Generators, food spoiled: slow energy restores Austin’s anger

Austin, Texas (AP) — The future of Austin’s top city leader was in jeopardy Monday as frustration flared over power outages that left thousands without power in the Texas capital for nearly a week and could last several more days.

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson, a Democrat, has called a caucus this week that will put the position of city manager Spencer Kronk at stake. The move reflected growing dissatisfaction in America’s 11th largest city over the slow repair of power lines after a deadly ice storm that left residents with no idea when power would finally be returned.

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City utility Austin Energy warned on Sunday in the face of mounting criticism that a full restoration of power might not happen until Feb. 12, nearly two weeks after the outages began.

“To all our Austin residents who are furious about the ongoing power outage, you are right,” Watson tweeted. “There must be responsibility.”

Kronk, who oversees city personnel, responded by telling reporters that he is focused on rebuilding the storm and restoring power. Watson did not explicitly say whether he thought Kronk should be fired, but said Thursday’s meeting would “evaluate the busyness” of the city manager.

For the vast majority of Austin residents, the lights were on on Monday or never turned off at all. At the peak of the outages, about 170,000 homes and businesses — nearly a third of Austin’s utility customers — had no electricity, and in many cases no heat. By Monday, that number had dropped to around 21,000, about 4% of all customers.

But in areas that did not yet have electricity, familiar scenes unfolded.

Outdoor extension cords ran from homes with electricity to neighbors across the street who didn’t. Spoiled food is dumped in trash cans. The kids walked past the noisy generators, heading back to class on Monday for the first time since Austin closed schools for most of last week. And on text message groups and social media apps, the sight of maintenance crews was seen as urgent.

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Cathy Manganella, 37, was so tired of it that when Austin Energy arrived in her area on Sunday with a charging station for residents – but still no repair vehicles – she paced in front of the station with a sign that read: “This pregnant woman is finished . This!”

“It was pretty awful,” said Manganella, a therapist who is seven months pregnant and was unable to work last week due to work interruptions. How is this not a plan?

Austin Energy described the remaining shutdowns as the most difficult and time-consuming. The storm dropped temperatures near or below zero and covered trees in Austin with ice, weighing down branches that eventually broke and crashed into power lines. Ice-covered equipment and crews on slippery roads have also slowed down recovery efforts, city officials said.

The utility warned Monday that a new front of strong winds and potential storms that began on Tuesday could further hamper recovery efforts.

“I apologize that this has taken so long,” said Jackie Sargent, general manager of Austin Energy.

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texasstandard.news contributed to this report.

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