(Seguin) — CenterPoint Energy customers are experiencing a natural gas outage throughout the Seguin and McQueeney areas.
The company noted that repairs may take several days leaving folks on edge especially business owners and those restaurants who were forced to shut down just prior to today’s lunch hour. The outage is said to be affecting more than 4,300 customers. The outage is the result of damage to another company’s pipeline that serves the towns.
In a statement to its customers, CenterPoint Energy shared that it is focused “on providing service to critical facilities, such as hospitals, and will attempt to secure backup gas service to such critical facilities while the pipeline supplying natural gas to the towns is being repaired.”
To ensure warmth, Seguin ISD parents are being reminded to bundle up their children these final three days before Spring Break as local campuses are also being impacted. They did provide assurances that meals will also be made available to the students.
Tal Centers, vice president for Texas Gas at CenterPoint Energy, says more than 200 employees and contractors have been called in to help with the restoration process – a process that again provides no exact timeframe for customers.
“Safety will be our number-one priority as we work to restore natural gas service to impacted customers as safely and quickly as possible. As part of our safety procedures, we will start the process of turning off each customer’s natural gas meter. Once the pipeline company finalizes its repairs, our crews will need to manually turn each meter back on,” said Centers.
For safety reasons, the company urges customers not to turn any valves or tamper with the natural gas meter. They say opening or turning any valves could allow air to enter the natural gas lines, which would hinder the restoration process.
As always, they say if you smell natural gas, customers should leave the area immediately on foot and call CenterPoint Energy at 866-275-5252 and 911 to report; and not turn on or operate anything that might cause a spark like using light switches or cellphones.