Melissa Hunziker of Houston is braving the heat without power: “Our house is really cool right now, but we know that will change quickly.”
“We have a portable fan that runs on a rechargeable battery. That helped last night, but we probably won’t stay another night,” she said.
It’s not just the lack of power, but also the loss of cellphone connectivity that is difficult to deal with, making it difficult to obtain emergency information, Hunziker said.
Kassie Rieger and Keaton Cravens were in Houston to offer help to those in need. “We just hope people stay safe and do what they can to help their neighbors,” Rieger told NBC News.
CenterPoint Energy, the leading provider for the Houston metropolitan area, said in a statement on Wednesday which restored power to more than 1 million of the 2.26 million customers affected since Beryl’s arrival.
“We are holding CenterPoint accountable,” Mayor John Whitmire said at a news conference Wednesday. “CenterPoint will have to do a better job.”
The city has opened ice and water distribution centers and cooling centers. Whitmire said with traffic lights out across the city, drivers should stay home after dark if possible.
It could be days before power is restored in some areas, CenterPoint said.
More than 980,000 of Harris County’s 2.1 million customers were without power as of 4 p.m. Wednesday, the company said. online tracker showed. Key elements of CenterPoint’s energy system remain intact, the company said, including its transmission towers and substations.
About 1.3 million customers, including those not served by CenterPoint, were without power Wednesday night, according to poweroutage.us outage tracker.
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