HOUSTON — A coalition of civic organizations and Houston politicians met with CenterPoint Energy executives on Thursday to discuss the power company's issues following Hurricane Beryl. The storm knocked out power to more than 2.2 million CenterPoint customers when it came ashore early on the morning of July 8. A week later, over a million customers still had no power as temperatures soared.
Bishop James Dixon said the group, including Rep. Al Green and Rep. Sylvia Garcia, met with CenterPoint CEO Jason Wells to express their collective concerns over the impact that CenterPoint's massive and extended power outages had on people across the region.
“We are all a part of the regional family and to see so much suffering for the elderly and children and people in every corner of our city, including businesses that have taken a major hit, as a result of Hurricane Beryl," Dixon said.
He said that CenterPoint executives acknowledged that there were mistakes made and things could have been done better, including a major gap in keeping the community informed with accurate and up-to-date information.
“Not only were people in the dark with electricity but we were in the dark with communication," Dixon said.
Garcia said she was "mad as hell" because CenterPoint failed in three key areas: communication, coordination and command.
“To their credit, he [Wells] did use the words, he said, ‘We failed the community’ and I agree with him and they failed miserably,” Garcia said.
Green called the conversation very "frank and candid" and he said the CenterPoint executives were "humbled."
"They took responsibility. Now they have to do something to show us that we won’t have this occur in the future," Green said..
During the massive outages, at least seven Houston-area residents, ages 50 to 110, died of hyperthermia because they had no power. That number is expected to increase.
Mary Ramos with LULAC said she attended Thursday's meeting to advocate for the elderly.
"A lot of these nursing homes didn't have power for days, especially ones that had handicapped senior citizens, no power and this is like an eight-story building, how were they gonna get down?" Ramos asked. "I do not understand how come those were not taken care of first."
Businesses forced to shut down lost millions of dollars and many employees went more than a week without pay because their place of employment didn't have power.
Dixon said the devastation that a storm stronger than a Category 1 could have on the Houston area is unimaginable.
"It’s a wakeup call to us in a significant way to suggest that it is very necessary that CenterPoint and all of our leadership begin to think together about what we need to do to better prepare ourselves for these devastating events," Dixon said. “Clearly, this storm let us know that we were not ready for something more significant.”
As KHOU 11 Investigates first reported, CenterPoint didn't stage out-of-town crews in the Houston area in advance of the hurricane which slowed efforts to bring in outside help with the massive outages.
"We want to see better responsiveness and preparedness from CenterPoint from an infrastructure perspective," Dixon said. "But also from a human concern and human care perspective. There are things that CenterPoint could have done and hopefully will do in the future to help mitigate the negative impact on citizens when these kinds of natural disasters occur.”
He was speaking from experience. Dixon said Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church had no power for over eight days but they still fed 5,000 people at three different events. He asked that churches be added to the list of locations that get priority because of the role they play in a disaster.
“Churches serve as community centers, not just worship centers," Dixon said. “Churches are cooling centers, churches are shelters, churches are feeding centers.”
Earlier this week, Gov. Greg Abbott sent a letter to CenterPoint outlining several things he wants the company to do to improve its response to future storms. In the letter, Abbott said he was concerned the company was prioritizing its bottom line over the well-being of Texans by cutting corners. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick also announced a special senate committee to investigate the power issues.