By Alejandro Serrano, The Texas Tribune
More than 300,000 businesses and households in Central and East Texas did not have power Wednesday as a winter storm persisted, immobilizing portions of the state with slick roadways and freezing temperatures.
Approximately 324,000 customers, out of about 13 million tracked, did not have power Wednesday afternoon, according to PowerOutage.us. The state’s main power grid remained stable. On Tuesday, Texas power officials said the grid had sufficient reserves to ensure stability through the weather event.
It was not clear how long the local outages would last. Utility officials said some customers may be without power for 12 to 24 hours.
A spokesperson for Austin Energy, which reported more than 164,000 outages, said crews were working with frozen equipment and amid brutal weather elements to restore what appeared to be widespread local outages.
“The roads themselves are not too terrible except there’s branches everywhere,” said Jennifer Herber, who has been hearing her own tree cracking and seen tree limbs fall. “We want customers to know we are doing it as safely and quickly as we can.”
The utility company tweeted about 2 p.m. that it was "prioritizing power restoration to critical organizations and working to get the greatest number of customers online in the least amount of time."
While roads appeared to be safer with fewer drivers out than on Tuesday, Travis County Judge Andy Brown said overnight precipitation stuck to trees and weighed them down, snapping limbs that knocking out power lines and equipment as they fall. He described a combined effort underway by midday Wednesday to clear the debris, saying firefighters out running calls have encountered fallen branches and trees and logged them into a database for crews to address.
“At this point what we’re doing, at least on the Travis County side, is if there’s a tree down on the road, a crew will go out and cut it up and just push it to the side just to try to get to the next tree because there are so many that are down,” Brown said. “Really asking people still to stay inside if they can and not travel.”
The causes of electricity outages Wednesday were unlike those two years ago, when the state’s power grid nearly collapsed during a catastrophic freeze that killed hundreds of Texans. This year’s winter storm is not as cold, prolonged or widespread as the one two years ago. And the current outages are due mostly to localized issues like downed power lines, not a problem with power grid itself. The 2021 storm saddled the state with days of subfreezing temperatures and widespread power outages that lasted days and caused billions of dollars in damages while many died trying to keep warm.
The current storm still disrupted life for many. Austin ISD, the school system in the state’s capital with roughly 75,000 students, announced that classes would again be canceled Thursday “because of continued bad weather & power outages throughout the area.”
Meteorologists this week warned of possibly difficult traveling conditions. State officials have been urging people in the affected areas to avoid travel unless it was imperative.
“As severe winter weather continues across Texas, please remain aware & heed guidance from local officials,” Gov. Greg Abbott tweeted Wednesday. “If you need to drive, check road conditions in your area at http://DriveTexas.org. Report power outages to your local provider.”
Winter storm warnings and advisories, as well as ice storm warnings and advisories, remained in effect throughout the state from Amarillo to the Houston area, according to the National Weather Service.
“One final surge of moisture is anticipated to overrun the subfreezing air at the surface today and lead to more icy conditions from the Lone Star State through a majority of the Mid-South,” NWS meteorologists wrote in a morning forecast. “Additional ice accumulations up to a half inch are forecast across much of central and north-central Texas, as well as parts of southern Arkansas.”
This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2023/02/01/texas-ice-storm-power-outages/.
"Hundreds of thousands of Texans without heat, with no clear timeline for getting power back" was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs Texans — and engages with them — about public policy, politics, government and statewide issues.
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