City submits catastrophe notice

On Monday the city submitted a catastrophe notice to the state attorney general. A catastrophe notice allows city departments that are dealing with a natural disaster, such as winter storm Uri, to suspend public information requests so they can focus their attention on providing “life-saving assistance” to residents. According to the announcement, “Departments whose operations were not affected by the winter weather will continue to respond to public information requests under normal procedures. These notice provisions were passed by the Texas Legislature in 2019 in response to Hurricane Harvey. Several governmental entities have used this procedure during the response to the Covid-19 pandemic. This extreme winter weather event is the first time the city of Austin has implemented this notice.”