Thousands of people in the Houston area were still without power more than a week after Hurricane Beryl tore through the fourth-largest US city. Two factors are now emerging as important explanations for why the powerful but predictable storm caused so much disruption: a shortage of workers at CenterPoint Energy Inc., Houston’s main utility, and the company’s limited management of vegetation growing alongside electricity poles and power lines.
Interviews with nearly a dozen experts, including grid-reliability consultants, watchdogs and academics, along with public filings and reports from repair crews reveal the challenges facing the utility that’s responsible for powering America’s fourth-largest city.
Experts consistently pointed to the small number of workers secured ahead of the storm, which delayed restoration efforts. At the same time, many of those interviewed say the company hasn’t done enough in recent years to cut back the trees that grow alongside its electric system — with CenterPoint itself now indicating that downed trees and branches were at the heart of the serious damage from Beryl.
Those issues, combined with limited communication with customers, created the chaos that left Texans blasting the company, with families left sweltering in intense heat without air conditioning. When a graffiti artist