Power Outage Updates

Today's 4:00 p.m. update from Centerpoint Energy revealed that power restoration is moving along slowly but surely. And we do mean slowly.

A full 40% of Centerpoint customers have had their power restored since Saturday night, but that means another 60% -- or 1.34 million customers -- are still without power. This is an increase of only 9%. Entergy has revealed that 85% of their customers are without power, which is another small increase from the 94% without power yesterday afternoon.

Centerpoint customers can still check the company's website to view an area map of power outages and a list of outage percentages by ZIP code, although many people have expressed doubts over the accuracy of Centerpoint's information. Following suit, Entergy has also posted a map of power outages that extends from Conroe and The Woodlands to central Louisiana. Most people have found that the Houston Chronicle's power outage map is much more reliable than either map above, however, as it is populated by actual customers using real-time data.

Now for the bad news. Centerpoint is predicting that only 50% to 75% of its customers will have power by next Tuesday. Worst-case scenario: 1.1 million people could still be without power this time next week. Even worse news comes courtesy of Entergy, which predicts the following power restoration times for its service areas:

• The Woodlands: September 25th
• Conroe: September 29th
• New Caney: October 5th
• Beaumont: October 6th

While the news above may be discouraging for many people, especially in light of news that hotter temperatures will return next week, Houstonist wants everyone to keep in mind the thousands of crews that were sent in from various cities and states across the nation to assist us in our time of need. Heck, even Canada sent us some power crews!

These men (and women...) are every bit as tired and exhausted as the rest of us, many are working on only a few hours of sleep -- if that -- and all are working selflessly to restore power to a city that isn't their own. If you see these crews on your street, make sure to go out there and thank them for the job they're doing; they deserve our appreciation for their efforts.

So keep your chin up, Houston. We'll be back in the game soon enough.

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Photo courtesy of Flickr user seejanebe.