Frustrated south Austin residents powerless, want answers

Some residents in Austin, Texas who’re nonetheless with out energy Saturday days after a winter storm struck say they’re pissed off that no solutions are being supplied as to when their electrical energy will return.

“There’s simply no communication from (Austin Power) about after we’re going to get assist,” stated Christy Kale, who lives in south Austin.

“We bought a textual content (Friday) saying ‘thanks to your endurance,’” after receiving a textual content on Thursday that stated a restore crew had been assigned to the realm, Kale stated. “However nobody has come to the neighborhood that I can inform.”

“There are aged folks” within the neighborhood, stated Kale, 66. “Kids, individuals who want medical gear, it’s simply improper” that nobody with the vitality firm will say when energy is anticipated to be restored.

Officers with Austin Power didn’t instantly return telephone requires touch upon Saturday.

The vitality firm’s web site stated crews have been working across the clock “by way of difficult repairs to revive energy to prospects.”

The corporate stated energy could return intermittently as work continued to restore the system.

Each Kale and fellow south Austin resident Greta Olivas stated they’ve been unable since Friday to talk by telephone with an individual when making an attempt to contact the facility supplier for the town of almost 1 million folks, Austin Power.

Each additionally stated they only need to know when to count on energy to return.

“If I had a solution, if it was ‘oh, there’s an space with greater issues, it’s going to take the weekend (earlier than energy is restored)’ … we’d know what to do … we might go to a resort,” Olivas stated.

“I might drive to San Antonio,” for a resort, if she knew when to count on the outage to finish, Olivas stated. “It will get chilly at night time,” regardless that she has a hearth and a generator to run a small house heater and to warmth water.

The Saturday morning low in Austin was about 30 levels and native catastrophe declarations have been issued, step one in probably qualifying for state and federal catastrophe help on account of the storm.

Statewide, the variety of outages had fallen to under 125,000 on Saturday, down from a peak of 430,000 prospects with out energy on Thursday.

The storm, which swept into the area Monday, has been blamed for at the least 12 visitors fatalities deaths in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.