Hurricane proofing Houston's power

Published 30 September 2008

In the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, residents, politicians, and utility officials say it is time to consider burying electric lines underground in order to hurricane-proof Houston

There are still tens of thousands of people without power in the Houston-Galveston area. KTRH’s Bill O’Neal reports that in the aftermath of Hurricane Ike, and the amount of time it took Centerpoint to get some customers back up and running again — there are plenty of people making the case to put Houston’s power lines underground. “Our challenge was trees. We have a lot of trees taller then power lines, and the fell from the middle of yards in some cases across power lines,” said Centerpoint’s Floyd LeBlanc.

This has some folks thinking. “I think it’s very important that we do look to underground utility infrastructure. I think that improves the critical infrastructure-and makes it better and better and better,” said Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee (D-texas) at the height of the power outages. She has promised congressional Hearings to dig in to exactly what went wrong in Houston after Ike.

For their part, Centerpoint is willing to take a look at the possibility of an underground electric transmission system. “We’re not opposed to it. It will cost money, we think it should be discussed. We’re of course willing to sit in on those discussions,” LeBlanc said. But if you think burying the lines will solve all problems, LeBlanc said think again. “When you lose underground lines, it takes more time to get them back in service. They’re wind resistant, but not flood resistant. They’re trade offs,” LeBlanc said, adding there would also be considerable hurdles outside of cost in burying lines. “They’re street crossings, trenching lines in-it’s a real challenge-but we’re willing to look at it,” LeBlanc said.