Crews from Houston-based CenterPoint Energy Inc. are among hundreds of out-of-state utility workers helping Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. with power restoration after the May 20, 2013, deadly tornado that hit Moore and south Oklahoma City.

Employees of Houston-based CenterPoint Energy Inc. are among the hundreds of out-of-state utility workers helping restore power in the wake of this week’s deadly tornadoes.

CenterPoint has about 100 employees in Moore and south Oklahoma City assisting Oklahoma Gas and Electric Co. with repairs. While the utilities have worked together on storms before, this week’s restoration has added significance for the two utilities since their parent companies decided to form a master limited partnership for their midstream operations. The deal closed May 1 and will combine OG&E’s Enogex division and CenterPoint’s pipelines and operations into an $11 billion company.

Bruce Baxter, operations manager for CenterPoint, said the utility has several crews in the area, including about 40 workers doing high-line work. Most of the workers left Houston early Tuesday and arrived that evening to a staging area at Crossroads Mall. The high-line workers came in on Wednesday.

CenterPoint has been concentrating on repairs around Briarwood Elementary School in Moore, Baxter said. Most of the high-line work has been near Southmoore High School. They are working 16-hour days to restore service and expect to be here five to seven days.

“We’re helping rebuild the infrastructure around the most damaged areas so they’ll have power when they’re ready to rebuild,” Baxter said.

Baxter said CenterPoint has plenty of experience restoring power after hurricanes, but tornadoes aren’t as frequent in the Houston area as they are in Oklahoma. Hurricanes typically inflict damage over a widespread area. He said tornado damage is limited to a smaller area but can be very intense, like the the devastation in Moore and south Oklahoma City.

Outside of the new ties between their parent companies, CenterPoint and OG&E crews get to see some old friends when they team up for power restoration following disasters.

“We’ve worked other storms with OG&E and over the years had a good relationship,” Baxter said. “You get used to seeing some of the same faces.”

That was in 2007. This year, Damon pledged to avoid using the bathroom in a satirical stunt designed to call attention to worldwide water and sanitation concerns. Drinking even two beers would make the toilet-avoidance pledge difficult to keep for even an hour.

Damon might have needed a second six pack when considering the tremendous flop his most recent theatrical movie was. It was called “Promised Land,” a fictional treatment of some of the same themes covered in a 2010 “documentary” called “Gasland.”

We’ll avoid relating that title to Damon’s bathroom pledge except to say that cheap celebrity stunts are often full of sound and fury, signifying little or nothing.