2 weeks Ago By Maddie Taylor Hartley
As the threat of Hurricane Rafael looms, Houston-based CenterPoint Energy is actively monitoring forecasts and preparing measures to shield communities throughout Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. This increased readiness comes as Rafael strengthens to a Category 3 hurricane, with winds soaring to 115 mph. CenterPoint has mobilized over 13,000 resources for mutual assistance to aid in emergency responses and to hasten service restoration should outages occur, according to a statement obtained by StreetInsider .
In anticipation of Hurricane Rafael's landfall, CenterPoint has temporarily put on hold natural gas disconnections to alleviate stress on customers in the anticipated paths. The emergency protocol is set in place until additional insight about Hurricane Rafael's impact is gathered next week, as reported by StreetInsider. With safety at the forefront, the energy company strongly advises customers to follow safety tips and avoid hazards such as carbon monoxide from improperly used generators, and the dangers of electrical equipment in flooded areas.
Despite the uncertainty of Rafael's trajectory, CenterPoint assures customers of extensive preparations to restore gas and electric services speedily and safely post-landfall. "There is still a great deal of uncertainty around Rafael and its ultimate landfall. But we want the customers and the communities we serve across the Gulf Coast to know that CenterPoint continues to prepare to respond to any potential impacts on both our electric and natural gas networks," Richard Leger, Senior Vice President of Gas Business, told StreetInsider .
To keep its customers further informed, CenterPoint has encouraged enrollment in their Power Alert Service® for timely information regarding outages—an approach to be proactive rather than reactive when dealing with the unpredictable nature of hurricanes. Preparations also involve sharing critical tips for dealing with flooded areas and live electrical hazards. To aid these efforts, the company has improved its Outage Tracker, now cloud-based to efficiently handle the storm-induced web traffic, as pointed out by CW39 .
For more continuous updates and safety information, customers are directed to follow CenterPoint on X and visit CenterPointEnergy.com/NaturalGasSafety . With a heritage spanning over 150 years, serving more than 7 million customers, CenterPoint Energy continues to underscore the essence of readiness and community safety as Rafael approaches.
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