As part of the official launch of National Hurricane Preparedness Week, CenterPoint Energy reminds customers and the public about the series of actions the company has taken to strengthen grid resiliency, improve local emergency coordination and help communities and customers better prepare for the 2025 hurricane season.
CenterPoint will be holding a joint emergency response exercise later in the month as part of a coordinated effort with public officials, emergency response managers and community partners to improve local cooperation and response efforts. In addition, the company is continuing to work with communities to donate and install 21 backup generators for critical facilities and other key locations across its 12-county service area. CenterPoint is also hosting a series of community and customer outreach events across the Greater Houston area to share important safety information and preparation updates before the official start of hurricane season on June 1.
"Hurricane Preparedness Week is an important reminder for all of us to get ready for the 2025 Hurricane Season. As we prepare, the CenterPoint is fully engaged in completing a series of historic resiliency improvements and preparedness activities to enhance how we prepare for and respond to hurricanes and other severe weather events. From now and throughout the hurricane season, we'll continue working every day to be better prepared for extreme weather and achieve our ultimate goal of building the most resilient coastal grid in the country," said Tony Gardner, CenterPoint Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer.
Hurricane Preparedness Week: Getting ready for extreme weather
Related to Hurricane Preparedness Week, CenterPoint has been conducting and helping coordinate a series of important preparedness activities over the last several months, including:
- Completing historic grid improvements: As part of its Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative (GHRI), completing a series of critical resiliency actions before June 1, including installing 25,000 stronger, more storm-resilient poles; installing 4,850 automated devices; clearing high-risk vegetation from 4,000 miles of power lines; undergrounding 400 miles of power lines; and installing 100 weather stations to provide real-time weather monitoring.
- Working with emergency partners to get ready: Coordinating with local officials, emergency management offices and community partners to prepare for extreme weather events, including through joint emergency response exercises.
- Donating and installing emergency generators to key locations: Working with local communities to provide backup generators to critical facilities and community centers that provide medical care, food and water, cooling and other essential services in emergencies.
- Hosting customer and community hurricane preparedness events: Holding a series of community preparedness events and webinars to provide updates about CenterPoint's preparations for hurricane season, important safety tips and key resources for customers.
- Enhancing critical storm response tools: Implemented sophisticated damage modeling to help expedite critical decision making before and during an event, as well as adopted a new storm management software program to more efficiently onboard and deploy mutual assistance crews in support of CenterPoint's emergency response efforts.
- Upgrading CenterPoint's Outage Tracker: Launched a new and improved, cloud-based Outage Tracker to provide real-time updates on outages and restoration efforts, available in English and Spanish.
CenterPoint will continue to provide updates on its progress toward completing its critical resiliency actions and other GHRI commitments before June 1.
