Houston storm power outages: CenterPoint Energy launches new map to check estimated day of power restoration in your area

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) — CenterPoint Energy is hard at work to get the lights back on for thousands of Houstonians still in the dark following Thursday’s destructive storm.

Overnight, they made significant progress, though as of Tuesday morning, 145,000 customers are still in the dark for the fifth day in a row, according to the CenterPoint Energy Outage Tracker.

Approximately 197,000 customers had their power restored in the last 24 hours. Officials said more than 770,000 customers have had their power restored since Thursday.

In addition to the outage tracker, CenterPoint also launched an interactive, color-coded map where users can zoom into areas across the city and even enter specific addresses to see each area’s estimated date of restoration.

CenterPoint says significant damage is hampering restoration in parts of Bellaire, the Heights, Lazybrook-Timbergrove, Cottage Grove, and Spring Branch. They expect electricity restoration to be ongoing until the end of the day Wednesday for customers who are available to receive service.

CenterPoint expects to restore about 90% of the outages by Tuesday evening.

READ MORE: CenterPoint expects 90% of customer outages restored by Tuesday evening

Several school districts are closed again on Tuesday, including Channelview, Cy-Fair, Galena Park, and Spring Branch ISDs. Houston ISD also closed 38 schools on Tuesday.

Heights High School is one of the HISD campuses closed on Tuesday. The school lost air conditioning on Monday and students were told to go home early.

SkyEye flew over the school on Monday, where video showed the windows open. A student was even spotted leaning out a window, presumably trying to cool off.

Facebook groups like Heights High School PTO even asked parents to bring fans to the front office.

SEE ALSO: HISD adds 2 more schools to closures list due to air conditioning failures

In total, three HISD schools closed early on Monday — Heights High School and Reynolds Elementary in Sunnyside due to air conditioning issues, and Lamar High School In Upper Kirby due to a gas leak.

Students who spoke to ABC13 questioned why they were sent back to school, but Superintendent Mike Miles called the day “successful.”

“It was just so hot. On the third floor, no A/C, no internet,” one student said.

“You walk in those doors and the first thing you felt was heat,” another student said.

“We asked our maintenance people to go out and we check the temperature. If it’s too hot, we’re going to close the school,” Miles said.

You can find a full list of cooling centers here.

For news updates, follow Brandon Hamilton on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

SEE ALSO: How to get help from FEMA if you were impacted by last week’s destructive storms