AUSTIN, Texas — Winter storms over the past three years have caused major disruptions across Texas.
"Let's face it: we've learned a lot of lessons since Winter Storm Uri, and we found out we hadn't learned them well enough during Winter Storm Mara,” Austin Mayor Kirk Watson said.
Winter Storm Uri in February 2021 left millions of Texans in the dark when the power grid nearly collapsed. This past February, ice from Winter Storm Mara knocked down millions of trees and limbs onto power lines and caused dangerous road conditions.
Watson thinks this year will be different.
“When we have a big weather event, we’ll be ready,” Watson said.
Austin Energy said it's been working on insulating and inspecting equipment at its power plants. The company also has 85 crews in the field every day, trimming trees around their power lines. But since Winter Storm Mara knocked out 10.4 million trees, Austin Energy said it doesn’t have enough people to clean it up.
“That goes way beyond our vegetation management program,” General Manager Bob Kahn said. “It is difficult to find enough crews to work on this, but we are catching up.”
Watson said it’s going to take a holistic approach to prepare for these winter storms, which is why the City is considering other options to deal with trees falling on powerlines.
“We even put $1 million into that budget cycle to study putting [power] lines underground,” Watson said.
When it comes to keeping drivers safe, officials with Austin's Transportation and Public Works Department said they’re preparing early.
“We have added resources and equipment and trained our personnel to be proactive and apply anti-icing and de-icing agents on our critical roadways and bridges,” said Richard Mendoza, the director of Transportation and Public Works.
The department also has equipment and trained operators ready to move considerable amounts of snow from the roads if needed. It has also acquired more battery backups and generators to use at major intersections if traffic lights were to lose power.
Watson said that despite the work the City has done, winter storms vary from year to year and are unpredictable.
“There will be things that are unexpected,” Watson said. “There will be things happen that we wish had happened differently or we had a better response. But we will work very hard to be the kind of resilient city that we need.”
To make sure you and your family are prepared for any emergencies, you can read the emergency preparedness guides on the City’s website. You can also text “REG” to 287-846 to report outages and get alerts from Austin Energy.