Gov. Greg Abbott declares a natural disaster due to an ice storm in Texas

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Four days after an ice storm left hundreds of thousands of Texans without power, Gov. Greg Abbott declared a natural disaster for seven counties affected by severe weather.

Low temperatures combined with rain caused a severe storm that covered much of the Texas Hill Country with ice, downed tree limbs and damaged power lines. As of Saturday evening, more than 60,000 households were still without electricity.

“The State of Texas has provided all assistance requested during this week’s severe weather, and we continue to ensure communities in our state have the resources and support they need to recover from the winter weather event,” Abbott said in a statement.

Abbott has issued a declaration for Denton, Hayes, Henderson, Milam, Smith, Travis and Williamson counties, all of which have suffered significant damage over the past week. Abbott said other counties could be added based on damage assessments, which are still ongoing.

Abbott said the declaration will allow the state to provide assistance to people and communities affected by property damage. He encouraged residents to report damage, with details and photos if possible, through a survey conducted with the Texas Assessment Tool.

The announcement came after Austin officials faced criticism for clumsily reporting the storm and failing to deliver on early promises to quickly fix outages.

Austin Mayor Kirk Watson and Austin Energy officials waited more than 24 hours after people began losing power to hold the first press conference. And hours after they spoke Thursday, the electricity supplier reverted to its estimate that power would be restored by the end of the third day of outages, adding to a sense of uncertainty. Eventually, the city utility said it could no longer promise when power would be fully restored.

Despite disappointment at the initial slow pace, progress has been made. Nearly 100,000 Austin customers were restored to power Thursday through Saturday.