Hurricane Harvey: Kingwood Struggles As Scores Are Left In The Dark

HUMBLE, TX — The onslaught of Hurricane Harvey has taken its toll on the Kingwood community, leaving scores without electricity and others forced to flee, hoping their home is still standing when this is all over.

In the hours since the storm pounded the northeast Houston communities before placing Beaumont, Port Arthur and counties toward the Louisiana border in the crosshairs, the San Jacinto River, Cypress Creek and area bayous have continued to rise from the runoff, and rescues and calls for help are still happening.

Residents and public officials rolled up their sleeves and reached out to neighbors in need, and some opened their homes to help. (Want to get daily updates about Hurricane Harvey and other events going on in your area? Sign up for the free Humble-Kingwood Patch morning newsletter.)

READ: Harvey Continues Wrath While Houston Rescues And Recovers

Humble City Councilman Norman Funderburk helped with evacuation efforts and got people into the Humble Civic Center; Houston City Councilman Dave Martin helped coordinate getting help to the area opening shelters at Lone Star College-Kingwood; and Humble ISD Superintendent opened schools and coordinated schools buses from the district and from New Caney ISD to help expedite the evacuation.

Kingwood residents Jerry and Catherine Gobbi took in some fleeing the storm, while shelters in Humble and Kingwood took in hundreds more looking for respite.

Also See: Harvey Could Be One Of The Most Expensive Storms In US History

While many in Kingwood have electrical power, there are thousands still without it, according to CenterPoint.

Humble and Atascocita seem to have fared better, with CenterPoint showing pockets of loss scattered across both of those areas.

Roughly 45.46 percent of all customers in this the Kingwood area are without power.

CenterPoint reports that approximately 100,000 in its service area across Houston are still without power today, but 713,000 have had their electricity restored since Friday.

Officials said there are 800 CenterPoint crew members on the ground and they are being assisted by workers from across the country who have arrived to help restore power.

However, power may not come back to some homes right away.

CenterPoint officials estimate that about 40,000 homes in the Houston area are in high water, a situation that CenterPoint says will prevent them from restoration of power for a while.

“While our electric system is performing well, patience will be key as some areas will be difficult for our crews to safely access due to flooding, tornado warnings and other safety-related issues,” said Kenny Mercado, senior vice president of Electric Operations for CenterPoint. “Customers do not need to call us to report outages,” he added. “Our smart meters tell us which customers are out. We ask that everyone please keep phone lines open for electric or gas emergency calls only.”

Scott Doyle, senior vice president of Natural Gas Distribution, said, “Our natural gas distribution system in the greater Houston area is functioning normally; however, crews are responding to gas leak calls in Sinton, Texas, near Corpus Christi, primarily due to toppled trees which have uprooted gas lines.

“Customers need to call us if they smell natural gas or see a damaged line,” he added. “It is not yet safe for crews to assess our gas system in Victoria, Texas; we will begin our assessments as soon as it is safe to do so.”

Customers can monitor the power outages by going to centerpointenergy.com/en-us/residential/services/electric-utility/outage-center.

Underwater: Businesses in Humble, Texas are surrounded by floodwaters from Tropical Storm Harvey, Tuesday, Aug. 29, 2017, in Humble, Texas. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

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