Houston Power Outage Update: Live Map, Estimated Restoration Times, and Essential Safety Tips

Saturday’s thunderstorms plunged large swaths of Greater Houston into darkness, with CenterPoint Energy reporting more than 100,000 customers offline before dawn and additional outages popping up as the storm line crawled eastward. What’s causing the latest blackout • A fast-moving cold front delivered wind gusts topping 60 mph, cloud-to-ground lightning and isolated tornado warnings, triggering automatic shut-offs and downing distribution lines throughout Harris, Fort Bend, Montgomery and Galveston counties. • CenterPoint had staged 1,200 linemen, vegetation crews and underground technicians across 12 service centers ahead of the front, hoping to shorten restoration windows. • Preliminary field reports point to blown transformers, tree-limb strikes and at least a dozen snapped utility poles, especially in older north-side circuits that already see above-average interruption rates. Where the lights are still out Real-time data on CenterPoint’s Outage Tracker showed the heaviest concentrations along: • U.S. 59/Hardy Toll Road corridor (77014, 77032) • Katy-Fulshear suburbs around Pecan Grove and Harvest Green (77406) • East Houston industrial belt near Jacinto City (77029) Those same ZIP codes topped KPRC-2’s October list of “power-outage hot spots,” enduring up to seven separate cuts in a single month. Restoration timeline CenterPoint says most customers should be re-energized by late Saturday night, but isolated pockets with equipment damage may wait 24–36 hours. Crews prioritize lines that feed critical facilities—hospitals, water plants, Metro rail—before moving to neighborhood laterals. Use the Power Alert Service text system or the interactive outage map for personalized ETAs. How to stay safe and connected • Treat every downed wire as live; call 713-207-2222 or 911. • Keep refrigerators closed—food stays cold about 4 hours without power. • If you rely on medical devices, locate the nearest warming/charging center (Harris County OEM updates @ReadyHarris). • Portable generator? Run it outdoors at least 20 ft. from doors and windows. Why Houston keeps going dark Experts blame a perfect storm of subtropical weather, aging distribution gear and rapid suburban growth. CenterPoint’s average customer experienced 0.2 sustained outages in August—half the national mean, the utility says—but third-party sensors inside homes paint a grimmer picture, counting momentary flickers the company doesn’t log. Grid-hardening projects under the $2 billion “Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative” include stronger poles, undergrounding in flood zones and AI-based fault detection, yet many upgrades are years away. Tracking the blackout 1. Outage map: tracker.centerpointenergy.com 2. Live radar: houstonchronicle.com/weather-radar 3. ERCOT grid conditions: ercot.com Bottom line Severe weather will always test Houston’s electric lifeline, but preparation matters. Charge devices, stock batteries and bookmark the outage map now—so the next time the sky lights up, your home doesn’t stay dark for long.