Austin Energy says restoration nearly complete, hundreds still in the dark

Austin City Council decides City Manager Spencer Cronk must go

Right now, city manager Cronk still has a job, but it will soon be decided whether he will resign or if the city will fire him.

AUSTIN, Texas - Hundreds of people remain in the dark as Austin Energy continues to work towards restoring power.

"Thankfully, restoration efforts are nearly complete," said Matt Mitchell, spokesperson for Austin Energy.

Austin Energy's work is said to be nearly complete when it comes to full power restoration. Currently, less than 1% of the city remains without power.

"It's a remarkable relief, I know, to our customers that were out without power for so long and certainly for the tireless efforts of our crews that work 24 hours a day, seven days a week to get to this point," said Mitchell.

Austin Energy says they do believe nearly all customers will have power by Sunday, February 12, which is two weeks after the ice storm initially hit.

Mitchell says it has not been easy because this week’s weather has posed an extra challenge. Friday morning, 7,500 customers lost power because of a circuit lock out for two hours. The cause is said to be windy weather.

City officials announce opening of resource centers to help residents affected by ice storm

City Manager Spencer Cronk says Austin Energy and its out-of-state partners continue working around the clock to restore power, but that many remaining outages are very complex.

Mitchell says that was taken care of, and now they're focusing on those last few outages.

"You get down to these last outages, and they're incredibly unique and sometimes very complex. It requires multiple steps to get power restored safely. We want to make sure that if that personal home electric system needs repairs, that it is done with high quality and up to the standard that we need to see before we can safely reconnect those homes. That's what we have left now," he said.

In the meantime, the City of Austin and Multi-Agency Resource Centers hosted a winter storm relief event inside the Austin Convention Center.

"We wanted to create a space that if you are still dealing with the hardship and the heartache of not having power, you know, what can we do to help you," said Zohaib "Zo" Qadri, council member for District 9.

Qadri was at the event to answer questions and listen to citizens. Representatives from Austin Energy, insurance companies, and other resource agencies were also there to provide answers to questions.

"We just need to do a better job as a council, as a city, to make sure that this doesn't happen again because, whether it's 100,000 people without power or it's ten people without power, we need to make sure we do everything we can to alleviate any pain and suffering that these folks are feeling from those," said Qadri.

Another winter storm relief event will be held Saturday, Feb. 11 at the Austin Convention Center.