CenterPoint Energy Preparing for Impacts from Tropical Storm Francine Across Gulf Coast Service Area

Company continues to communicate to electric and natural gas customers in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi and coordinate with emergency partners.

• Emergency Operations Centers remain activated in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi to prepare for, and respond to, the effects of Tropical Storm Francine.
• More than 1,300 vegetation management crews continue to trim and remove hazardous vegetation in the Greater Houston area and 2,350 frontline workers are on standby across the Gulf Coast service territory to conduct necessary restoration work.
• CenterPoint is making available 1,000 frontline mutual aid workers to assist other utilities in need as storm tracks eastward.
• More than 2.25 million natural gas customers in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi have been urged to take proactive safety measures ahead of the storm's landfall.

HOUSTON, Sept. 10, 2024 /PRNewswire/ -- CenterPoint Energy continues to actively monitor Tropical Storm Francine and prepare to respond to potential impacts in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi. The company has been monitoring the weather, coordinating with emergency and agency partners and mobilizing resources across its service area to be prepared to respond to impacts and outages. CenterPoint's Emergency Operations Center has been activated since Sunday, September 8. Today,1,300 vegetation workers are continuing to trim and remove higher-risk vegetation from power lines across the Greater Houston area ahead of the storm.

"We continue to take this storm very seriously and are preparing to respond to any potential impacts of Tropical Storm Francine on both our electric and natural gas networks so we can restore service to our customers as safely and as quickly as possible. Even as we continue to coordinate with our emergency partners and take steps to respond to this major storm, we strongly urge our customers to ensure they are taking steps to keep their loved ones safe," said Darin Carroll, CenterPoint's Senior Vice President of Electric Business.

"We have been preparing for the potential of a storm event since the weekend, with a focus on safety messages for our customers and communities, and preparing our employees, resources and equipment. We will continue to coordinate with local, state and federal officials, first responders and emergency management agencies. Our focus is clear: to get ready to respond and restore service to our impacted customers," said Bo Murphy, CenterPoint's Vice President of Louisiana and Mississippi Natural Gas.

Preparedness Actions in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi

Among the steps the company is taking to prepare and respond to Tropical Storm Francine include:

• Activating frontline electric crews: Readied 1,850 local frontline workers and identified 500 mutual assistance workers to help with the storm response across the Gulf Coast. As part of the company's commitment to mutual aid, given the progression of the storm to the east, CenterPoint is making an additional 1,000 mutual aid workers available to support other utilities who may need assistance.
• Mobilizing 1,300+ vegetation management workers: Deployed local personnel and mutual assistance teams to clear hazardous vegetation from power lines in the Greater Houston area ahead of storm landfall to prevent outages.
• Coordinating with government officials: Providing regular updates to federal, state, county and city officials to communicate company's pre-storm activities and readiness posture and provide critical updates.
• Conducting outreach to Critical Care Residential and Chronic Care customers: Conducted outreach to all 3,000+ identified Critical Care Residential and Chronic Care electric customers by email, phone or text.
• Sharing customer communications: Shared safety and preparedness actions with CenterPoint customers across social media and other platforms to help keep customers informed and prepared.
• Conducted operational update for media and public: Conducted a second press briefing on Tuesday, September 10, at 5 PM CT to provide important updates related to company's pre-storm activities and readiness posture.
• Organizing additional call center staffing: Secured additional call center staff to handle a higher volume of calls during the storm and limit wait times.
• Coordinating temporary generation: Coordinating closely with local government and community stakeholder partners in the Greater Houston area to identify locations for temporary generation deployment.
• Preparing to conduct patrols and assess damage: CenterPoint crews will be deployed across its service territory to assess damage and, in the case of natural gas customers, shut-off natural gas in areas of severe flooding for safety.

Responding to Potential Impacts Across Service Territory

Across its service areas in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi, CenterPoint is carefully monitoring Tropical Storm Francine and is preparing to deploy frontline crews to efficiently clear storm debris, repair system damage and restore electricity and natural gas service to impacted customers. Given the current track of the storm, the company is also mobilizing natural gas workers from across its service territory to support the response in the Gulf Coast region and any of the potentially hardest-hit areas.

Safety Tips for Natural Gas Customers

CenterPoint is reminding customers to stay safe prior to, during and after Tropical Storm Francine by following these natural gas safety tips:

• Do not turn off your natural gas service at the meter in advance of the storm; doing so could allow water to enter the natural gas lines should flooding occur. If you wish to discontinue gas service, turn off the natural gas at each appliance.
• Always be alert for the smell of natural gas. If you smell natural gas, leave the area immediately on foot and tell others to leave, too.
• If you smell natural gas, do not turn the lights on or off, smoke, strike a match, use a cell phone or operate anything that might cause a spark, including a flashlight or a generator.
• Do not attempt to turn natural gas valves on or off. Once safely away from the area, call 1-888-876-5786 and CenterPoint will send a trained service technician.
• If your home is flooded, call a licensed plumber or natural gas appliance technician to inspect your appliances and gas piping to make sure they are in good operating condition before calling CenterPoint to reconnect service. This includes outdoor natural gas appliances including pool heaters, gas grills and gas lights.
• If you are planning any digging or clearing as part of your pre- or post-hurricane activities, please call 811, the nationwide Call Before You Dig number, to locate underground natural gas lines and other underground utility lines.
• Be aware of where your natural gas meter is located. As debris is put out for heavy trash pickup, make sure it is placed away from the meter. In many areas the meter may be located near the curb. If debris is near a natural gas meter, the mechanized equipment used by trash collectors could pull up the meter, damaging it and causing a potentially hazardous situation. If this happens, leave the area immediately and call CenterPoint at 1-888-876-5786.

Important Information for Electric Customers

CenterPoint electric customers are encouraged to enroll in the company's Power Alert Service® to receive outage details, estimated restoration times and customer-specific restoration updates via phone call, text or email. Customers can also stay up-to-date on outages with CenterPoint's new and improved, cloud-based Outage Tracker, which allows customers to see outages by county, city and zip code. The new tracker is capable of handling increased traffic during storms and is ADA- and mobile-friendly.

CenterPoint Encourages All Customers to Have a Plan to Stay Safe

CenterPoint is encouraging all of its customers to prepare and have a plan to stay safe during Tropical Storm Francine. Customers can get storm-related electric, natural gas and flooding safety tips at CenterPointEnergy.com/StormCenter. Additional preparations best practices are available at Ready.gov.

For the latest updates, follow CenterPoint on X (formerly Twitter) for real-time updates. For more information and other resources, visit CenterPointEnergy.com/NaturalGasSafety.

About CenterPoint Energy, Inc.

As the only investor-owned electric and gas utility based in Texas, CenterPoint Energy, Inc. (NYSE:CNP) is an energy delivery company with electric transmission and distribution, power generation and natural gas distribution operations that serve more than 7 million metered customers in Indiana, Louisiana, Minnesota, Mississippi, Ohio and Texas. With approximately 9,000 employees, CenterPoint Energy and its predecessor companies have been in business for more than 150 years. For more information, visit CenterPointEnergy.com.

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SOURCE CenterPoint Energy