by Michael Adkison and Emily Chavez

AUSTIN, Texas — In their first press conference at any point of the severe winter weather that hit Central Texas this week, Austin officials iterated their estimation that citywide power would be restored by 6 p.m. on Friday evening. An Austin Energy official with boots on the ground working on power restoration said he wasn't so sure.

Austin Energy's General Manager, Jackie Sargent, spoke of being "two steps forward, three steps back" in responding to the ice storm, saying officials had not anticipated the storm's severity.

"We know that this has been a very frustrating situation for customers without power," she said Thursday morning. "At this point because of the forecast of rising temperatures, we are expecting to be wrapping up our major restoration efforts by Friday evening."

Mayor Watson says power won’t be restored for everyone until tomorrow.

City and county leaders say they’re aware of the stress, frustration, and anxiety of residents. They say crews are working as quickly as possible to restore power. @cbsaustin

— Emily Chavez (@emilymchavez) February 2, 2023

 

CBS Austin spoke with Austin Energy officials working along powerlines in south Austin. We asked if he anticipated that the 6 p.m. restoration estimate is accurate. Elton Richards, the vice president of electrical systems field operations at Austin Energy, said he "would not say that."

"We've never given an estimated restoration time," Richards said. "Until all the circuits get walked down, that's when we'll come out and give an estimated restoration time. But we've still got about 50 circuits that we're working today, trying to get walked down, just to try and get that estimate."

 

AUSTIN’S ENERGY OUTAGE: City officials, including @austinenergy’s leader, have said citywide power will be restored by Friday at 6 P.M.

Austin Energy’s VP of electrical systems field operations tells @cbsaustin he’s not so sure.

“I wouldn’t say that…” ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/wwF1ell0mU

— Michael Adkison (@madkisonews) February 2, 2023

 

Damage Control

Officials at Thursday's press conference said the outages are entirely localized, unrelated to the supply and demand of Texas' statewide electrical grid.

Most of the outages have been caused by ice accumulating on either powerlines themselves or onto tree limbs that would then snap off and crash into powerlines.

Many of those tree limbs have obstructed roads and homes. Ken Snipes, the director of Austin Resource Recovery, said collection services resumed Thursday.

"Because of the length and nature of this storm, it has proven very challenging," Mayor Kirk Watson said, in his first press conference as the newly-elected mayor. "Initially, it was hoped that all power would be restored in 12-24 hours. But as we now know, and we anticipate, it will be late tomorrow before we have substantially restored power to everyone in the city."

Sargent told reporters Austin Energy had 85 crews in service, as well as another 32 crews from other utilities that are assisting, restoring more than 113,000 customers' electricity. More crews are expected to arrive from Houston, Sargent said.

"We know that this has been a very frustrating situation for customers without power," she said. "And I want you to know that we feel your frustration."

Sargent said she did not have an estimate of what extent of damage Austin's electrical infrastructure faced in the wake of the storm. She also said she didn't expect rate hikes as a result at this point.

A Lack of Communication

Austin officials appeared to be largely on the defensive on Thursday, facing criticism for a lack of communication regarding the storm. Other than social media posts and press releases, city officials had largely remained silent on the matter, with no press conferences until Thursday morning, after thousands of residents spent the night without power.

"I've been frustrated and disappointed in the communication that I feel like should have been better with the people of the city," Mayor Watson said. "A press conference like this to answer the questions of the people of the city should have happened before now."

Watson said he would commit to holding "another one of these" on Thursday. Officials are set to meet Thursday evening for a press conference. It's unclear if they will address a new restoration estimate.

"I will admit that I deferred to folks so that they could be doing the jobs that they needed to do and were experts in the area," Watson said, later in the press conference. "But I am frustrated, and I know that others are frustrated. This needs to happen on a more frequent basis. But we ought to focus now on the life and safety issues, get those out of the way, and then we’ll come up with a new way to do this so we can answer the public’s questions."

"One obstacle to addressing the public about the storm was a lower expectation for the storm's damage," Sargent said.