Alyssia Oshodi, with Center Point Energy, details how they're planning to get the power back on as quickly as possible for the millions of people impacted by Hurricane Beryl.
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00:00A day after Hurricane Beryl hit Texas, still over 2 million customers are still without power,
00:05mostly in the Houston metro area, where 1.6 million customers are still in the dark. So
00:12Alyssa Oshoudi is CenterPoint Energy's Director of Communications, and she joins us live. So,
00:19Alyssa, thank you for making time for us here. What is the status on the latest here,
00:24and how are your crews working safely to restore power?
00:27Thank you for having me. So, since the storm came through yesterday and as soon as it was safe to
00:33do so, we've had crews out deployed. First, what we're having to do is do some cut and clearing
00:39of debris, damage assessment to understand exactly what we're dealing with so that we can
00:44assign crews and get the right equipment out appropriately to continue restoring. As you
00:48mentioned, we have made some steady progress, but the damage assessment process still continues in
00:54a lot of our areas, and we're really getting into what is some of that damage looking like and
00:59really uncovering some significant damage in the way of downpoles, trees completely uprooted. That's
01:06just going to take some time for us to clear and then repair. And what are the biggest challenges?
01:11You mentioned a few of these, but when it comes to the big picture challenges that you're facing,
01:16what kind of resources were you planning for and what additional resources can you use in the
01:21future for more powerful hurricanes? Sure. So, as we were planning for what was coming through our
01:28area, we activated our emergency response plan. In addition to our crews we have here locally,
01:34we immediately requested through mutual assistance additional crews to join us in those efforts.
01:39So, as soon as it was safe to do so, those crews moved into our area to help with restoration.
01:46After the storm came through, our initial assessments told us that we would potentially
01:52see damage to a certain extent. We saw far beyond that and more impact than what we initially
01:58had projected, and so we made additional calls to bring resources in. And so, once we get all of our
02:03requested individuals here to help, we will have nearly 12,000 folks working our system and working
02:12very hard to get our customers restored in the greater Houston area. So, if you're tuning in from
02:16a hotel room and wondering when can I get back home, obviously there's an army of people working
02:20as hard as they can to to make this happen. With the intense heat and lack of electricity is a
02:24serious safety issue, obviously. What should customers do while awaiting service? So, we
02:31understand what we're dealing with from the heat perspective here in our area, and we want customers
02:36to be safe. Look into our local cooling centers that have been stood up and go to, hopefully,
02:43you've got maybe some friends and family that might have power where you can stay. We want people to be
02:46safe and not suffer from any heat exhaustion. We also are caring for our crews as well.
02:53They're out there in the field working 16-hour days and working to get the power back on. And
03:00once those crews working the day come off, we've got crews coming and working through the night.
03:04They need to take breaks. They need to rest to make sure that they can do their job safely as well.
03:09All right, Alicia Oshode with CenterPoint Energy. Alicia,
03:13thank you so much for making time for us and for sharing all this information.
03:17Thank you.