CenterPoint Energy kicks off National Preparedness Month by highlighting its emergency readiness

As part of National Preparedness Month in September, CenterPoint Energy is reaffirming its commitment to safety and resiliency by spotlighting the extensive emergency preparedness efforts the company has undertaken in the last year. CenterPoint has plans to deal with extreme weather and other emergency situations and strongly encourages the public to develop their own plans and take proactive steps to prepare for severe weather.

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“Safety is CenterPoint’s most important responsibility, and we’ve taken meaningful steps to ensure we’re ready to respond when severe weather strikes,” said Tony Gardner, Senior Vice President and Chief Customer Officer. “We want our customers to be ready too. Please take a few minutes and make sure you’re signed up for CenterPoint’s Power Alert Service^® to receive important service updates when it matters most. Check your emergency kit for all the necessary supplies and replace anything that’s expired. Talk to your loved ones about what to do and where to go in case of emergency, because practicing those plans during a normal day can make all the difference. By taking proactive measures, customers can stay safe and minimize risks, while knowing that CenterPoint is prepared and standing by to support them.”

“We’ve made big improvements to how we prepare for storms and extreme weather,” said Don Daigler, CenterPoint’s Senior Vice President of Emergency Preparedness and Response. “From better weather tracking to faster crew deployment and stronger equipment, we’re focused on being ready when our customers need us most. This is just the beginning and there is more to come.”

2025 Hurricane season preparedness 

CenterPoint has completed a series of resiliency improvements and preparedness activities leading up to and throughout the 2025 Atlantic hurricane season, including:  

• Historic grid improvements: As part of the Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative (GHRI), CenterPoint has completed a series of critical resiliency actions, including:
  • Installing more than 32,000 stronger, more storm-resilient poles;  
  • Installing more than 5,150 automated devices;  
  • Clearing high-risk vegetation from more than 7,000 miles of power lines;  
  • Undergrounding more than 400 miles of power lines; and  
  • Installing more than 100 weather stations to provide real-time weather monitoring.
• Advanced emergency training: 17,000 hours of emergency response training completed by nearly 1,000 CenterPoint employees to ensure rapid, coordinated action during extreme weather events.
• Emergency partner coordination: Collaborating with local officials, emergency management offices and community partners to prepare for extreme weather events, including through joint emergency response exercises.  
• AI and emerging technology collaborations: Working with industry-leading technology providers, including Neara and Technosylva, to better predict and prepare for extreme weather impacts. 

• Emergency generator donations and installations: Working with local communities to provide backup generators to critical facilities and community centers that provide medical care, food and water, cooling and other essential services in emergencies. 
• Customer and community hurricane preparedness events: Holding a series of community preparedness events and webinars to provide customers with updates about CenterPoint’s preparations for hurricane season, important safety tips and key resources. 
• Critical storm response tool enhancements: Implemented sophisticated damage modeling to help expedite critical decision making before and during an event, as well as adopted a new storm management software program to more efficiently onboard and deploy mutual assistance crews in support of CenterPoint’s emergency response efforts. 
• Outage Tracker upgrades: Launched a new and improved, cloud-based Outage Tracker to provide real-time updates on outages and restoration efforts, available in English and Spanish.  

CenterPoint will continue to provide updates on its critical resiliency actions. More information is available at CenterPointEnergy.com/TakingAction. 

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Electric system preparedness in the Greater Houston area

To prepare for and respond to storms, the actions CenterPoint may take include: 

• Mobilizing vegetation management workers: Deploying local and contract personnel to clear hazardous vegetation from power lines in the area ahead of storm landfall to prevent outages. 
• Coordinating with government officials: Providing regular updates to federal, state, county and city officials about our pre-storm activities and readiness posture. 
• Conducting outreach to critical care customers: Reaching out to identified Critical Care Residential and Chronic Condition Residential electric customers by email, phone or text.  
• Sharing information and updates: Providing safety and preparedness information directly with customers via email, phone or text, across social media platforms and other channels to keep customers informed and prepared.   
• Organizing additional call center staffing: Securing additional call center staff to handle a higher volume of calls and limit wait times during a storm.  

For storm preparedness resources, including safety tips, outage updates and restoration information, visit CenterPointEnergy.com/ActionCenter.

Source: CenterPoint Energy

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