The city of Austin submitted a catastrophe notice to the Texas Office of the Attorney General that allows it to suspend deadlines under the Texas Public Information Act due to the freezing temperatures and rain Feb. 3-4.

In 2019, the Texas Legislature passed a law in response to Hurricane Harvey to help government agencies affected by a catastrophe with complying with requirements related to public information requests.

The city submitted notice Feb.7 requesting seven calendar days, and it will allow city departments involved in the emergency response for Austin’s winter weather watch to have more time to respond to the public information requests received during that time. The notice will expire Feb.13.

Pending public information requests will be on hold for seven calendar days, and new public information requests that are received during the seven calendar days will be considered received on Feb.14.

City departments whose operations were not impacted by the inclement weather will continue to take public information requests as regular.