AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The majority of Houston outages that followed Hurricane Beryl should be fixed within the next two days, the city’s main utility company said Monday as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott threatened to punish CenterPoint Energy even after the lights come back.

The Texas Public Utility Commission, the state’s regulatory agency, announced Monday it had launched an investigation Abbott demanded into CenterPoint’s storm preparation and response as hundreds of thousands of residents sweltered without power for more than a week after the storm. The governor has given the utility until the end of July to submit plans to protect the power supply through the rest of what could be an active hurricane season, as well as trim trees and vegetation that threaten power lines.

But some energy experts question whether Abbott and the Texas regulators, whose leaders are appointed by the governor, have done enough before now to get tough on utilities or make transmission lines more resilient in the nation’s biggest energy producing state.

“What CenterPoint is showing us by its repeated failure to provide power, is they seem to be just incapable of doing their job,” Abbott said Monday in Houston.

Spokespeople for CenterPoint, which has defended its response and pace of restoring outages, did not immediately return an email seeking comment Monday.

A week after Beryl made landfall as a Category 1 hurricane — toppling power lines, uprooting trees and causing branches to crash into power lines — the damage from the storm and the prolonged outages have again put the resiliency of Texas’ power grid under scrutiny.

In 2021, a winter storm plunged the state into a deep freeze, knocking out power to millions of residents and pushing Texas’ grid to the brink of total collapse. Following the deadly blackout, Abbott and state lawmakers vowed changes that would better ensure that Texans would not be left in the dark in dangerous cold and heat.

Unlike that crisis — which was caused by failing power generation — Beryl created high winds that brought down power lines and knocked out power to about 2.7 million homes and businesses. Most were concentrated in the Houston area, where CenterPoint reported Monday that it had restored power to more than 2 million customers. Still, more than 200,000 remained without power.

Houston-area residents have sweltered in heat and humidity, stood in long lines for gas, food and water, and trekked to community centers to find air conditioning. Hospitals have seen a spike in patients with heat-related illnesses and carbon monoxide poisoning caused by improper use of home generators.

“This isn’t a failure of the entire system,” Abbott said. “This is an indictment of one company that’s failed to do its job.”

In a special meeting of the Houston City Council on Monday, resident Alin Boswell said he was on day eight without power and had not seen anyone from CenterPoint in his neighborhood until that morning. He said the city and the company should have known the potential for damage after storms in May knocked out power to more than 1 million.

“You all and CenterPoint had a preview of this debacle in May,” Boswell told council members.

Ed Hirs, an energy fellow at the University of Houston, said the failures extend beyond CenterPoint. He said regulators have been reluctant to ensure that transmission lines are more resilient and trees are sufficiently trimmed.

Hirs said Abbott and other leaders who are solely zeroing in on the utility after Beryl are looking for a scapegoat.

“Of course, not one of them have a mirror around,” he said. “It’s not CenterPoint exclusively. The regulatory compact has totally broken down.”

CenterPoint has at least 10 years of vegetation management reports on file with Texas regulators. In April, the company filed a 900-page report on long-term plans and expenses that would be needed to make its power system more resilient, from tree trimming to withstanding storms and flooding to cybersecurity attacks.

In a report filed May 1, CenterPoint said it had spent nearly $35 million on tree removal and trimming in 2023. It said it would target efforts this year across more than 3,500 miles of its estimated 29,000 miles of overhead power lines in 2024.

Vegetation management remains a key issue for avoiding another power outage when the next storm hits, said Michael Webber, a University of Texas mechanical engineering professor with a focus on clean energy technology. But it’s just one ongoing problem for power providers.

Policy makers must rebuild Texas’ energy grid to adapt to its changing climate, Webber said.

“We’ve designed our system for weather of the past,” he said.

The utility has defended its preparation for the storm and said that it has brought in about 12,000 additional workers from outside Houston. It has said it would have been unsafe to preposition those workers inside the predicted storm impact area before Beryl made landfall.

In a message to CenterPoint customers Sunday night, CEO Jason Wells wrote that the company had made “remarkable” progress.

“The strong pace of the restoration is a testament to our preparation (and) investments we have made in the system,” Wells wrote.

By Nate Todd Jul 15, 2024 • 11:48 am PDT

Goose confirmed their 2024 New Year’s Eve run. The band will offer a two-night “formal affair” at the Moody Center in Austin, Texas on December 30 and 31.

Fans can sign up now for a presale that begins on Wednesday, July 17 at 10 a.m CT and runs until Thursday, July 18 at 10 p.m. CT. Ted VIP Experiences and Travel Packages become available via 100x and go on Tuesday, July 16 at 10 a.m. CT.

Tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday, July 19 at 10 a.m. CT.

Goose’s NYE run will cap an eventful year for the band, who just finished up their first tour with new drummer Cotter Ellis. The band has an extensive fall trek on the books which will culminate with their annual Goosemas event in Charleston, South Carolina.

Find Goose’s full tour routing with ticket info below.

COVID-19 never left. And like in every summer since 2020, Central Texas is seeing a spike in cases.

We know this anecdotally through what local doctors’ offices and clinics are experiencing, as well as an uptick in COVID-19 in our wastewater.

This summer spike is exactly what Austin has seen since COVID-19 arrived in 2020, said Dr. Angela Gibson, the urgent care and after-hours chief for Austin Regional Clinic.

“None of us are surprised,” she said. “It is doing exactly what we thought it would do.”

Why do COVID-19 cases rise each summer?

After May brought some of the lowest numbers of cases since COVID-19 began, the cases started climbing again in June, and “now it’s everywhere,” Gibson said.

The simple reason: People are traveling. Most of the cases Gibson has seen are in people who have been in and around airports or have had family members traveling.

If you haven’t had the latest COVID-19 booster from last fall, it’s not a bad idea to get that vaccine a month before a big trip, Gibson said. The next update in boosters should be out in September, she said.

What are the symptoms of this COVID-19 variant?

The U.S. is still seeing omicron variants, including FLiRT strains, which are very similar. Most people don’t have the loss of smell or taste. Sometimes they have stomach upset or diarrhea, but mostly the symptoms are flulike:

• Fever.
• Sore throat.
• Nasal congestion or runny nose.
• Cough.
• Body aches.
• Fatigue.
• Headache.
• Brain fog.

People can have any or many of these.

“I wish I could say there was something definitive,” Gibson said.

Often, people might think they are having allergies, even though seasonal allergies in Austin are at their lowest point in July, she said.

Are people in the hospital with COVID-19?

Very few people need to go to the hospital now for COVID-19.

“I haven’t had to send a patient to the hospital (for COVID-19) in a long time,” said Dr. Edgar Navarro Garza, a pediatrician at Harbor Health.

Gibson, who treats both adults and children, also hasn’t had to hospitalize someone for COVID-19 in a while.

Most patients with COVID-19 who do end up going to an emergency room have respiratory symptoms similar to the common cold, said Dr. Ann Buchanan, an emergency room physician at St. David’s Medical Center. Some also have nausea and vomiting.

Most people who test positive for COVID-19 are not experiencing serious symptoms because we have built up immunity through vaccination, previous infections or being exposed to it in the community, Garza said. Doctors also are able to help patients better manage COVID-19 at home to prevent the need to go to a hospital, he said.

When should you take a test?

Anytime you have any of the COVID-19 symptoms, you should take an over-the-counter test. Because many people have only mild symptoms, COVID-19 has become sneakier and easier to spread by the otherwise healthy people who think they just have a cold or allergies, Gibson said. They often get a surprise if they do take a COVID-19 test, she said, because their test turns out positive for the virus.

COVID-19 and flu are still dangerous for people who are older than 65 or have a condition that compromises their immune system.

Do I have to quarantine if I have COVID-19?

The CDC changed the guidelines in March. You should stay home with COVID-19 until you have had 24 hours in which your symptoms are getting better and you are fever-free. After that point, for the next five days, you should take precautions such as wearing a mask and distancing to protect other people from becoming sick.

What else is going around?

Flu: It’s not common, but the occasional case is popping up, especially for people who have traveled recently or been around people who have traveled recently.

Strep throat: In children or in adults who are around children, this bacterial infection shows up regularly.

“Walking” pneumonia, aka mycoplasma pneumonia: This is spreading among families and has a spike every four to five years, Gibson said. This is the year of the spike. It can take one to four weeks to spread from family member to family member. At first it seems like any other cold, but then the cough doesn’t get better and the fever might return occasionally. Antibiotics are needed to treat it.

Intestinal ick: The vomiting, diarrhea, cramps, etc., can be caused by a variety of factors in the summer: Traveling to other countries where your body isn’t used to the food or water; food poisoning, especially from improperly storing food in the heat; a general stomach bug; or drinking the water while swimming in a pool, lake or river. If it isn’t better in 48 hours, you should see a doctor.

Pink eye: It’s the other ick from the swimming in unclean water problem.

Heat stroke or exhaustion, or sunburn: Remember to drink enough water (not beverages with alcohol or caffeine) to have light-colored urine; to seek the shade; to avoid being outside in the afternoon heat; to wear an SPF 30 or more sunscreen; and to add a new coat of sunscreen every one to two hours.

Not Saharan dust: Most people are not having a problem with Saharan dust unless they have asthma or another lung disease, Garza said. If you think you are having a problem with a sore throat and nasal congestion, check for COVID-19.