Midwest Helps CenterPoint Energy Restore Power To Houston Customers After Hurricane Beryl

The Challenge

On July 8, 2024, Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Texas, bringing heavy rain and extreme winds to the Gulf Coast. The Category 1 hurricane knocked out power to nearly three million homes and businesses in the state, leaving Texans in the dark for an extended time. The loss of power and high summer temperatures created the need for immediate action to restore utilities as quickly as possible.

CenterPoint Energy urgently needed support to help restore power to more than two million customers affected by the storm in the Houston metropolitan area.

The Solution

Midwest quickly mobilized, deploying 130 full-time employees. Line clearance crews from other Midwest offices joined the restoration efforts, with 382 Midwest line clearance tree workers from as far away as the East Coast, Midwest, and Central U.S. traveling to the site of the storm.

Midwest crews trimmed trees away from infrastructure, removed fallen limbs, and extracted toppled trees from power lines throughout Houston. According to work orders, over 80% of the trees trimmed that caused the outages came from outside the right-of-way.

While Midwest’s out-of-state crews stayed on location until July 18, Midwest’s local crews remained for an additional two weeks to help restore normalcy after the initial damage was cleared.