AUSTIN, Texas — While the Austin area isn't in the clear yet, city leaders said a united effort across City of Austin and Travis County departments and in the community worked to keep people safe during freezing weather, and the numbers show it.
During a Tuesday press conference, Mayor Kirk Watson explained how Austin saw historic lows.
"We had another cold morning in Austin today [Tuesday] with the low hitting 16 degrees, which matched yesterday's historic low," Watson said. "The air was so frigid that the National Weather Service issued a Wind Chill Warning that expired just a couple of hours ago, and that's only the third time in history that a Wind Chill Warning has been issued in Austin."
One point stressed during the press conference was the effectiveness of the united effort among city leaders, Travis County leaders and the community.
"It's important for us to be prepared as a city, as a county and as a community," Watson said. "I think we've lived up to that challenge."
Officials said by increasing free transportation and communication to the unhoused through text messages and media outreach, the city saw a record-breaking number of people register at overnight shelters on Monday night.
"At least 659 people spent the night in one of those shelters," Watson said.
Watson said the City opened seven shelters and added extra beds.
Regarding weather-related medical calls, Austin-Travis County EMS (ATCEMS) said medics were a little bit busy.
"When you compare it to previous weather events, this has really kind of been fairly tame," Cpt. Darren Noak with ATCEMS said.
From midnight Sunday to Tuesday evening, Noak said ATCEMS responded to 30 weather-related calls and took 10 people to the hospital.
"One of our incidents that we did transport a patient to the hospital as a result of the weather was actually a mild to moderate frostbite call," Noak said.
On Monday night, medics rescued someone with hypothermia from a piece of land in the middle of the Colorado River near the Longhorn Dam, but those were the most extreme situations.
"We didn't have any carbon monoxide exposures that I'm aware of, and we had, of course, no slips and falls because we didn't have that ice on surfaces and sidewalks," Noak said.
"I want to emphasize, it's just not over yet," Travis County Judge Andy Brown said.
With one more night of extreme cold settling in, if you have to be outside, remember to cover exposed skin.
"Layer yourself up, wear your gloves, limit your exposure to that environment," Noak said.
The signs of hypothermia are:
- shivering
- fumbling hands
- slurred speech
- exhaustion
- memory loss
- drowsiness
- confusion
If you have those symptoms, try to get yourself in a warm spot and call 911.