The power outages have been so significant that Austin Energy's Stuart Riley referred to it as the city's third worst storm, after winter storms Mara and Yuri, based on outage data history that goes back until 2012.
Around the storm's peak intensity at 6:45 p.m. May 28, Robert Luckritz, Austin-Travis County Emergency Medical Services chief, said the 911 communications center saw a 35% increase in call volume, which included medical calls, traffic collisions, flooding and power outages. Of these, nine were water rescue calls for vehicles or pedestrians swept away, and one resulted in the death of an adult who was submerged for over 20 minutes near West North Loop Boulevard.
Current situation
At the storm's peak intensity, around 72,500 Austin Energy customers were without power. As of 11:30 a.m. May 29, over 37,000 customers are still without power. Riley said there is no estimated time to restore power, and outage restoration may take place over a few days.
"We will not stop working until everyone is restored, and as soon as we have a more complete picture of the damage assessment, we will provide additional updates," Riley said at a news conference May 29.
Other utility providers are supporting Austin Energy in power restoration. As of 10 a.m. May 29, Austin Energy officials have identified 104 broken poles.
To view current outages, or to report an outage, visit www.austinenergy.com.
What you need to know
Austin Resource Recovery Director Richard McHale said crews are currently assessing damage around the city, which he noted has been mainly concentrated north of the Colorado River and east of MoPac. McHale said ARR customers can put small branches and yard trimmings in their green composting carts, and the minimum of 15 containers will be waived as debris needs to be cleared. Residents should call 311 to clear any large tree limbs.
Watershed Protection Department crews are also assessing conditions and clearing debris in drainage system and waterways.
"These type of emergencies are what brings us together as one city, one community," said Andre de la Reza, Austin Fire Department assistant chief, on May 29. "We collaboratively worked, not only in those first three hours, but throughout the night, into the morning, with Austin Energy, [Austin] Public Works and [ARR] to triage those calls, to hit those life hazard calls with the highest priority ... and then to triage the other ones to a lower priority so we can keep those units responding to where life was truly in danger."
Find more resources and updates at www.austintexas.gov/alerts.
