 The city of Houston is sweltering as utilities work to restore power after barrel in the Houston area. Many residents are still struggling with power outages following damage by Hurricane Barrel. Early this morning, poweroutage.com had the statewide figure of around 1,700,000. Erica Robinson spoke to the AP about her frustrations. Over 800,000 people in my area are without power and there gets us when they can. And that was the last thing I heard. And then I lost power on my phone. Not having power.