Tomball businesses face disruption due to a planned power outage on Wednesday, impacting holiday sales. Utility upgrades aim to prevent future extended outages.
TOMBALL, Texas — Residents and businesses in parts of Tomball should prepare for a scheduled power outage and significant traffic impacts on Wednesday.
CenterPoint Energy crews will begin work Dec. 17 at 7 a.m. to replace power poles, transformers, and lines along the 100–400 block of W. Main Street. The outage will affect customers one block north and two blocks south of Main Street, between Pine Street and Elm Street.
City officials say alleys along Commerce Street, Market Street, and Fannin Street, between Elm and Pine, will also be closed during the work. Power is expected to be restored and all affected streets reopened by 3 p.m.
The closures and power outage have left small business owners scrambling because it comes near the make-or-break holiday shopping rush. Several of the Main Street businesses, such as the Salon on Main in Old Town Tomball, said this week is when they count on sales that can keep them going.
“In December, I would definitely say [we make] about 1/3 of our business for the entire year,” Manager Nina Sherrod said.
Sherrod said losing even a day of work, as they will on Wednesday, is a big deal.
“They’re saying no pedestrian traffic is allowed. No alley traffic is allowed. They don’t want anyone on the streets,” Sherrod said.
Sherrod said they understand the work needs to be done, but this comes after additional, unrelated power outages cost them work days during their busiest time of year.
“Like you said, there’s [a power pole] literally right there behind you,” KHOU 11 Reporter Amanda Henderson said while talking with Sherrod outside for their interview.
“Yes, that is one they will be replacing,” Sherrod said. “Being a salon, we rely on appointments. We have people scheduled already. We have plans for that income that day.”
KHOU 11 took those concerns to CenterPoint.
“Anytime we have any sort of planned outages we are coordinating with the customers that are impacted to find the least impacted time,” CenterPoint Energy Vice President of Resilience and Capital Delivery Nathan Brownell said.
Brownell said that’s why they moved the outage to this week as opposed to its original scheduled date last week.
He also said they can’t afford to delay the project further.
“If we have a storm, if we have a cold weather event, and we don’t do this project, we are at risk of having extended outage time,” Brownell said.
Michael Dean Pierce Jr., whose business is Cloud Chief and Co., will also be impacted. He said he is OK with the outage and wants to see the upgrades done sooner rather than later.
“We’ve had some power outages in the past, which is worse when we lose a week’s worth of power as opposed to one day,” Pierce Jr. said.
While Main Street (FM 2920) will remain open in both directions, drivers should expect delays. Several north-south streets off Main Street, including Oak, Cherry, Walnut, and Elm streets between Commerce and Fannin, will be closed to both vehicles and pedestrians. Traffic traveling north or south from Main Street will be diverted at Pine Street.
Officials estimate 65 to 70 utility trucks will be operating in the area throughout the day. CenterPoint says crews will work to keep the outage to less than eight hours.
Anyone with questions is asked to contact CenterPoint Energy at 713-207-2222.
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