With over 900 restaurants across the country, 769 of them in Texas, a viral tweet revealed they could use the app to track the hurricane’s damage.
As of Tuesday afternoon, 2.2 million Texans were without power following Hurricane Beryl's destructive path through the Lonestar State after the Category 1 storm made landfall on Monday morning. Of those without power, 1.7 million were CenterPoint Energy customers. With so many people affected, residents are bound to be curious about where in the state power is out and when it is expected to come back on, but CenterPoint Energy's online power outage tracker is offline. Instead, Texans are using the Whataburger app to track power outages.
Social media user @BBQBryan pointed out the tactic on X, formerly Twitter, late Monday night. The post has been viewed more than 3 million times since it was made.
"The Whataburger app works as a power outage tracker, handy since the electric company doesn't show a map. Still nearly 1.9 million power outages," BBQBryan posted.
"Whataburger is that friend by your side in good times and bad. We're glad the Whataburger app has been helpful to Houston residents to understand where power is available in the city," Whataburger President and CEO Ed Nelson told Newsweek. "Keep in mind, the app should only be used as a general idea of power availability. We encourage residents to call local units to see if they are open and operating. Everyone please be safe if you leave your home."
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Customers can assume power outages when they search a Whataburger location and see that the 24-hour restaurant is closed, or displayed in gray rather than orange colors on the app. The tactic isn't foolproof though, as some customers discovered that Whataburger restaurants labeled as open were actually closed.
The power outage map incident has caused many Texans to voice their outrage at CenterPoint Energy for the power outage map failure.
"Whataburger has been more helpful in tracking outages than CENTERPOINT ENERGY. This is ridiculous," one user posted with a map of the Whataburger locations. "What a joke of a company and joke of a state to continue to let these major outages happen without investments into burying power lines or upgrading electric infrastructure."
"For anyone in the Houston area: With @CenterPoint dropping the ball again and not having a power outage map, there is another option. I saw and confirmed you can use the @Whataburger app and look up the locations in your area. Make sure to use the refresh button," another user said.
"When the @Whataburger app has a better power outage map that @CenterPoint...," one user said with a screenshot of the app.
"@CenterPoint energy is so bad, even their outage map is down People are using @Whataburger locations to track power outages in Houston," another user said, adding a skull emoji.
There are 625 Whataburger locations in Texas, with 127 of them located across the Houston area, according to the Houston Chronicle. Whataburger plans to have a food truck in the Houston area next week to offer food to local residents in need, and the restaurant is donating water to local shelters through the Red Cross.
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