City seeks winter storm stories

The city’s Winter Storm Review Task Force has scheduled a series of listening sessions for the public to share their experiences and recommendations about Winter Storm Uri, which disrupted power and water service to much of the Austin area for a week or more in mid-February. The online meetings will take place on May 14 and 28 and June 11 and 23, starting at 6 p.m. each night, and will be broadcast live on ATXN. Agendas for the meetings will be posted at least three days in advance and those wishing to speak must register by phone (512-974-6339) or email (winterstormtaskforce@austintexas.gov) by noon the day before. Residents can also share written testimony, videos and photos at SpeakUpAustin.org. After the storm, Council’s Water Oversight Committee and the Austin Energy Utility Oversight Committee began looking into what caused the outages that impacted most of the city and many regions of the state. The groups also plan to look for safeguards to prevent or minimize the impacts of similar disruptions in the future.