Round Rock apartment without power for over 24 hours as cold continues

Round Rock residents w/o power for 24+ hours

An apartment building in Round Rock has been without power for more than 24 hours as the bitter cold continues.

ROUND ROCK, Texas - As the bitter cold continues, some residents in Round Rock have been without power for more than 24 hours after multiple electric meters caught fire. Those residents were without heat during last night's sub-freezing temperatures.

"There hasn't been anybody here during the day working on it, no one last night. It has been freezing cold," said Guy Cosley, a resident of The Creek Apartments in Round Rock.

Residents living in Building 1 at The Creek Apartments say they are being forced to live in sub-freezing conditions or leave their homes.

"We can't cook. All of our appliances are electric, so it's just horrible," Cosley said. "I walked over to HEB and bought some firewood because we have a fireplace, so I had some fire in my fireplace to get a little heat in the apartment, but other than that there is nothing else that we can do."

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Cosley says the power went out in his apartment around 8 p.m. on Saturday night. According to the Electric Delivery Company Oncor, there were one to two meters that caught fire, causing a hazard to disconnect. They say power will not be restored until the complex makes repairs.

"There was like a loud boom noise, and our electric went out, and several minutes later the fire department came, and they actually even knocked on my door and wanted to check to see if there was any fire inside my wall," Cosley said.

He says he tried to get in contact with the leasing office as temperatures continued to drop.

"I couldn't reach out to the complex because their phone number is busy. We can't even leave a message," Cosley said.

The resident says he did not receive any communication from the leasing office, while others living in the same building say they received an email around 10 p.m. Saturday night. A resident who wished to remain anonymous says she saw the email from a neighbor.

"Our management company who runs this place has not been in contact with people. We are left wondering what is going on," the resident said. "We did find out they did send an email out to some residents. I didn't get it, I don't know how many other people didn't get it, saying that we need to go to a shelter."

The email states in part, "The city of Round Rock has brought to our attention the power in Building 1 has been affected, they are working diligently to restore the power. We understand if you need to stay elsewhere until the power is restored."

"Many of us have animals, we can't be bringing our animals to the shelter, we are going to be missing out on work, we can't wash dishes, we can't wash clothes, and we can't prepare food, so it is also added a lot of cost to have food delivered," the resident said.

The residents say there are a total of nine apartments in building one with no power.

"We are waiting in this weather for a repair to be done in this weather, which is dangerous for residents and animals," the resident said.

"Monday, I am going to go over to the office and find out what the heck is going on, because if they are not going to fix us," Cosley said. "I mean it's freezing. They need to provide us some other means of habitation, at least temporarily until they can get this fixed."