CenterPoint Energy Tests Hurricane Response Plans in Houston Ahead of 2026 Hurricane Season
As another Atlantic hurricane season approaches, CenterPoint Energy is ramping up preparations across Greater Houston — a region where prolonged power outages have become an increasingly emotional and practical concern for millions of residents.
On Wednesday, the utility company conducted its annual full-scale emergency exercise at its Emergency Operations Center, simulating a Category 3 hurricane making landfall in the Houston area. More than 400 CenterPoint employees participated in the exercise alongside approximately 100 observers that included emergency management officials, first responders, elected leaders, healthcare representatives, and regional stakeholders.
For many Houstonians, the significance of hurricane preparedness extends far beyond operational drills. In recent years, repeated storm-related outages have affected families during extreme heat, disrupted businesses, delayed recovery efforts, and raised broader questions about the resilience of the region’s infrastructure as Southeast Texas continues to grow.
Why Hurricane Preparedness Matters Across Greater Houston
Houston’s history with hurricanes has shaped how residents view severe weather preparation — especially when it comes to electricity restoration and communication during emergencies.
The most recent major example came during Hurricane Beryl in July 2024, when more than 2 million customers across the Houston region lost power. In some neighborhoods throughout Cypress, Katy, Spring, The Woodlands, and northeast Harris County, outages stretched from several days to nearly two weeks during dangerous summer temperatures.
The storm renewed public scrutiny surrounding grid reliability, vegetation management near power lines, restoration timelines, and customer communication systems.
Before Beryl, Hurricane Ike in 2008 was widely considered one of Houston’s most devastating modern power outage events. Roughly 2 million customers lost electricity, and some communities remained without power for two to three weeks after catastrophic damage to transmission infrastructure and utility poles.
Other major storms — including Hurricane Harvey in 2017, Hurricane Rita in 2005, and Hurricane Alicia in 1983 — also left lasting marks on the region, though each impacted Houston differently. Harvey’s destruction centered heavily around flooding, while Ike and Beryl highlighted vulnerabilities tied more directly to wind damage and electrical infrastructure.
As hurricane forecasts for the 2026 season currently point to a near-normal to slightly below-average level of activity in the Gulf Coast region, emergency planning remains a growing focus not only for utilities, but also for schools, hospitals, local governments, and homeowners throughout Greater Houston.
Inside CenterPoint Energy’s 2026 Hurricane Exercise
According to CenterPoint Energy, this year’s simulation focused on testing the company’s ability to coordinate emergency response efforts before, during, and after a major hurricane.
The exercise included teams from electric operations, gas operations, emergency planning, communications, customer service, and field response divisions.
Participants worked through scenarios involving weather forecasting, damage modeling, resource deployment, coordination with emergency responders, and customer communication during widespread outages.
“For CenterPoint, preparing for natural disasters before they happen and simulating the effectiveness of our response and plans is vital to continuously improving and strengthening our response when future storms and hurricanes strike,” said Jesus Soto Jr., Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer for CenterPoint Energy.
CenterPoint said third-party evaluators observed the exercise and will provide feedback intended to improve future emergency response planning and operational coordination.
Expanded Hurricane Preparations Across the Region
The company also outlined several preparedness measures already implemented ahead of the 2026 hurricane season.
Among those efforts:
- A new Emergency Operations Center has opened to improve coordination with local and state agencies.
- More than 800 employees completed over 25,000 hours of FEMA training.
- The utility expanded its ability to call in outside frontline workers during emergencies.
- New weather monitoring stations have been added throughout the service area.
- Damage assessment systems have been updated to improve restoration response times.
CenterPoint also pointed to ongoing infrastructure upgrades under its Greater Houston Resiliency Initiative (GHRI), launched in 2024 following increased pressure to strengthen the electrical grid after major storms.
According to the company, those projects include:
- Installing more than 65,000 storm-resilient utility poles
- Clearing more than 10,000 miles of vegetation near power lines
- Undergrounding more than 500 miles of power lines
- Adding more than 600 automated grid devices designed to isolate outages and reroute electricity
CenterPoint says the combined improvements are expected to reduce customer outage time by approximately 150 million minutes by the end of 2026.
A Continuing Conversation for Houston Communities
For many residents across Greater Houston, hurricane preparation is no longer viewed as a once-a-year checklist. It has become part of everyday planning during storm season — influencing everything from backup generators and emergency supplies to remote work plans and neighborhood communication networks.
The conversation surrounding grid reliability has also increasingly become tied to the region’s rapid population growth, aging infrastructure in some areas, and the challenges of maintaining power systems across one of the nation’s largest metropolitan regions.
While utilities continue investing in resiliency measures, many families who experienced lengthy outages during storms like Beryl and Ike are likely to continue watching closely to see how those preparations perform during future hurricanes.
With the 2026 hurricane season approaching, emergency officials continue encouraging residents throughout Houston, Cypress, Katy, Spring, The Woodlands, and surrounding communities to review emergency plans, monitor weather alerts, and prepare for the possibility of extended outages during major storms.
Residents can learn more about CenterPoint Energy’s hurricane preparedness and resiliency initiatives at CenterPointEnergy.com/TakingAction.
Stay tuned to My Neighborhood News for additional hurricane preparedness updates and local emergency information throughout the 2026 storm season.
Tiffany Krenek has been on the My Neighborhood News team since August 2021. She is passionate about curating and sharing content that enriches the lives of our readers in a personal, meaningful way. A loving mother and wife, Tiffany and her family live in the West Houston/Cypress region.