Storm restoration update: 96% of CenterPoint Energy customers not impacted by significant weather as restoration efforts continue; Crews mobilized and responding to localized impacts across Greater Houston area
Localized wind gusts of 40-50 miles per hour and two to three inches of rain have impacted Greater Houston-area customers; Frontline crews and contractors worked non-stop overnight to restore power to impacted customers safely and as quickly as possible
2026-05-20T05:00:00Z

​HOUSTON – May 20, 2026 – As significant rain and thunderstorms continue to impact the Greater Houston area, CenterPoint Energy is actively responding to weather-related outages for its customers and will continue responding to further storm impacts. Approximately 96% of CenterPoint's 2.9 million customers were not impacted by the overnight waves of storms. CenterPoint crews and contractors have restored power to approximately 95,000 customers since storm conditions began Tuesday evening. The average restoration time per outage was less than 79 minutes. ​

As of 5 a.m. Wednesday, crews continue working to restore the less than 15,000 customers without power and will continue working until every customer is restored.

Emergency response efforts are being coordinated from CenterPoint's Emergency Operations Center (EOC), and CenterPoint's enhanced workforce of frontline workers and contractors are focused on restoring power to the remaining impacted customers safely and as quickly as possible.

“We know how disruptive outages can be for our customers. That's why our focus remains on restoring service for those affected by this storm event safely and as quickly as possible. Our Emergency Operations Center will remain activated as our crews continue working around the clock to respond to isolated outages across the Greater Houston area," said John Cornelius, CenterPoint's Vice President of Distribution Operations and Overnight Incident Commander.

Actions CenterPoint is Taking to Respond

To prepare for severe storms and respond to severe weather impacts for its customers, CenterPoint has taken the following actions:

  • Activating Emergency Operations Center: To coordinate storm response efforts for its customers, CenterPoint proactively activated its Emergency Operations Center at 8 a.m. yesterday morning.
  • Mobilizing frontline crews: Frontline personnel are actively responding to impacted areas and will remain ready to support further restoration efforts.
  • ​ Monitoring weather conditions 24/7: The meteorology team continues to track forecast developments, and the company is updating response plans as conditions evolve.
  • Pre-positioning resources: Response teams were pre-positioned crews across the area to respond to any electric or natural gas service interruptions safely and as quickly as possible.
  • Coordinating with local officials: The Incident Command team is providing regular updates to local officials and emergency management partners.
  • Keeping customers informed: CenterPoint is providing information directly to customers via email, phone, text and other channels to keep them informed and prepared.

Commitment to Keeping Customers Informed

CenterPoint will continue to provide proactive updates about the actions it's taking to prepare for and respond to the impacts of the severe weather in the Greater Houston area. Electric customers are encouraged to enroll in Power Alert Service® to receive outage details and customer-specific restoration updates by phone, text or email.

Customers can also stay up to date on local outages with CenterPoint's Outage Tracker (available in English & Spanish and mobile-friendly), which allows customers to see outages and restoration times by county, city and zip code.

Public Safety Message 

CenterPoint is urging the public to put their safety first. Customers are urged to stay away from low-hanging or downed power lines. To report downed lines or another electrical emergency that requires immediate attention, please call 911 if necessary, then immediately contact CenterPoint at 713-207-2222. 

Be alert for the smell of natural gas. If you smell natural gas, leave the area immediately on foot. Do not attempt to turn gas valves on or off; instead, call 1-888-876-5786 and CenterPoint will send a technician.   

For additional information and safety tips, follow CenterPoint on social media and visit CenterPointEnergy.com/ActionCenter.

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.

 Recent News

 

 
CenterPoint Energy Readies Electric and Gas Systems for FIFA World Cup

​Nearly 700 electric projects completed and nearly 250 miles of natural gas pipeline inspected around critical event venues ahead of seven World Cup matches in Houston

Heightened readiness and close coordination efforts with City of Houston, FIFA Host Committee, and emergency management agencies to continue from June 11 through July 4

HOUSTON – June 9, 2026 – As the city of Houston prepares to welcome fans from around the world for the FIFA World Cup 2026™, CenterPoint Energy has spent the past year executing a series of targeted actions to strengthen its overall preparedness and readiness efforts for this historic global sporting event. To date, CenterPoint has completed nearly 700 electric resiliency projects spanning over 100 miles of electric lines, which included repairing or replacing equipment on all circuits providing power to World Cup priority locations like key venues, transit corridors, hotels, airports and others across Greater Houston. In addition, CenterPoint has completed inspections on nearly 250 miles of natural gas pipeline surrounding key venues.

With seven World Cup matches scheduled in Houston between June 14 and July 4, CenterPoint will operate at a heightened readiness posture, which includes the activation of its Emergency Operations Center before, during and after each match. CenterPoint will continue to work closely with City of Houston officials and other local, state and federal agencies as part of a combined response effort. 

“Preparing for seven World Cup matches is like preparing for seven Super bowls. For over a year, our teams have worked to strengthen the electric and gas systems around all critical venues and to closely coordinate with all our emergency management partners to help prepare our great city. All of us at CenterPoint are proud to do our part to support this global event, and we are excited for our city and the world to enjoy this historic sporting event," said Jesus Soto, Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer, CenterPoint Energy.

World Cup Preparedness & Readiness Efforts: Key Actions

As part of its overall preparedness and readiness efforts for the nearly month-long World Cup schedule, in October 2025, CenterPoint began undertaking a series of actions to prepare the electric and natural gas systems to support the City of Houston and all critical event locations. Among the critical actions taken include:  ​

  • Completing Nearly 700 Reliability Projects: Completing nearly 700 electric system projects around critical event venues and other priority locations to help strengthen reliability.
  • Conducting Critical Grid Inspections: Inspecting primary and alternate circuits serving World Cup priority locations, with initial inspections beginning in July 2025 and follow-up inspections identifying issues for repair ahead of the event.
  • Completing Targeted Work at Key Locations: Focusing critical preparedness work around key World Cup-related locations, including NRG Park, Shell Energy Stadium, the EaDo Fan Festival area, airports, transit routes, hotels and training-related sites.
  • Inspecting Nearly 250 Miles of Natural Gas Pipeline: completed additional gas facilities surveys across 140 miles of gas main lines and more than 100 miles of service lines around key event venues.
  • Developing an Action Plan: Building an event-specific action plan to define staffing, response objectives, escalation criteria and resource coordination during the World Cup matches.
  • Coordinating with Local Emergency Partners: Coordinating with the City of Houston, emergency managers and external partners on planning, emergency response and operational readiness.
  • Participating in a Local Emergency Exercise: Participating in a World Cup tabletop exercise facilitated by the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency and hosted by the City of Houston to test coordination and response capabilities.
  • Pre-Staging Resources: Preparing additional operational support and response resources to be staged near priority areas to support faster restoration if issues occur.
  • Activating our Emergency Operations Center: CenterPoint will be activating its new state-of-the-art Emergency Operations Center in advance of and during each match to help prepare for and coordinate CenterPoint's event support.​

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 teams monitoring severe storms forecasted for southwestern Indiana and preparing for potential impacts

​The company is executing preparedness actions ahead of storms 

Customers encouraged to stay safe and prepare emergency plans 

EVANSVILLE, Ind. – June 8, 2026 – CenterPoint Energy is monitoring forecasts for potentially severe thunderstorms across the region and preparing for potential impacts as storms are expected to move through southwestern Indiana this week. According to the National Weather Service, strong, damaging winds are possible.

CenterPoint's preparedness actions include:

  • Monitoring weather forecasts and conditions
  • Preparing crews and equipment across its service territory
  • ​Coordinating with local government officials and other stakeholders on storm readiness
  • Sharing safety and preparedness information directly with customers

“Our Emergency Preparedness and Response team has been monitoring the potential for severe storms and our teams are fully prepared and stand ready to respond," said Mike Roeder, President of CenterPoint Energy Indiana. “We encourage our customers to stay alert in anticipation of changing weather conditions and take steps now to prepare."

CenterPoint encourages customers to prepare for severe weather:

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.