HOUSTON \u2013 As Tropical Storm Edouard approaches Southeast Texas, residents of one northwest Houston neighborhood are watching more than just the possibility of flooding and power outages. They\u2019re worried about what could come up from beneath their streets.<\/p>\n
Residents of Candlelight Oaks Village have previously told KPRC 2 that heavy rainfall can cause raw sewage to back up into their neighborhood, at times sending waste into the streets and even forcing a manhole cover off.<\/p>\n
KPRC 2 first spoke with residents about the problem in June.<\/p>\n
One neighbor, Monica, described the smell simply as \u201craw s***.\u201d<\/p>\n
She said residents had found \u201ctampons, condoms and poop\u201d in the street after sewage backed up.<\/p>\n
But when KPRC 2 returned to the neighborhood Monday, ahead of the tropical system expected to bring heavy rain to Southeast Texas, residents said something had changed.<\/p>\n
They\u2019ve seen crews working on the sewer system and at least one longtime resident says conditions have noticeably improved.<\/p>\n
\u201cUntil about a week and a half ago, it was horrible,\u201d resident Rick Scott said.<\/p>\n
Scott said the smell of raw sewage that residents had grown accustomed to outside their homes is now significantly better.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe smell, like I said, is not anywhere near what it was,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n
Scott also told KPRC 2 that he has not experienced another major sewage backup since our previous visit, aside from residual problems he believes were connected to the earlier backup.<\/p>\n
But there\u2019s an important caveat: the neighborhood also hasn\u2019t experienced the kind of major rainfall event that residents say has triggered the worst backups in the past.<\/p>\n
That could change Tuesday.<\/p>\n
\u2018It could be fixed, it could not be fixed\u2019<\/p>\n
With Tropical Storm Edouard expected to bring heavy rainfall to Southeast Texas, Scott said he is optimistic that the work residents have seen may have made a difference.<\/p>\n
But he\u2019s not convinced yet.<\/p>\n
\u201cRight now, I\u2019m positive, and I really am positive. But it\u2019s a wait and see,\u201d Scott said. \u201cIt could be fixed, it could not be fixed.\u201d<\/p>\n
For Scott, the approaching storm could provide the first significant test of whether conditions have actually improved.<\/p>\n
He said residents should be able to walk outside their homes without smelling sewage.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt should be like this all the time,\u201d Scott said.<\/p>\n
CenterPoint activates Emergency Operations Center ahead of storm<\/p>\n
As residents in Candlelight Oaks Village prepare for the possibility of heavy rainfall, CenterPoint Energy is also preparing for potential impacts across the Greater Houston area.<\/p>\n
CenterPoint activated its Emergency Operations Center at 8 a.m. Monday and said it has positioned 2,700 electric workers across the Houston area.<\/p>\n
Crews were stocking trucks and making final preparations Monday to respond to potential outages.<\/p>\n
The company also has more than 100 gas workers positioned across its system.<\/p>\n
CenterPoint officials said during a Monday evening briefing that their forecast called for sustained winds of approximately 25 to 35 mph across the Greater Houston area, with isolated gusts potentially reaching 45 mph.<\/p>\n
Heavy rainfall is also a concern.<\/p>\n
CenterPoint meteorologist Marco Monreal said the company\u2019s forecast called for localized rainfall totals of two to four inches, with the possibility of flash flooding. Higher rainfall totals were expected primarily east of Interstate 45.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs always, we recognize that weather is unpredictable and forecasts may change,\u201d Monreal said. \u201cWe\u2019re taking every step, every preparation, and watching models closely as the storm develops.\u201d<\/p>\n
CenterPoint officials said all of the company\u2019s substations have been inspected ahead of the storm.<\/p>\n
The utility has also been coordinating with elected officials and emergency services.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re ready, we\u2019re focused, and we\u2019re mobilized,\u201d Nathan Brownell, CenterPoint\u2019s incident commander for the storm, said. \u201cWe\u2019re going to be responding as quickly and as safely as possible to any type of outages that come.\u201d<\/p>\n
CenterPoint said its storm preparations include:<\/p>\n
2,700 electric workers positioned across the Houston area<\/p>\n
More than 100 gas workers ready to respond<\/p>\n
Inspections of all substations<\/p>\n
Trucks stocked and crews pre-positioned<\/p>\n
Coordination with local governments and emergency services<\/p>\n
The company also pointed to resiliency work completed across its Houston-area system in recent years, including more than 80,000 hardened poles, approximately 13,000 miles of high-risk vegetation trimmed, more than 800 miles of overhead lines moved underground and more than 800 automated grid devices installed.<\/p>\n
More than 850,000 storm messages sent<\/p>\n
CenterPoint said it has sent more than 850,000 emails, texts and phone calls to customers ahead of the storm.<\/p>\n
The company has also contacted more than 1,000 critical care customers to encourage them to prepare backup plans in case of an outage.<\/p>\n
CenterPoint is asking customers to sign up for its Power Alert Service to receive outage information through texts, emails or phone calls.<\/p>\n
Officials said CenterPoint\u2019s outage tracker will be updated every five minutes during the weather event with outage information and estimated restoration times.<\/p>\n
The company is also reminding residents to stay at least 35 feet away from downed power lines and assume any downed line is energized.<\/p>\n
Residents should also avoid driving through floodwaters.<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"HOUSTON \u2013 As Tropical Storm Edouard approaches Southeast Texas, residents of one northwest Houston neighborhood are watching more…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":422494,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[147039,56,58,57,147041,147036,147037,147040,147038],"class_list":["post-422493","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-centerpoint-energy-storm-response","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-neighborhood-raw-sewage-smell","tag-sanitation-infrastructure-repairs","tag-storm-flooding-southeast-texas","tag-storm-preparedness-houston","tag-storm-related-power-outages-houston"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422493","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=422493"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/422493\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/422494"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=422493"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=422493"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=422493"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}