It has been three weeks since Hurricane Beryl made landfall in Texas and the fallout continues from the deadly energy crisis in Texas.
On Monday morning, the company at the center of it all, CenterPoint Energy, was being grilled by Texas lawmakers in Austin about the response, as a state-ordered investigation continues.
Beryl made landfall on July 8 and in the days that followed, more than 2.5 million people lost power in the Houston region.
At least 23 people died from the storm itself and the ensuing outages that lasted nearly two weeks for some, during sweltering July heat. Many who died succumbed to heat illness.
Critics have questioned whether CenterPoint cut corners with maintaining trees, if they were prepared with enough workers, and if their resources were updated to industry standards.
The Public Utility Commission of Texas has since launched an investigation into what happened. Last week, CenterPoint executives gave a public apology during the PUC’s monthly meeting, outlining all the improvements they plan to make.
Over the weekend, CEO Jason Wells sent a letter to customers promising to do better. He announced a number of improvement the company will initiate starting Aug. 1.
On Monday, he is testifying in a special committee hearing in the Texas Senate in Austin, along with the Houston mayor John Whitmire. The hearing started at 10 a.m.
A deadline by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is also looming this week for CenterPoint Energy. In a press conference two weeks ago, he demanded that the company explain how it will improve its hurricane preparation plans.
“I laid out a series of directives by me to CenterPoint that they must get done and articulate to me exactly what they’re going to do to meet my demands by July 31,” Abbott told reporters. “If they don’t get that information to me, I will be prepared to swiftly issue an executive order establishing the guidelines that I think are most important to ensure there will not be another disaster caused by lack of power in this region.”
The company has also been asked to provide Abbott with a full report on what went wrong during Beryl by the end of the year.
