Centerpoint

[TexasBob]

I feel like I’m missing something. State government is beating them up, executives are leaving. I don’t see what is surprising about losing power during a hurricane. They don’t have a duty to provide electricity, it’s just a service we pay for. My trash wasn’t picked up during the storm. What am i missing?

[Killer]

Them having their outage map down during this killed them publicity wise. Public just got to know instant information now. Every major storm can be armchair quarterbacked.

They are just like the large public utility I work for. Since deregulation in 2007 their facilities are old, don’t spend money on tree trimming and numbers of employees are way down. That spells disaster in a wind storm.

They are getting beat up for the length of time it took them to get people back on after the storm.

[Quackerbox]

^^^^
I get that but like the OP said, I didnt see it as that big of a deal. I was only out 2 days during Beryl but around 20 during harvey. No one was shooting at linemen and lacing water with Fentynal and giving it away in harvey or any other storms. Why this one??

MAYBE, they could have done better with staging line crews but at the same time the storm was supposed to be in mexico one day, corpus the next.

Lets not forget about our Cajun neighbors who went without for 40 days during Laura. Who got fired or quit over that????

[E.TX.BOWHUNTER]

I was out of power 15 days after Alicia. I don’t remember this much of a hullabaloo. Everyone went about there things the best they could. I guess most people can’t do that anymore. They just want to flap their gums and posture instead of putting on their big boy pants and carrying on.

[rtjh]

Ignorant people complaining and politicians showboating is all it is.

[BayouCat]

After the 21 freeze, they are in a lot of folks' crosshairs. Add in social media where every idiot has a voice, and welp, there ya go.

[ramrod]

I got a random text about a group organizing to sue Center point. I told them the same thing......it was a hurricane what did they expect was going to happen.

[jdg13]

Depends on who you ask. If you're someone who has lived in Houston for any amount of time and have any shred of self reliance, you probably aren't wanting to burn down centerpoint. Personally I think they could spend more on maintenance as they haven't trimmed my hood in probably 10 year. Get a decent GIS guy and some good servers to put up something better than a map drawn in crayon by Lina. Wouldn't change much in a big storm, but would definitely help perception.


Thing is though, the vast majority of the population don't think like this. Most are NEVER prepared to take care of themselves, every storm proves it. As soon as it was obvious the power would be out for a few days, the whining began. The state and the politicians gotta please the whiners, all of whom are now engineering experts who want to bury the lines, want free generators for everyone, want someone to come cut their tree off the house, and of course don't want to pay for any of it. Centerpoint can and should improve some stuff, but it'll never be enough for the utterly helpless masses.

[Drycreek3189]

Our population is slowly morphing into a bunch of entitled twits. They have never been without, so it’s very disconcerting for them to be in that position. Or…Centerpoint is wanting the City of Houston to pay double time and a half for their crews to fix their own lines. This was told to me by a long time resident who I trust. One or both ?

[bboswell]

I 100% agree with the "it is a hurricane and people will lose power argument" but I think Center Points problems stem from the fact that they had access to additional crews from out or state and refused to pay them the prevailing wages so they just sat un-used.

[SaltwaterSlick]

^^^^
I get that but like the OP said, I didnt see it as that big of a deal. I was only out 2 days during Beryl but around 20 during harvey. No one was shooting at linemen and lacing water with Fentynal and giving it away in harvey or any other storms. Why this one??

MAYBE, they could have done better with staging line crews but at the same time the storm was supposed to be in mexico one day, corpus the next.

Lets not forget about our Cajun neighbors who went without for 40 days during Laura. Who got fired or quit over that????

Pretty much how I see it too. Just typical politicians grandstanding trying to appear relevant. 😡🤬

[txbowkill]

Ignorant people complaining and politicians showboating is all it is.

^ my thoughts too

[Jason]

Could be a couple of things:

1) Allegedly failing to perform routine maintenance on lines.
2) Allegedly failing to keep vegetation cut back
3) Allegedly failing to pre negotiate contracts with linemen until days after storm had passed.
4) Allegedly failing to adequately stage the contracted linemen they did have.


All of this while it was just reported Centerpoint beat quarterly earnings estimates by ~11%

Yes, it was a hurricane in a gulf coast region. Yes, people should expect to be without power. However, those same people should also expect Centerpoint to be prepared and busting their tail to get power restored asap. It appears as if Centerpoint was the most unprepared for a hurricane in all of Houston. Keep in mind, this was a relatively small hurricane. Can you imagine the damage and delays if this Hurricane Ike (Cat 4) or Alicia (Cat 3)?

To make matters worse, Centerpoint screwed up their PR campaign even worse than their hurricane preparedness.

[Greenheadless]

Could be a couple of things:

1) Allegedly failing to perform routine maintenance on lines.
2) Allegedly failing to keep vegetation cut back
3) Allegedly failing to pre negotiate contracts with linemen until days after storm had passed.
4) Allegedly failing to adequately stage the contracted linemen they did have.


All of this while it was just reported Centerpoint beat quarterly earnings estimates by ~11%

Yes, it was a hurricane in a gulf coast region. Yes, people should expect to be without power. However, those same people should also expect Centerpoint to be prepared and busting their tail to get power restored asap. It appears as if Centerpoint was the most unprepared for a hurricane in all of Houston. Keep in mind, this was a relatively small hurricane. Can you imagine the damage and delays if this Hurricane Ike (Cat 4) or Alicia (Cat 3)?

To make matters worse, Centerpoint screwed up their PR campaign even worse than their hurricane preparedness.

Correct. All by basically what is a public entity. Sunlight is the best disinfectant.

[Hoggslayer]

People think they are entitled to be able to hold someone else accountable to make themselves feel better.