Family living in Spring says CenterPoint Energy has made this summer 'unbearable'
SPRING, Texas (KTRK) -- Emeka Mordi and his family live near the Grand Parkway and Rayford Road in a Montgomery County home they purchased in 2019.
They said their electricity has randomly gone off and on during much of that time.
"The first time we realized we had a problem was when we had that freeze (in 2021), and the lights went out for a couple of days," Mordi said. "After that, it's been consistent power outages."
Mordi showed ABC13 a series of texts he said came from CenterPoint Energy that indicated service issues in his area.
Ten of those messages were sent this summer alone, which equates to more than an outage per week in a year where 15 residents of neighboring Harris County have died of heat-related issues, according to the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences.
"It's unbearable," Mordi said while describing outages lasting for hours. "We literally have to drive around in the car just to stay cool."
SEE ALSO: Customers expected to have power fully restored on Sunday after Wednesday's storms, CenterPoint says
Mordi was the only person willing to speak to Eyewitness News on-camera for this story, but neighbors echoed his sentiments and said the outages have caused their appliances to quit working.
ABC13 reached out to CenterPoint Energy about the situation, and the power company said in a statement that the problems are due to trees falling on power lines, as well as equipment failures from the heat.
"We understand that losing power for any period of time can be difficult, especially during the summer," the statement said. "We apologize to our customers in the Spring area for the service interruptions and the impact they have had."
Those words rang hollow to Mordi and his family, which includes a toddler.
"That's not good enough," he said.
Eyewitness News asked CenterPoint Energy about that apology, as well as Mordi's concerns that this has been an ongoing issue for years. The power company and they said they're looking into it.
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SEE ALSO: Power restored in Montgomery Co. 2 days after powerful microburst causes severe damage
