Austin ISD schools, offices to remain closed Feb. 2

Austin ISD schools and offices will remain closed Thursday, Feb. 2, due to the winter storm and continued power outages.

Officials made the announcement around noon on Wednesday, Feb. 1, adding they will continue to monitor the weather conditions and provide updates. The decision was made after school officials deemed it necessary to close the schools and offices on Tuesday, Jan. 31 and Wednesday, Feb. 1, due to the extreme winter weather in Austin.

"We considered a late start, but we want to ensure students and families could be safe getting to school and while at school," AISD Media Relations Specialist Nayeli Santoyo said. "In light of that, we determined the safest option was to keep all offices and campuses closed for another day."

According to the National Weather Service, the winter weather will continue through the morning of Thursday, Feb. 2.

"Significant ice accumulations are likely as another two rounds of precipitation will move through the day and into the night on Feb. 1," officials with the NWS said. "With these expected new ice amounts, travel over the Austin metropolitan area is discouraged through Thursday morning."

As of noon on Feb. 1, an outage map showed more than 159,000 customers without power in Austin. Matt Mitchel, Austin Energy public information officer told Community Impact most of the damage has been caused by tree limbs falling on power lines.

“The entire Austin Energy is right now mobilized,” Mitchel said. “We are very much in an emergency response posture. All of our crews are already in the field.”