respond to potential impacts in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. The company has been monitoring the weather, coordinating with emergency and agency partners and mobilizing resources across its service area to be prepared to respond to impacts and outages. CenterPoint's Emergency Operations Center has been activated since Sunday, September 8. Today,1,300 vegetation workers are continuing to trim and remove higher-risk vegetation from power lines across the Greater Houston area ahead of the storm.

"We continue to take this storm very seriously and are preparing to respond to any potential impacts of Tropical Storm Francine on both our electric and natural gas networks so we can restore service to our customers as safely and as quickly as possible. Even as we continue to coordinate with our emergency partners and take steps to respond to this major storm, we strongly urge our customers to ensure they are taking steps to keep their loved ones safe," said Darin Carroll, CenterPoint's Senior Vice President of Electric Business.

"We have been preparing for the potential of a storm event since the weekend, with a focus on safety messages for our customers and communities, and preparing our employees, resources and equipment. We will continue to coordinate with local, state and federal officials, first responders and emergency management agencies. Our focus is clear: to get ready to respond and restore service to our impacted customers," said Bo Murphy, CenterPoint's Vice President of Louisiana and Mississippi Natural Gas.

Preparedness Actions in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi
Among the steps the company is taking to prepare and respond to Tropical Storm Francine include:

Activating frontline electric crews: Readied 1,850 local frontline workers and identified 500 mutual assistance workers to help with the storm response across the Gulf Coast. As part of the company's commitment to mutual aid, given the progression of the storm to the east, CenterPoint is making an additional 1,000 mutual aid workers available to support other utilities who may need assistance.
Mobilizing 1,300+ vegetation management workers: Deployed local personnel and mutual assistance teams to clear hazardous vegetation from power lines in the Greater Houston area ahead of storm landfall to prevent outages.
Coordinating with government officials: Providing regular updates to federal, state, county and city officials to communicate company's pre-storm activities and readiness posture and provide critical updates.
Conducting outreach to Critical Care Residential and Chronic Care customers: Conducted outreach to all 3,000+ identified Critical Care Residential and Chronic Care electric customers by email, phone or text.
Sharing customer communications: Shared safety and preparedness actions with CenterPoint customers across social media and other platforms to help keep customers informed and prepared.
Conducted operational update for media and public: Conducted a second press briefing on Tuesday, September 10, at 5 PM CT to provide important updates related to company's pre-storm activities and readiness posture.
Organizing additional call center staffing: Secured additional call center staff to handle a higher volume of calls during the storm and limit wait times.
Coordinating temporary generation: Coordinating closely with local government and community stakeholder partners in the Greater Houston area to identify locations for temporary generation deployment.
Preparing to conduct patrols and assess damage: CenterPoint crews will be deployed across its service territory to assess damage and, in the case of natural gas customers, shut-off natural gas in areas of severe flooding for safety.

Responding to Potential Impacts Across Service Territory
Across its service areas in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, CenterPoint is carefully monitoring Tropical Storm Francine and is preparing to deploy frontline crews to efficiently clear storm debris, repair system damage and restore electricity and natural gas service to impacted customers. Given the current track of the storm, the company is also mobilizing natural gas workers from across its service territory to support the response in the Gulf Coast region and any of the potentially hardest-hit areas.

Safety Tips for Natural Gas Customers
CenterPoint is reminding customers to stay safe prior to, during and after Tropical Storm Francine by following these natural gas safety tips:

Do not turn off your natural gas service at the meter in advance of the storm; doing so could allow water to enter the natural gas lines should flooding occur. If you wish to discontinue gas service, turn off the natural gas at each appliance.
Always be alert for the smell of natural gas. If you smell natural gas, leave the area immediately on foot and tell others to leave, too.
If you smell natural gas, do not turn the lights on or off, smoke, strike a match, use a cell phone or operate anything that might cause a spark, including a flashlight or a generator.
Do not attempt to turn natural gas valves on or off. Once safely away from the area, call 1-888-876-5786 and CenterPoint will send a trained service technician.
If your home is flooded, call a licensed plumber or natural gas appliance technician to inspect your appliances and gas piping to make sure they are in good operating condition before calling CenterPoint to reconnect service. This includes outdoor natural gas appliances including pool heaters, gas grills and gas lights.
If you are planning any digging or clearing as part of your pre- or post-hurricane activities, please call 811, the nationwide Call Before You Dig number, to locate underground natural gas lines and other underground utility lines.
Be aware of where your natural gas meter is located. As debris is put out for heavy trash pickup, make sure it is placed away from the meter. In many areas the meter may be located near the curb. If debris is near a natural gas meter, the mechanized equipment used by trash collectors could pull up the meter, damaging it and causing a potentially hazardous situation. If this happens, leave the area immediately and call CenterPoint at 1-888-876-5786.

Important Information for Electric Customers
CenterPoint electric customers are encouraged to enroll in the company's Power Alert Service® to receive outage details, estimated restoration times and customer-specific restoration updates via phone call, text or email. Customers can also stay up-to-date on outages with CenterPoint's new and improved, cloud-based Outage Tracker, which allows customers to see outages by county, city and zip code. The new tracker is capable of handling increased traffic during storms and is ADA- and mobile-friendly.

CenterPoint Encourages All Customers to Have a Plan to Stay Safe
CenterPoint is encouraging all of its customers to prepare and have a plan to stay safe during Tropical Storm Francine. Customers can get storm-related electric, natural gas and flooding safety tips at CenterPointEnergy.com/StormCenter. Additional preparations best practices are available at Ready.gov.

For the latest updates, follow CenterPoint on X (formerly Twitter) for real-time updates. For more information and other resources, visit CenterPointEnergy.com/NaturalGasSafety.

About CenterPoint Energy, Inc.
As the only investor-owned electric and gas utility based in Texas, CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNP) is an energy delivery company with electric transmission and distribution, power generation and natural gas distribution operations that serve more than 7 million metered customers in Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio and Texas. With approximately 9,000 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 150 years. For more information, visit CenterPointEnergy.com.

For more information contact:
Media Relations:
Media.Relations@CenterPointEnergy.com

SOURCE CenterPoint Energy

Recent News

CenterPoint Energy Announces “Hurricane Readiness Week” to Highlight Resiliency and Readiness Actions with Official Start of Hurricane Season

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.

CenterPoint Energy Advances Extreme Weather Preparedness and Response Efforts with Integrated, AI‑Driven Planning Platform from Technosylva

HOUSTON – June 1, 2026 – As extreme weather events grow more frequent and complex, CenterPoint Energy is continuing to strengthen how it plans, prepares for and responds to severe weather across its electric and gas service territory in Texas, Indiana, Ohio, and Minnesota, where the company serves approximately 7 million metered customers.

To support faster service restoration for customers following storms, CenterPoint is leveraging a new, integrated planning and operations platform developed in collaboration with Technosylva to deliver better outcomes for its customers and communities. Technosylva is a leading provider of wildfire, flooding, and extreme weather modeling and decision‑support software used by utilities, insurers, and public agencies to better anticipate risk and support operational response.

The platform brings together outage forecasting, high‑wind and winter storm modeling, flood risk insights, and wildfire intelligence into a single, system‑wide view. This integrated approach allows CenterPoint teams to monitor evolving conditions days in advance, align the right crews and resources ahead of impact, and improve restoration planning and response - while keeping customer safety at the forefront and helping reduce outage duration and restoration costs.

“Preparing for extreme weather today requires earlier insight and better coordination than ever before," said Jason Wells, Chair, President and Chief Executive Officer of CenterPoint Energy. “Our goal is to build the most resilient coastal grid in the nation to benefit our customers and communities. Technosylva's product gives us much clearer visibility into where impacts are most likely and allows us to mobilize crews more efficiently, support neighboring utilities when possible, and restore service faster for our customers."

CenterPoint's electric and natural gas systems are exposed to a wide range of weather‑related threats, including hurricanes, flooding, high winds, extreme heat and cold, and winter storms. The platform supports the company's long‑term strategy to strengthen grid resilience, improve operational readiness, and better prepare for increasingly complex weather events, all while reinforcing CenterPoint's continued commitment to its customers who depend on safe, reliable electric and natural gas service.

During recent weather events, CenterPoint teams used the platform's multi‑day outage forecasts and storm impact modeling to assess potential system impacts ahead of time, set appropriate emergency response levels, and pre‑position crews. In high‑wind events, outage forecasts closely aligned with actual system impacts, helping teams translate weather data into actionable response plans with greater confidence.

"CenterPoint Energy's leadership is visionary, investing to get ahead of extreme weather risk, not just to respond to it," said Bryan Spear, CEO of Technosylva. "Serving customers and communities who face the full spectrum of extreme weather, this enhanced risk intelligence platform helps CenterPoint to anticipate and prepare for events, including hurricanes, flooding, severe winds, and wildfire. We are grateful to them for their collaboration in developing our AI-powered platform, which delivers outage forecasting, restoration planning, flood insights, and wildfire intelligence, to help keep the lights on and restore power faster when it matters most."

Beyond immediate storm response, the platform also supports longer‑term planning by improving how flood and extreme weather risk are incorporated into infrastructure and capital investment decisions. As weather patterns evolve and infrastructure ages, asset‑level risk visibility is increasingly important for investments to deliver resilience benefits for customers over time.

About CenterPoint Energy, Inc.
As the only investor owned electric and gas utility based in Texas, CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNP) is an energy delivery company with electric transmission and distribution, power generation and natural gas distribution operations that serve more than 7 million metered customers in Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio and Texas. As of March 31, 2026, the company owned approximately $47.8 billion in assets. With approximately 8,800 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 150 years.

About Technosylva

Technosylva is the leading provider of wildfire and extreme weather modeling, risk mitigation, and operational response software. Technosylva's market-leading solutions, enhanced by AI and machine learning capabilities, provide real-time and predictive insights into developing wildfire and extreme weather risks to support electric utility, insurance, and government agency customers. Founded in 1997, Technosylva has offices in La Jolla, CA, León, Spain, and Calgary, Canada. Learn more at www.Technosylva.com.

CenterPoint Energy restores power to 122,000 customers impacted by overnight and early morning storms across the Greater Houston area

CenterPoint restores customers impacted by severe overnight thunderstorms, on average, in less than 100 minutes

CenterPoint has returned to normal operations and the Emergency Operations Center has been demobilized

HOUSTON – May 27, 2026 – CenterPoint has taken action to restore power to 122,000 customers impacted by the overnight and early morning thunderstorms across the Greater Houston area with an average restoration time of approximately 100 minutes. While crews are continuing to work to restore power safely and as quickly as possible, CenterPoint's Emergency Operations Center has been demobilized and electric business has returned to normal operations.

“Our customers expect and deserve reliable power, and our teams worked around the clock through significant rainfall to safely and quickly restore service to customers who were impacted by the severe storms. We will continue to prioritize restoring power to the remaining impacted customers, many of whom live in areas that experienced significant weather-related damage, until service has been returned to all of our customers in the Greater Houston area," said Jason Fabre, CenterPoint's Vice President of Special Response and Incident Commander.

Restoration & Response Actions (as of 5 p.m.)

CenterPoint's response today followed thunderstorms moving through parts of the Greater Houston area in the early morning hours, with the strongest activity taking place between 2 and 3 a.m. The scope of CenterPoint's storm response and restoration includes the following actions:

Approximately 2,000 CenterPoint frontline workers and contractors have restored approximately 122,000 customers since storms arrived around 1 a.m. Wednesday morning.
More than 99% of all CenterPoint electric customers currently have power.
Since 1 a.m. Wednesday, more than 162,000 Power Alert Service^® messages have been shared directly with customers.

Across our network of 150 weather stations, we recorded the following with Wednesday's severe thunderstorms:

Isolated strong wind gusts of up to 48 mph

Widespread winds up to 38 mph

Isolated rainfall totals of up to 2.65 inches
Approximately 6,000 lightning strikes between 12 a.m. and 5 a.m. across Houston were recorded via a third-party (Vaisala)

Important ways to stay connected to CenterPoint: Power Alert Service

Customers can enroll in the company's Power Alert Service® to receive outage details, estimated restoration times and customer-specific restoration updates via phone call, email or text. Customers can also stay up to date with CenterPoint's Outage Tracker, which allows customers to see outages by county, city and ZIP code.

About CenterPoint Energy, Inc.
As the only investor owned electric and gas utility based in Texas, CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE: CNP) is an energy delivery company with electric transmission and distribution, power generation and natural gas distribution operations that serve more than 7 million metered customers in Indiana, Minnesota, Ohio and Texas. As of March 31, 2026, the company owned approximately $47.8 billion in assets. With approximately 8,800 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 150 years. For more information, visit CenterPointEnergy.com.

CenterPoint Energy prioritizes affordability and reliability actions at Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission’s Summer Reliability Forum

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – May 26, 2026 – Local CenterPoint Energy Indiana leaders met last week with the Indiana Utility Regulatory Commission (IURC), as part of the state's Summer Reliability Forum, to detail the suite of actions it's taking to strengthen day-to-day reliability this summer, while continuing to prioritize affordability and opportunities for southwestern Indiana customers to save energy.

“We remain focused on what matters most to our customers – delivering reliable power every day. As we head into summer cooling season, higher temperatures may drive increased energy demand, and seasonal bills can be challenging for Hoosier families and businesses. In response, we've taken a series of actions to strengthen the electric grid, and to make our customers more aware of ways they can save energy," said Mike Roeder, President, CenterPoint Energy Indiana.

Strengthening Summer Reliability & Preparedness
CenterPoint's annual IURC presentation detailed the scope of actions that have already been taken ahead of the summer season to support day-to-day reliability and meet expected spikes in energy demand, including:

Secure Fuel: Securing the necessary fuel supply to meet increases in energy demand during peak summer demand;
Diversified Generation Mix: Maintaining a diversified generation and power supply portfolio to meet forecasted customer demand;
Targeted Maintenance: Completing planned system maintenance of critical equipment, including substations, ahead of the cooling season;
Improving Grid Resiliency: Continuing infrastructure investments and grid modernization that have reduced equipment-related outage minutes by 57% since 2018; and
Improving Emergency Response: Enhancing operational emergency response plans to support effective public and customer communications, and better coordination with emergency partners and local officials during emergency events.

Supporting Customers during Summer Cooling Season
As part of its ongoing commitment to customer affordability, CenterPoint also shared with the IURC the resources and programs available to customers to help save energy and reduce energy costs this summer, including:

No-Cost Home Energy Assessments: In-home evaluation and a customized energy report at no cost to customers, which could include the installation of energy-saving products.
Levelized Billing Option: Allowing customers to spread energy costs more evenly across the year to reduce seasonal bill swings.
TimeWise Pilot: A voluntary program that allows customers to save costs by shifting energy use to off-peak hours.
Online Energy Efficiency Store: Rebates and tools to help customers improve home efficiency.
Payment Assistance Programs: Offering flexible payment arrangements and extensions for customers who need more time to manage energy costs.

More information about the programs and resources available to help customers save energy and costs this summer can be found at CenterPointEnergy.com/ResourceHub.

Community Actions: Key Updates
Since 2025, CenterPoint has announced a series of affordability and community actions, including a commitment to keeping electric base rates stable through 2027, coupled with a $5 million contribution to the Community Energy Improvement Fund to help make customer homes more energy efficient. Most recent efforts to help its Southwestern Indiana customers also include:

Pursuing bill-lowering opportunities, by attracting a large load customer to southwestern Indiana, which could lower existing customer bills by more than $250 million over 15 years;
Expanding in-person support, by opening new walk-in customer support and payment services at CenterPoint Energy Plaza in Downtown Evansville; and
Expanding in-person Community Connect events to share important cost and energy saving programs, resources and information with customers.

CenterPoint Energy continues taking action and is ready to respond to the next wave of severe weather forecasted to impact the Greater Houston area

HOUSTON – May 26, 2026 – CenterPoint Energy continues to actively monitor weather conditions and prepare for potentially severe thunderstorms forecasted to impact the Greater Houston area overnight Tuesday and Wednesday morning. The actions CenterPoint is taking to prepare include pre-positioning crews and resources to safely restore power to customers impacted by the storms as quickly as possible. CenterPoint's Emergency Operations Center (EOC) remains activated to monitor the evolving weather conditions and plan and coordinate its storm response efforts.

“Our crews worked day and night over the Memorial Day holiday weekend to safely and quickly restore customers impacted by severe weather and we will continue to monitor forecasts and take action to prepare for, and respond to, the next wave of potentially severe thunderstorms forecasted to impact the region this week. We encourage all our customers across the Greater Houston area to prepare and stay safe in anticipation of quickly changing weather conditions," said Jason Fabre, CenterPoint's Vice President of Special Response and Incident Commander.

Preparing for Severe Weather: Key Actions
As part of its continuing preparedness efforts ahead of the next wave of forecasted storms later this week, CenterPoint is taking the following actions:

Maintaining an enhanced readiness posture: CenterPoint's Emergency Operations Center remains activated and the company continues to monitor the forecasted severe weather and coordinate its storm response efforts.
Pre-positioning the company's workforce and resources: Preparing its enhanced workforce to support storm restoration efforts.
Monitoring severe weather 24/7: The Meteorology team continues to track severe weather, including forecasts for significant rain, storm winds and thunderstorms, and will update response efforts as conditions evolve.
Coordinating with local officials: CenterPoint continues to coordinate with local officials and emergency management partners on preparedness efforts.
Communicating proactively with customers: As part of its storm response, CenterPoint will continue to provide safety and preparedness information directly with customers via email, phone and text, across social media platforms and other channels.

Emergency Communications: Sign Up for Power Alert Service®

To help prepare for the impact of the severe weather, CenterPoint is encouraging its customers to enroll in Power Alert Service® to receive outage details, estimated restoration times and customer-specific restoration updates via phone call, text or email. As part of CenterPoint's overall emergency communications efforts, customers can stay up to date on local outages with CenterPoint's cloud-based Outage Tracker, available in English and Spanish, which allows customers to see outages and restoration times by county, city and zip code.

Emergency Preparations: What Customers Can Do to Stay Safe

CenterPoint urges the public to put their safety first and prepare in advance for extreme weather by having a safety plan ready, especially for those who rely on electricity for life-sustaining equipment or medical needs. Customers can find safety tips to help them prepare at CenterPointEnergy.com/ActionCenter.

For the latest updates, follow CenterPoint on social media and visit CenterPointEnergy.com/ActionCenter.