By Lileana Pearson, ABC13 Houston
Officials are warning that the cold and rain we’re expecting this weekend could turn into ice accumulation, bringing serious impacts to Houston and southeast Texas.
“Because of the precipitation coming down, that would be ice; it could weigh down the power lines from the pole to your house. That could cause a downing of the power line for you or maybe for your neighborhood,” Governor Greg Abbott said.
Abbott handed down that warning on Thursday. Ice impacts could be felt all the way to the coast, but will most likely be felt in counties north of Houston, including Montgomery, Grimes, Burleson, Walker, Polk, Trinity, Madison, and San Jacinto.
Energy experts told ABC13 that months of preparation have gone into strengthening power infrastructure to give it a fighting chance against the storm.
“We do start to do our preparation all year round,” customer service manager with Entergy Texas, Kenny Muhammad, said.
Muhammad said teams have been cutting branches, clearing vegetation, and replacing poles throughout the 17 Texas counties they cover to try to keep infrastructure intact, but outages can still occur.
Once accumulation passes a quarter inch, Muhammad said branches get heavy and can fall into powerlines, or lines can fall on their own.
“You’ll start to see things like cross arm break, even pole tops can tumble when you get an inch of accumulation on the lines,” Muhammad said.
The National Weather Service is projecting about 3/10ths of an inch of ice accumulation in our northern counties, though ABC13 meteorologists said on Thursday that it’s too early to know for certain.
Muhammad said now is the time to safely trim any branches or vegetation in your backyard that could come into contact with a power line.”Any storm is unpredictable, but especially winter storms,” Muhammad said.
If your energy goes out, check your provider’s website for an outage map to get an idea of how long you may be without power.
Muhammad said that Entergy Texas’ system automatically tracks outages, but customer reports are always appreciated.
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This story comes from our news partner ABC13 Houston.