Power outages could last through the night as thousands without power in Northwest Austin

Severe weather that hit the Austin area throughout Feb. 11 has caused a massive string of power outages across Northwest Austin.

Austin Energy, the city’s electric utility provider, posted on its social media pages that approximately 32,000 customers throughout its service area are without power.

According to Austin Energy’s Twitter feed, the freezing temperatures have caused some equipment to freeze. The utility provider’s crews will be working through the night to restore power to areas affected by the severe weather.

OUTDATE UPDATE at 9 p.m.:

200 active outages

~32K customers without power

Precipitation has slowed down, which will help our restoration efforts. Most of the issues have been vegetation related + some devices also froze. Crews will work through the night to restore power. pic.twitter.com/oRO9bnCNiu

— Austin Energy (@austinenergy) February 12, 2021

As of publishing time, Austin Energy’s outage map shows that more than 7,000 households across Northwest Austin are still being affected by blackouts.

In the neighborhoods surrounding the Northwest Hills area alone, more than 3,000 customers have lost power at some point, with outages beginning shortly before 3 p.m. The neighborhoods of Barrington Oaks, Sierra Vista, Great Hills, Anderson Mill and the area adjacent to The Domain in North Austin have all been hit by power outages that continue into the night.

As reported by Community Impact Newspaper, Austin Resource Recovery's curbside collection services were halted partway through Feb. 11 due to inclement weather and continue to be paused. Those services include street sweeping, bulk item pickup, recycling, trash, composting, yard trimmings, large brush and dead animal collections. According to a news release from ARR, residents who are typically scheduled for Thursday curb collections should leave their bins and uncollected items and the curb until ARR can accommodate them. No fees will be charged for doing so.

Residents scheduled for Friday, Monday and Tuesday collection days should set their bins and items at the curb as usual but should expect possible delays in service in the case of continuing inclement weather, the release said.