At a 5 p.m. press conference Monday, Mayor Whitmire asked Houstonians to get off the roads by 7 p.m. and warned that the snow and other precipitation originally predicted to arrive at midnight, may instead show up around 10 p.m.
“I ask you to lower your activities. Stay at home. Look out for our most vulnerable, our seniors, our pets our plants.”
Surrounded by emergency personnel, Whitmire said more than 600 people went to the warming centers Sunday night. Municipal offices will be closed on Tuesday except for first responders. City leaders will decide by mid-day Tuesday whether that will be extended.
“Get prepared to be in your house, your residence, in your warming place for the next 48 hours.” He said they think the temperatures will not get above freezing till sometime Thursday.
“This is a serious arctic blast. It’s dangerous, life threatening.”
Residents are asked to call 311 if they have problems at their homes or if they see a leak in a water main. There were repeated warnings about carbon monoxide poisoning and space heaters.
Meanwhile, CenterPoint Energy was sending out text messages that Winter Storm Enzo was on its way. CenterPoint has said its crew are standing by to handle any outages that occur during the storm. CenterPoint, of course, was widely derided for what most residents and elected officials deemed an inadequate response in the Houston area to Hurricane Beryl, leaving thousands of people without power for days on end.
Even CenterPoint conceded at a Texas Senate hearing that repair work hadn’t gone as it should and that there were serious deficiencies in how it prepared to handle the storm and its (almost non-existent) communication with customers.
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