Texas Power Outages: When Will The Lights Come Back On?

Forecasters with the Storm Prediction Center and the National Weather Service warned us this was coming. The cities of Beaumont, Orange, Vidor, Jasper, and Houston were all told to get ready.

For the past several days your official forecast for southeastern Texas has included a significant threat of rainfall and the potential for severe storms and possible tornadoes. Y'all always kid the weatherman when he "gets it wrong". So, no jokes today as we are cleaning up what the weatherman and the weather service got right.

This update from the KPRC X-feed shows some of the carnage that downtown Houston suffered at the hands of the strong and severe storms. KPRC is reporting that at least four people were killed in Thursday's storms. Those storms not only left a trail of damage behind in Harris County but surrounding counties suffered wind and water damage as well.

Unfortunately, we are still not out of the woods as far as the threat of strong storms and severe weather is concerned. The Storm Prediction Center has at least some of southeastern and eastern Texas under the gun later today with a marginal to slight risk of more severe storms. You can see the graphic from the SPC below.

Based on the Official Forecast from the Houston/Galveston Forecast Office of the National Weather Service the best chance for strong to severe storms will come in the eastern sections of the forecast area which would mean the worst of the weather would likely manifest in southwestern Louisiana.

Where Is The Power Still Out in Texas?

If you click this link, you will see a very recent map of Power Outages in the State of Texas. Your attention will likely be drawn to the southeastern corner of the state near Harris County and Houston. That is where the majority of the outages are being reported as of early this morning.

CenterPoint Entergy was reporting more than 1 million customers without power in the hours immediately after the storm. As of 01:40 CDT, the number of customers with no service had dropped to just over 800,000. We do expect that power to slowly but surely come back on as we move through the morning hours. However, CenterPoint Entergy did not offer a timeline for when the power would be completely restored.

Our sources at several utilities that serve the Lone Star State have all explained that service crews and personnel are assessing damage in the dark. They are restoring service when and where possible too. So, just know there are crews out in the weather working to bring you back online.