DALLAS — In the immediate aftermath of Hurricane Beryl, 2.7 million CenterPoint customers in the Houston area had no power.
Three days after that, more than a million remained in the dark, stuck in the oppressive and dangerous heat.
While state leadership has called for an investigation, KHOU 11 News investigative reporter Jeremy Rogalski is already getting answers about what went wrong.
And he joined the Jasons to share his findings on the most recent episode of Y’all-itics.
“People are hurting, there’s no doubt,” Rogalski said. “You drive around and it’s just very apparent. I think more than half the traffic signals down here in Houston are either completely out or flashing red.”
After a weeklong series of investigative reports, Rogalski says there are two big questions hovering over CenterPoint Energy, the utility company headquartered in Houston that provides the area’s electric power transmission.
Number one, was CenterPoint slow out of the gate in their power restoration efforts?
"Before the storm, they requested 2,500 of what’s called mutual assistance workers -- the out-of-town guys who come in to help out," Rogalski said. "After the storm hit, they had to scramble to ramp that up to nearly a total of 12,000."
CenterPoint told Rogalski they were planning based on the information they had at the time before the storm hit.
And the second question Rogalski asks is if CenterPoint has been playing catch up since the storm passed.
The storm moved on around the lunch hour and by that afternoon, Rogalski says area residents were wondering why they hadn’t seen any repair trucks.
"Everybody said, 'Where are the trucks? I haven’t seen a truck. Where are the trucks?'" Rogalski said. "And the answer was there were no outside trucks Monday. And so, CenterPoint only had their local crews -- about 1,500 -- and they were waiting for the cavalry to come in. And so, by CenterPoint’s own admission, they were a half a day late out of the gate."
But even after the out-of-town crews arrived, Rogalski’s investigation found that many were sitting idle for hours.
Rogalski and his team scouted out three different locations -- one northwest of Houston, one in West Houston and the last one down in Galveston.
And they found that more than five hours had passed before any measurable work was done, such as removing downed tree branches from power lines.
Rogalski admits that his investigation to date only offers a snapshot of the situation. But what a picture it paints.
“We’re not saying that this was repetitive throughout the 18 staging sights," Rogalski said. "And CenterPoint says this is not the norm, this would be the exception. But I think it was an illuminating look at just what goes on and some kind of pulling back the curtain to say okay, this is why it’s maybe taking so long to get people restored."
Will CenterPoint be held accountable for its Beryl preparations -- or lack thereof? When will power finally be restored in Houston in the storm's wake? And what does CenterPoint have to say for itself about its own operations in the wake of Beryl? These are the questions Rogalski is asking and answering. Listen to this week's Y'all-itics to hear what he's learned.