A month after Hurricane Ike rolled over Galveston and much of Southeast Texas, thousands of residents are still waiting for electricity, and some are still without landline phone service, cable or Internet.
Local utilities AT&T, CenterPoint Energy, Texas Gas Service and Comcast met at Galveston City Hall on Monday to give updates on service restoration and the challenges that remain.
AT&T reports it had completely restored services everywhere except on the barrier islands, including Galveston. The company`s infrastructure on Galveston was "heavily damaged," and officials aren`t sure how many people need service restored. AT&T is prioritizing the restoration of service to buildings that are occupied, have power and are "ready to receive service."
Comcast reports it has restored service to about 50 percent of its island customers; the number may be higher, but some people have not returned to their properties to turn on their TVs and computers. Comcast`s underground infrastructure sustained "severe damage" from the storm and lack of commercial power in some areas is also a problem. The company is running generators at 50 places on the island where the system needs to draw power, and generators must be manned at all times to prevent theft or other incidents.
Comcast projects full restoration of its Galveston network in three weeks, except for some "isolated cases of outages" where a cable drop from pole to house is still not repaired.
