Austin Energy Outages Drop to 1,600 After Storms Knocked Out Power to 14,000 Customers
Updated
Updated · KUT · May 10
Austin Energy Outages Drop to 1,600 After Storms Knocked Out Power to 14,000 Customers
8 articles · Updated · KUT · May 10
1,600 Austin Energy customers were still without power by 12:48 p.m. Monday, down from more than 14,000 at 11:06 p.m. Sunday after severe thunderstorms swept the area.
Wind gusts, hail, heavy rain and lightning arrived with a cold front, with the worst severe-weather threat concentrated in the first one to two hours after storms reached Central Texas.
About 35,000 residents were affected at the peak outage level, based on Austin Energy's estimate that each customer account represents roughly 2.5 people.
The National Weather Service kept much of Central Texas under a severe thunderstorm watch Sunday night, while parts of the Austin area briefly fell under warnings before they expired before midnight.
Gov. Greg Abbott had activated state emergency response resources ahead of the storms, which ended by Monday morning and ushered in cooler temperatures.
After recent major grid upgrades, why did a storm still knock out power for thousands of Austinites?
Are virtual power plants and home batteries the answer to keeping Austin's lights on during severe weather?