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HOUSTON - A few thousand customers were without power on Sunday amid a winter storm.
Utility companies say they have crews at the ready to restore weather-related outages.
Houston power outage tracker
By the numbers:
Here's how many outages are being reported as of 1:15 p.m.
- Centerpoint Energy is reporting 1,660 customers affected by outages.
- Entergy Texas is reporting 4,187 customers affected by outages.
Power outage maps & report an outage
Click here to view the Entergy outage map. Click here to report an outage at your home.
Click here to view the Centerpoint Energy outage map or to report an outage at your home.
Preparing for winter weather
CenterPoint
At 7 a.m. Sunday, CenterPoint said that over 99% of their customers had power, and 2,000 were experiencing weather-related outages.
"Any outage is one too many for us and that’s why our expanded team of 3,300 workers remain focused on our customers and communities and restoring anyone who may be out of service due to the winter weather impacts. We would like to thank all of our customers for their patience and support, our local agency partners for all their efforts during these weather impacts, and all the dedicated frontline personnel who are braving extreme conditions to help our communities. We won’t stop until everyone’s power service is restored," said Nathan Brownell, CenterPoint Energy Vice President of Resilience and Capital Delivery.
Entergy
Entergy also said they were taking proactive steps to prepare for the winter storm and adjusting resources based on the latest forecasts.
Houston weather forecast
The biggest concern will be the overlap of moisture and sub-freezing temperatures on Sunday, which may lead to freezing rain and sleet, especially on elevated roadways, bridges, and overpasses.
Hazardous travel conditions are possible on roads and major airport delays and cancelations should be expected. Ice accumulations of a few tenths of an inch can make roads slick, and local power outages are possible where ice burdens trees and lines. If accumulations are lower, an icy glaze would be the main issue.
Finally, wind chills are forecast to be dangerously low, potentially dropping into the single digits to teens on Sunday and early Monday. This kind of cold can cause hypothermia quickly and may rupture water pipes if not protected.
Have a way to get updates
Watch live coverage on your phone
With severe winter weather on the way this weekend, you should have a way to get important updates if the power goes out.
The FOX LOCAL app will allow you to stay up to date with livestreams, the latest forecasts, news stories and weather alerts in real time, all from your mobile phone or tablet.
Get county emergency alerts
You can also sign up to get alerts sent to your phone from your county’s emergency office.
The Source: The information in this article comes from CenterPoint and Entergy.