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Houston power outages: Abbott calls out CenterPoint
Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he is demanding CenterPoint Energy improve its hurricane preparedness or face consquences.
HOUSTON - It has been one week since Hurricane Beryl hit Houston and more than 200,000 homes and businesses are still without power.
On Monday, Governor Abbott said he is demanding CenterPoint Energy improve its hurricane preparedness or face consequences.
"CenterPoint has completely dropped the ball with regard to getting power back on," the governor said. "The clock is ticking for CenterPoint to step up and get the job done."
Abbott was joined by Houston mayor John Whitmire, who explained the track of the hurricane changed quickly.
"We were told we would get tropical winds and 6 to 10 inches of rain. It turned into a full-fleged hurricane," Whitmire said.
Thomas Gleeson, the chair of the Public Utility Commission says his investigation into CenterPoint, will move quickly.
READ MORE: Houston restaurants sue CenterPoint Energy over extended power outages
"I will expect those to be done during hurricane season. We are still at the beginning of hurricane season," he said.
Governor Abbott says if CenterPoint does not comply, he will issue an executive order that will likely be costly for the power company.
"CenterPoint is seeking to recover a profit, or a rate of return on the expenses they are about to undertake," the governor said. "If CenterPoint does not comply, I will be arguing before the Public Utilities Commission to not provide CenterPoint with any profit."
Abbott added if CenterPoint is not capable of doing its job, the state will consider reducing the size of the company's territory.
On Sunday, the governor called on CenterPoint to give his office a detailed plan explaining how they will look to address future natural disasters by July 31.
The company says it expects to restore power to 98% of the people who lost power from the storm by Wednesday.
Houston residents wait for power to be restored
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Thousands still without power after Hurricane Beryl
More than 140,000 homes and businesses in the Houston area are still in the dark more than a week after Hurricane Beryl hit Southeast Texas. Most of those are customers of Centerpoint Energy.
Kathryn Ferguson had been without power since 9 a.m. Monday.
"It's very hard going through this with a baby and a toddler," she said.
Ferguson tells FOX 4 she has not received any text messages or emails from Houston power provider CenterPoint Energy.
She says her home shows up as green on the company's outage map.
"We're afraid that they're going to forget about us," she said. "I am very stressed. I think once my lights come on, I will just cry happy tears."
Ferguson's power was finally turned on after her interview with FOX 4.
Terri Bahun's daughter is among those waiting for the power to be turned back on.
CenterPoint told her it will be Friday before the power comes back.
"If we would have had any idea how long this would go. They would have found a permanent place to just sit it out," Bahun said.