On Tuesday, Harris County Precinct 2 Commissioner Adrian Garcia, Houston Mayor John Whitmire and other local officials praised CenterPoint Energy’s power restoration efforts as roughly 126,000 residents remain in the dark.

Garcia noted that this progress — despite some waiting for their lights to come back on — after having 10 transmission stations knocked out was incredible. He thanked CenterPoint Energy spokeswoman Michelle Hundley for the utility company’s crews’ work.

“We are still hopeful that Wednesday will be a turning point for all of us,” Garcia said. “We don’t want to lose sight of the fact that some may still be without power. It is discomforting I understand, but it could be much worse on the entire county and entire city.”

Harris County Precinct 4 Commissioner Lesley Briones joined Garcia, who mentioned that Precinct 3 Commissioner Tom Ramsey wanted to attend Tuesday's press conference but was unavailable then.

Garcia did not mention Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo and Precinct 1 Commissioner Rodney Ellis by name but thanked all other city and county officials and employees. Whitmire and Briones followed suit with Garcia, not acknowledging Hidalgo or Ellis directly.

When the Houston Press contacted Hidalgo’s office to ask why she was not in attendance, the chief communication officer, Angelica Luna Kaufman, said the office was unaware of the press conference.

Harris County Precinct 2 spokesman Scott Spiegel noted that quorum rules only allow up to two commissioners to be present at the same time without notice of a meeting 72 hours ahead of an event.

Spiegel added that despite there being an exemption to this requirement for press conferences, Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee has advised precinct personnel not to have more than two commissioners in any given place at the same time.

Those in attendance on Tuesday, including recently appointed Houston METRO Chair Elizabeth Gonzalez Brock, focused their attention on the communities more significantly affected by Thursday’s storm, such as Spring Branch, Lazybrook, and Timbergrove.

“No one’s getting overlooked,” Whitmire said. “We are not going to rest until everyone’s energy has been restored. We want to know if you’re missing food, water and essential lifeline products. We’re all in this together.

Houston ISD issued its latest chart of what schools are still closed, noting that it has purchased 120 additional chillers to cool schools while CenterPoint repairs continue.

According to Briones, the storm significantly struck apartment complexes in the East Spring Branch area, leaving hundreds of children living in these units without roofs over their heads. She warned landlords that they were required to pick up debris or assist their tenants. She added that county and city officials were keeping track of these reports.

Spring Branch ISD’s campuses remained closed on Tuesday. However, on Tuesday afternoon, SBISD notified community members that all but four schools would open on Wednesday.

Tiger Trail Elementary School, Housman Elementary School, Hunters Creek Elementary School and Westwood Elementary School were still without power as of Tuesday afternoon. SBISD administration wrote that staff from these locations should await communication from their respective principals as to where they should report for Wednesday’s work day.

Cypress-Fairbanks ISD also informed parents and students that all of CFISD's schools and facilities would be open on Wednesday, excluding ten campuses: Bane Elementary School, Bridgeland High School, Cypress Park High School, Holbrook Elementary School, Labay Middle School, Lowery Elementary School, Postma Elementary School, Rowe Middle School, Sprague Middle School and Wells Elementary School.

The CFISD administration requested those returning to school to be patient with buses potentially running late due to an ongoing power outage at one of CFISD's transportation centers.

Hundley addressed questions about CenterPoint’s interactive outage tracker marking areas green, indicating that power was restored despite these locations remaining in the dark at Tuesday’s press conference.

She said that the outage tracker is supposed to estimate outages, adding that discrepancies could occur for two reasons. Either a household’s Weatherhead  — equipment that connects a resident’s infrastructure with the utility company’s infrastructure — was broken, or the resident was in a small pocket outage.

Garcia cautioned businesses against price gouging or upping the price of essential goods and services during the recovery period and individuals against taking advantage of the locations riddled with damage from Thursday’s storm.

The local leaders advised every Houston area resident affected by last Thursday’s storm or the flooding events that occurred in the weeks before who qualifies for federal assistance through the Federal Emergency Management Agency to apply for it. Applications can be submitted online at disasterassistance.gov, through the FEMA app or via phone at 800-621-3362.

To meet the criteria, applicants must live in Harris, Liberty, Montgomery, Polk, San Jacinto, Trinity and Walker counties. They could receive serious need assistance, a one-time payment of $750 per household for essential items, or displacement assistance, which provides up-front funds to assist with housing needs, among other benefits.