Gov. Abbott expected to appear in Houston to speak on post-Beryl recovery, CenterPoint woes

HOUSTON, Texas (KTRK) -- Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to hold his first press conference since Hurricane Beryl's landfall at Gallery Furniture in northwest Houston on Sunday afternoon.

Sunday's briefing will be held at Gallery Furniture in northwest Houston on Sunday afternoon.

The Texas governor had been traveling out of the country for an overseas trade mission in Asia.

You can watch Gov. Abbott's press conference in the video player above at noon on Sunday.

Details about what would be addressed in the press conference are still unclear. However, one point of contention among the community and elected officials is accountability regarding CenterPoint's preparation and response to the category one hurricane.

The utility company said this was the largest outage in history, with 2.26 million customers impacted.

READ MORE: New CenterPoint map gives estimated date for Beryl-related restoration

CenterPoint's CEO, Jason Wells, spoke for the first time since Hurricane Beryl in an exclusive interview with our partners at the Houston Chronicle.

He defended the company's response to the massive power outage, highlighting that they restored 1.1 million customers within 48 hours, claiming that's faster than other companies have done in the past 10 named storms. Wells took ownership of communicating expectations with customers better.

His comments come after Acting Gov. Dan Patrick demanded an investigation into CenterPoint and whether it was prepared for the storm. Houston Congresswoman Sheila Jackson Lee echoed this sentiment, asking the U.S. Attorney General on Friday to open an investigation into the utility company.

Congressman Al Green said that CenterPoint allegedly declined to answer Congress members' questions during a call Saturday.

In the field, CenterPoint said its utility workers have been met with hostile and violent interactions from the public. Wells said in a video released online Saturday that they had to evacuate 100 linemen after someone opened fire at an employee in southwest Houston.

"This is unacceptable. The safety of our crews is paramount. Threats or acts of violence are actually counterproductive. We have to redirect our crews to an area that is safe. That just delays what is already a significant restoration effort. So I ask you, please give our crews room to do their work safely," said Wells.

RELATED: CenterPoint CEO addresses employees' safety after man points gun at line worker in SW Houston

Six days after Hurricane Beryl, approximately 460,000 people in the Greater Houston area are still without power. CenterPoint Energy said it expects to restore power to about 85 percent of its customers by the end of the weekend.

The company revamped its restoration map on Friday to show estimated completion dates. So far, it looks like those on the tail end of restoration may have to wait until July 19 to come back online.

At least three people in the Houston area have died in the heat. Others died from carbon monoxide poisoning or their oxygen machines shutting down.

Gov. Abbott is expected to address the city around noon in Houston to speak on the ongoing recovery efforts.

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