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Crews with CenterPoint Energy jumped into action as soon as reports of power outages trickled in following Hurricane Nicholas’s landfall along the upper Texas Gulf Coast.
"It’s been a long, tough day for those still without power," Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo tweeted more than 12 hours after Nicholas touched down near Sargent in Matagorda County on Sept. 14. "The good news is that the number of CenterPoint customers w/o power has dropped to under 110K from a peak of 460,000 this morning. Things are trending in the right direction."
Nicholas came ashore as a Category One hurricane, bringing with it heavy rain and wind throughout the Greater Houston area.
After pummeling the Texas coast, Nicholas has downgraded to a tropical storm and proceeded to head toward Louisiana.
Any flooding fears triggered by the storm's approach were unfounded as Nicholas lashed the region with its winds.
Damage was limited to widespread power outages, street flooding and uprooted trees, The Daily News reported.
Authorities urged the public to avoid getting on the roads for at least the first full day after Nicholas's arrival.
Click2Houston reported that while CenterPoint worked toward restoring power to several neighborhoods on Sept. 14, the Houston Health Department operated four multi-service centers to allow residents to charge their phones or other electronic devices.
The station additionally reported that Comcast offered its Xfinity hotspots in the Houston area for people to use while their Wi-Fi was temporarily unavailable.
CenterPoint initially predicted a worst-case scenario in which those who lose power won't get it restored until a week later, ABC13 reported.
CenterPoint managed to dwindle the number of those without services to around 40,000 by the end of Sept. 15.
"This morning there were 150,000 CenterPoint customers in Houston without power," Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner tweeted on Sept. 14. "As of this evening, the latest number is about 42,000."