Residents of Westbury Square Townhomes off Chimney Rock in Southwest Houston spent almost 40 hours without electricity over Labor Day weekend, standing outside their own homes just to escape heat trapped indoors. Power finally came back on Sunday evening around 7:30 p.m., and neighbors say they cheered when the lights flicked on.
The outage began around 4 a.m. Saturday, according to resident Kathy Metcalf and her neighbors, as reported by ABC13 Houston. Metcalf said it was actually cooler outside than inside the townhomes, so she slept with a rag draped over her face and body just to stay cool through the night. Temperatures across Houston that weekend reached highs of 93 degrees, with heat index values climbing as high as 98 degrees, according to National Weather Service climate data for September 5 and 6.
For residents managing chronic health conditions, the stakes went beyond discomfort. Frank Edwards, who has diabetes and takes medication, said people with diabetes and elderly residents simply cannot tolerate 100-degree heat. Other residents reported that some neighbors with medical needs rely on electricity to safely store their medications, a concern underscored by research from the National Institutes of Health and guidance from the American Diabetes Association warning that insulin degrades and loses potency when exposed to temperatures approaching or exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit.
Utility Points to Damaged Equipment It Doesn't Own
CenterPoint Energy said the outage was caused by damage to customer-owned equipment on the property, not damage to CenterPoint's own equipment. Per the utility's statement, crews worked with the homeowners' association leadership to address the issue starting Saturday. That distinction matters under CenterPoint's own published electric safety guidelines, which state that property owners, not the electric utility, are legally responsible for customer-owned infrastructure such as weatherheads, service risers, meter boxes, and main breaker panels, and that utility crews cannot legally re-energize a property until a licensed electrician completes repairs.
The delay reflects a broader structural reality in Texas's deregulated electricity market. Regulatory overviews from Power Wizard explain that Transmission and Distribution Utilities like CenterPoint exclusively handle line maintenance and physical outage restoration, while separate Retail Energy Providers manage billing, leaving residents dependent entirely on CenterPoint for repairs to the grid side of the equation, but powerless to compel faster action when the failure sits on private property. CenterPoint's tariff, approved by the Public Utility Commission of Texas, requires the utility to make reasonable efforts to maintain continuous delivery but does not hold it legally liable for interruptions caused by equipment outside its own system.
An Aging Complex and a Push for Upgrades
Westbury Square Townhome Condominiums was built in 1971, according to real estate records, making its electrical infrastructure more than 50 years old. Residents described it plainly as an older complex, and the weekend outage has become a rallying point for their demand that the homeowners association prioritize electrical-system updates rather than deferring them.
Angela Furnari, another resident, said people need cooling and access to electricity as a basic human need. Residents also want the HOA to address other maintenance needs beyond the electrical system, and some said they were prepared to stay elsewhere if power had not been restored by Sunday.
Texas Property Code Section 82.107 requires residential condominium and townhome associations to maintain, repair, and replace common elements, though unit owners or designated entities remain responsible for utility equipment serving individual units unless community governing documents state otherwise. That legal framework leaves open questions for Westbury Square residents about whether the aging weatherheads, meter boxes, or panels that failed this weekend fall under the HOA's maintenance duties or their own.
Broader Grid Investment, Local Growing Pains
The outage arrives as CenterPoint pursues its largest grid investment in company history. The utility reached a settlement in June 2025 on a 2026-2028 Systemwide Resiliency Plan aimed at cutting storm and extreme-weather outage minutes by nearly 1 billion for Houston-area customers by 2029. CenterPoint's territory spans roughly 5,000 square miles across Greater Houston and serves about 2.8 million metered customers over nearly 60,000 circuit miles of lines.
None of that regional investment reaches customer-owned equipment like the kind that failed at Westbury Square, since resiliency spending targets CenterPoint's own transmission and distribution assets. The Chimney Rock corridor itself is already seeing public investment elsewhere: Harris County approved roughly $29.25 million in January to rebuild Chimney Rock Road flood fixes and build stormwater detention facilities nearby, even as the townhomes along that same stretch grapple with electrical infrastructure that has gone without a comparable overhaul.
