Outside of the Sand Hill natural gas power plant, near Austin, workers have installed a windbreak in case a big winter storm hits again. The sturdy plastic shrink wrap is stretched tight across scaffolding at the bottom of the plant, designed to stop cold wind from blowing through and freezing the pipes inside. “We’ve not […]
Winter Storm Uri
Posted inPublic Safety
City Council hears preliminary findings on what went wrong with city response to Winter Storm Mara
As extreme weather in Central Texas becomes more frequent, what is Austin doing to bolster its emergency preparedness? At its work session on Tuesday, City Council heard a preliminary update on the audits examining what broke down in the city’s response to Winter Storm Mara in February. The audit is looking into how the city […]
Posted inTransit
Cap Metro should have stopped bus service sooner during winter storm, unreleased after-action report says
During last February’s deadly winter storm, Capital Metropolitan Transportation Authority workers sheltered shivering Austinites and drove dialysis patients along treacherous roads to lifesaving treatments. But the agency had unrealistic expectations of how long it could operate in the worsening conditions, frustrating passengers and leaving buses abandoned on frozen streets. Those are some of the details […]
Posted inPublic Safety
Council members pose tough questions about city’s storm response
During Wednesday’s City Council Audit & Finance Committee meeting, Chair Alison Alter and fellow committee members Kathie Tovo and Mackenzie Kelly praised city staffers’ heroic efforts as Winter Storm Uri ground the city to a halt in February. But those heroic efforts were not enough and Council members had many questions after hearing the city […]
Posted inTravis County
County acts to prepare for next big storm
The question of disaster relief preparedness was central at Tuesday’s Commissioners Court session. With the memory of Winter Storm Uri still fresh in people’s minds, the county is putting together a contingency plan. “The goal here is to get some real sort of concrete things that we can do quickly,” County Judge Andy Brown said, […]
Posted inCity Hall
Scathing audit finds city unprepared for Winter Storm Uri
Austin city auditors found the city was unprepared to respond to the impacts of Winter Storm Uri because planners failed to adequately consider the risks of a severe winter storm, leading to widespread disaster. That was a major conclusion of an audit released Monday. Although the city faced a cascade of dangers, auditors found that […]
Posted inEnergy
In the wake of Uri, solar battery sales soar
Seven months after Winter Storm Uri caused the deaths of more than 200 people around Texas and left millions without power, demand for solar power and home battery systems has skyrocketed. Austin Energy has received more requests for solar panel and battery installations since the storm than in the past four years combined, said Luis Rivas, […]
Posted inCity Hall
Council takes hard look at what went wrong during winter storm
After taking in an extremely critical report about the city’s response to Winter Storm Uri, City Council members stressed the need to prepare for the next inevitable disaster. “There’s nobody here that didn’t fight long and hard and sleeplessly and in the cold, and didn’t experience heartache during the course of watching our infrastructure quite […]
Posted inPublic Safety
City eyes $3M for two resiliency hubs to aid weather emergency response
City staffers are recommending a pilot project to create two facilities to act as tryout resiliency hubs that would provide basic utilities and services to nearby residents during climate emergencies and other extreme conditions. A memo released last week by chief sustainability officer Lucia Athens and climate program manager Zach Baumer suggested creating two hubs […]
Posted inHousing
Property group wants to help Rosemont residents, but won’t put anything in writing
At the Tuesday meeting of the Travis County Commissioners Court, Patrick Howard with the Housing Authority of Travis County announced that the board of directors of the Strategic Housing Finance Corporation unanimously voted against an agreement drafted for, and proposed by, tenants of the Rosemont apartment complex in South Austin. Though Howard verbally pledged to […]
Posted inHousing
County to provide short-term lodging and repairs for Rosemont residents
On Tuesday, the Travis County Commissioners Court revisited the situation at the Rosemont apartment complex in South Austin, where over 80 families we had been given abrupt notice they would have to leave their homes by the end of the month as a result of structural and aesthetic damage from Winter Storm Uri. Following the […]
Posted inEnergy
Legislators respond to winter storm with new requirements for energy providers
The Electric Utility Commission received an update last week on legislative action related to electric utilities, with Senate Bill 3 serving as the omnibus response bill to Winter Storm Uri in mid-February. SB 3, approved at the close of the regular session in May, enacts a number of new requirements for electric generation plants, transmission […]