Houston-area families frustrated by power outages that could last days: 'I'm just kind of over it'

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- The number of power outages in southeast Texas came down significantly Tuesday night, but CenterPoint Energy said some customers may be in the dark for up to five days.

For many, that brings back bad memories from last winter.

Crews were out in Bellaire working to repair snapped power poles. About 15 minutes north, ABC13 found a neighborhood in the Heights where there wasn't any visible damage. However, a few families were still in the dark.

"We just heard lots of wind whipping around," said resident Clint McGee.

Wind with gusts between 45 and 55 mph hit the greater Houston area overnight. It woke up several residents to a familiar and frustrating situation.

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"I think like 4:30 [a.m.] or so, our power went out," said McGee. "Everything went real quiet. We have our fans and noise machine going, and suddenly, everything shut down."

McGee's family also lost power for several days during the February winter storm. He said that he, his wife, and his mother-in-law have been trying to deal with the fact that, once again, they have no electricity.

Meanwhile, the city of Houston opened up several stations where people could cool off and charge their devices during the day, but they closed at 5 p.m.

McGee said his neighbors had to make their own plans in case the power stayed out overnight.

"He finally left. They've got a newborn baby, and so it was getting a little too hot for him," he said.

WATCH: Videos show impact of Nicholas on Houston-area communities

Here's what it looked like as Nicholas made landfall, bringing strong winds and heavy rain, which caused street flooding and damage in some areas.

CenterPoint Energy said it had more than 3,200 employees and contractors out Tuesday working to get air conditioners working again and lights back on after Hurricane Nicholas.

Many families dealt with an outage for hours, but thousands may once again be forced to tough it out for days.

"It's just frustrating that something that wasn't as significant of a storm as we thought it was going to be turned out to knock our power out yet again," McGee said. "It's just ... I'm just kind of over it at this point."

More than 100,000 customers were without power in southeast Texas as of Tuesday night.

At the height of the storm, that number was over 450,000.