SAN ANTONIO — Utility leaders are now saying some customers in the Austin area may not have power restored until Sunday. The large scale damage to power lines and trees is being compared to a hurricane.
Nine overhead line crews from CPS Energy in San Antonio have been sent to help with the recovery effort, as well as a specialty bus to provide comfort and communications to those left in the dark.
Austin Mayor Pro Tem Paige Ellis tweeted a video message from the Toney Burger Center where a bus from CPS Energy is scheduled to be helping out through Thursday.
"They can do cell phones, laptops, back up batteries for smaller devices and medical equipment," Ellis said. "It's important that you bring your own chargers."
Dana Sotoodeh of CPS Energy said, "They can go inside the bus. They can warm up or cool off depending on how the weather is."
Sotoodeh said weatherization upgrades at local power plants helped keep the San Antonio grid safe in this storm and their year-round vegetation management program makes a big difference, removing trees from power lines before they cause problems.
"Last year in 2022, we actually cleared 689 miles of lines," Sotoodeh said. "We know when we have storms like last week that trees falling are a problem for power lines, so making sure we trim trees year round is really crucial in ensuring we have reliability for our customers."
Because so many trees sustained damage from heavy blankets of ice, with regard to individual service supply lines, Sotoodeh said, "Customers should definitely take a look, go outside in either their front or back yards and if they have trees that are near power lines, take a look to see if those are already contacting the line or if they are at risk to."
Sotoodeh said customers can call 210-353-2222 to ask for advice about how to find a safe solution.
Help is available online as well at this link.
Sotoodeh said, "It's easy to find out more. We have a link on our website that has a diagram that shows what side is the customer side and what side is the CPS Energy side with more information."
Click here for more information.