Hundreds of thousands of Texans without heat, without a clear timeline for the restoration of electricity

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Hundreds of thousands of businesses and households in Central and East Texas lost power for much of Wednesday as utility crews tried to fix power lines downed by freezing rain and fallen trees.

At one point, more than half of those affected were being serviced by Austin Energy, which warned customers Wednesday night that outages could last until 6 p.m. Friday. Outages occur as residents experience another a night of near-freezing temperatures and another day of closed college campuses, public schools, and a suspended Legislature.

In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, roads were covered in ice that refrozen on a cold environment after some of it melted. Already dangerous driving conditions were expected to worsen as freezing rain was expected to intensify on Thursday afternoon.

National Weather Service meteorologist Steve Fano said power outages similar to those experienced in Central Texas are possible for North Texas Wednesday evening and Thursday morning.

“I definitely have a plan in case of a power outage,” Fano said.

Freezing rain interrupted the normal life of Texans in many counties. School districts in the affected areas were closed until Thursday. Thousands of flights scheduled to arrive or depart from Dallas and Austin airports have been cancelled.

The reasons for Wednesday’s blackout were nothing like those of the infamous 2021 winter storm, when the state’s power grid nearly collapsed during a catastrophic frost that killed hundreds of Texans.

The winter storm this year is not as cold, long and massive as it was two years ago. And the current outages are mainly related to local problems, such as broken power lines, and not to the power system itself.

However, this week’s weather is a fresh reminder that city and state emergency officials have historically not prioritized preparations for harsh winter weather as Texas is warm most of the year.

Open overhead power lines, which are cheaper to build than underground ones, accumulate ice during extreme cold weather, and frozen precipitation can weigh them down and break them, causing and prolonging power outages even when the power grid remains stable.

At one point on Wednesday, more than 170,000 of the state’s roughly 350,000 outages were Austin Energy customers. By approximately 9 p.m., approximately 160,000 utility supplier customers in Austin still not enough power. By comparison, more than 353,000 customers across the state were affected at the time, even though the state’s main power grid remained stable, according to PowerOutage.us.

Austin Energy used Twitter to update customers on the progress of the crews throughout the day. At 11:35 he warned that some interruptions may persist for another 12 to 24 hours. By around 4 p.m., after tens of thousands of customers had been without power for several hours, the company announced a power outage. will be maintained until Thursday and urged people to move. Later Wednesday evening, Austin Electric CEO Jackie Sargent told Pro Tem Mayor Paige Ellis in an email that the utility provider expects to restore all outages by 6 p.m. Friday.

On Wednesday evening, Austin Energy tweeted that its online crash reporting tool didn’t work. The company asked people to call with questions, but also warned customers about long waiting times to get through.

As the number of customers without power fluctuated throughout the day, those who were without power for almost 12 hours criticized the government and utility officials for not using wider communication channels so they could prepare for such a long blackout.

“I take responsibility for not being more prepared, but I would like the city to be more clear in terms of preparedness. I was expecting icy roads, not power outages,” said Allison Rizzolo, who experienced a power outage in Austin late this morning. “I understand there is a fine line between preparedness and panic, but I wish they were more aggressive in their communications.”

Ice also damaged trees across Austin on Wednesday. Images of splitting in half circulated on social media as crews cut and removed fallen limbs from the roadway.

“Right now what we’re doing, at least on the Travis County side, is if there’s a tree in the road, the crew will come out and chop it down and just push it aside just to try and get to it. next tree because a lot of them are downed,” District Judge Andy Brown said in an interview. “Actually asking people to stay inside if they can and not travel.”

Austin Energy spokesman Matt Mitchell said the outages in Austin were caused by more than 1,300 separate incidents, each requiring individual assessments from crews crossing fallen debris and icy roads.

While repairs were underway, other customers reported more outages throughout the day.

“It’s like hitting a mole,” Mitchell said.

After surviving the 2021 freeze, affected Texans on Wednesday braced for a repeat.

After Venona Cave, a 47-year-old Flynn resident, ran out of wood to burn during the previous frost, she began hoarding firewood in anticipation of another winter storm. She said her current hiding place is about 15 feet long and 5 feet high.

“I live in the country so I can’t just run to Walmart,” Cave said. “I try to have food that I can eat without having to cook and that I have plenty of flashlights, batteries and candles.”

The lack of electricity can hit medically vulnerable Texas residents especially hard if they rely on electricity for medical equipment.

“If you lose power, you lose access to resources,” said Stephanie Duke, disaster resilience coordinator for Disability Rights Texas. “So having contingency plans in place will help you be better prepared.”

Others tried to prepare but were frustrated by what they called a lack of communication from government officials. Casey McCarthy, who lives in Austin’s Southwood neighborhood, didn’t go out of power until about 7:20 p.m., but was without internet all day.

The 52-year-old woman said she signed up for every text alert in the city, but hasn’t heard from Austin Energy, the city, or the state. Without a reliable internet connection, she can’t access smartphone apps designed to help residents in emergencies. She also hears almost nothing about the storm on the radio.

“I consider ourselves lucky and prepared, but the serious absence of any city or national emergency alert system is alarming and irresponsible. And a complete lack of information on local radio,” she wrote to the Tribune. “I’ve been following the Haiti riots, Brady’s resignation, the benefits of dark chocolate, but I have no idea what’s going on in Austin.”

National Weather Service officials said the ice storm will continue in the Southern Plains and Mid-South “as warm, moist air overhead flows northward from the Persian Gulf over a shallow layer of low surface temperatures.”

“Outside of our office in northern Tarrant County, it’s like a skating rink,” said Hunter Reeves, NWS meteorologist for North Texas. “We’re having freezing rain that just passed and it’s not going anywhere.”

Meanwhile, Austin residents waited for power to be restored, but many only heard the crackling of new trees succumbing to the frost.

Samantha Aguilar, Sneha Dey, Joshua Fechter and William Melhado contributed to this story.