Hey, AUS travelers we know Central Texas summers can bring serious heat. Whether you’re heading to baggage claim, waiting on rideshare, or exploring Austin, staying safe from high temperatures is important. On behalf of our partners at Austin Public Health, we’re sharing some simple tips to help keep you cool and safe when the temps rise.

Why It Matters

Austin summers bring high temperatures and humidity, which can lead to heat-related illnesses, such as heat exhaustion and heat stroke. Whether you’re visiting for a weekend or you’re a local flying out, hydration and staying cool are key.

Who’s Most at Risk?

Anyone can feel the effects of extreme heat, but some folks are especially vulnerable, including:

• Infants and Children: Young children and infants’ bodies are limited in how well they can cool themselves.
• Older Adults: Older adults are vulnerable to heat, especially if they have additional health issues, take medications, live alone, or have limited mobility.
• Chronic Medical Conditions: People with chronic conditions are more likely to have a serious health problem during a heat wave.
• People who Work, Exercise, or Play Outside: Community members with outdoor jobs, or who exercise or spend time outside, make up a large percentage of heat-related illnesses.
• People who are Pregnant: Extreme heat events are associated with adverse effects, including low birth weight, pre-term birth, and infant mortality. 

That’s why it’s a good idea to check on friends and family, especially during heat advisories.

Watch for Exhaustion and Heat Stroke Symptoms

Knowing the signs of heat-related illnesses can help you or someone around you get help faster.

Heat Exhaustion Symptoms:

• Cool, pale, clammy skin
• Weakness or dizziness
• Heavy sweating
• Nausea or vomiting
• Fast, weak pulse

What to do for someone experiencing heat exhaustion: 

• Cool them and move them to a cooler spot
• Loosen clothing
• Sip cool water slowly

If symptoms do not improve, last longer than an hour, or the victim begins vomiting, seek medical help. Heat exhaustion can quickly lead to heat stroke within minutes. 

Heat Stroke Symptoms (This Is an Emergency):

• Hot, red, dry, or damp skin
• Rapid, strong pulse
• Throbbing headache
• Confusion or dizziness
• Body temperature over 103°F
• Lethargy or loss of consciousness

If you or someone near you is showing signs of heat stroke: Move them, cool them, call 911.

• Get them into an air-conditioned space if possible
• Use cool cloths or a cool bath to lower body temperature
• Do not give fluids or anything by mouth if the person is unconscious or confused

Simple Ways to Stay Safe

• Drink water regularly, even if you’re not feeling thirsty
• Take shade or A/C breaks when outdoors
• Wear lightweight, light-colored, loose-fitting clothing
• Protect yourself with a brimmed hat, sunglasses, and sunscreen

For more travel tips while you’re flying through AUS, check out: Travel & Security at Austin-Bergstrom International Airport | AustinTexas.gov. For general information, customer service, and assistance. The airport’s 24/7 customer service phone number is 512-530-2242.

Austin firefighters wishing to make contact with the WSWS can submit the form below. All submissions will be kept anonymous.

The deadly flooding in Texas Hill Country has exposed deep cracks in American society. At least 120 people have died and 170 remain missing in a catastrophe that could have been mitigated with timely warnings and coordinated rescue operations. But years of budget cuts, disinvestment in public infrastructure and politically driven decision-making have taken their toll.

The region lacked any flood warning system. Staffing shortages at the National Weather Service hampered the agency’s ability to issue timely alerts. And in one of the most damning failures, the City of Austin Fire Department—despite having “the best water rescue units in the state,” according to Austin Firefighters Association (AFA) President Bob Nicks—refused to deploy rescue teams until after the flooding had already begun.

On July 11, the AFA (Local 975 of the International Association of Firefighters) voted overwhelmingly—by 93 percent—to issue a resolution of no confidence in Fire Chief Joel Baker.

In a statement, the AFA wrote:

The Austin Firefighters Association is demanding a full investigation into the decision and calling for transparency and accountability at all levels of management.

We’re urging investigative journalists and the public to help uncover the truth. The lives of citizens—and trust in our local government—depend on it.

The firefighters will not stop until every responsible party is held accountable and systemic changes are made to prevent such a tragedy from happening again.

According to Nicks, two formal requests for assistance were sent to the Austin Fire Department before the flooding began. Both were denied. A month earlier, Chief Baker had imposed a moratorium on all out-of-area deployments, citing internal “cash flow problems.”

The vertiginous fall of home prices in Austin, Texas, seems to have no end in sight, according to experts who believe that steep declines are likely to continue in the coming months.

A recent analysis by real estate intelligence platform Parcl Labs estimates that the Texas capital will see the biggest downturn in home prices in the country over the next year—even as the cost of buying a home in the city has already fallen drastically from its COVID-19 pandemic peak.

Austin’s housing market, according to Parcl Labs, is currently in “bear territory”—which means, essentially, that property values have been dropping for a consistent period of time—with home prices now over 20 percent down from their peak.

Despite this dip, researchers at the company said, “we still expect home prices to decline 16.5 percent from current levels over the next 12 months. This is the largest expected decline in our coverage universe of 40 real estate markets nationally.”

Behind Austin’s Housing Market Downfall

According to Redfin, the median sale price of a home in May—the latest month for which reliable monthly figures are available—was $557,500, down 5 percent from a year earlier. At their peak in May 2022, home sale prices in the city had reached a median of $667,000—which means that buying property in Austin was over $200,000 more expensive than it had been before the pandemic, when it was around $400,000.

In the same month, home sales in the city were down by 12.1 percent year-over-year, at 861, and those homes that went under contract spent an average of 48 days on the market, six more than in May 2024. Active listings in the Austin-Round Rock metropolitan area totaled 12,525, up from 9,902 a year earlier. Inventory was actually higher than pre-pandemic level and the highest going as far as 2016, according to data from Realtor.com.

“It’s important to understand why these adjustments are happening and what they represent for the health of the market,” Emily Girard, chief executive officer (CEO) of Unlock MLS and the Austin Board of REALTORS (ABOR), told Newsweek. “What we’re seeing in Austin is a necessary and overdue normalization after an unprecedented period of price acceleration during the pandemic. It is a return to sustainability.”

Home prices skyrocketed during the pandemic homebuying frenzy unleashed by historically low mortgage rates.

“In 2021 during the pandemic, more homes were sold in the Austin-Round Rock MSA than ever before, and sales dollar volume yielded more than a $23 billion impact on the Austin-area economy,” Girard said. “The pandemic led to increased demand as buyers in the market had more disposable income and reevaluated their needs in a living space after spending months at home.”

She added: “That, combined with record-low interest rates at the time and an Austin economy that continued to make major company relocation announcements regularly, led to more homes being sold and prices increasing to an unsustainable level.”

The price declines that the city has been experiencing for the past couple of years represent “healthy adjustments,” Girard said as the market “normalizes.”

And prices, as experts say, are continuing to fall.

According to Redfin data, Austin was one of the metros reporting the biggest year-over-year declines in median sale prices, at -4.2 percent, in the four weeks ending July 6.

Buyers on Top

The Austin housing market downturn does not mean that the city has now become undesirable for buyers—quite the opposite.

“For buyers, this is one of the most favorable environments we’ve seen in years,” Girard said. “Buyers have time to shop, compare and negotiate—luxuries that weren’t available during the pandemic boom. They’re in the market with more intention and more options, especially with increased affordability for first-time and moderate-income homebuyers.”

Sellers might have a harder time accepting that they no longer have the upper hand, and they may be forced to compromise on prices—especially as price declines are expected to continue.

“Prices will continue to drop this year. That’s because the last half of the year we always have more inventory. And if you ever look at the seasonal bell curve in Austin’s selling season, prices always come down in the last half of the year,” Austin-based realtor Jeremy Knight told Newsweek. “Yet, there are a lot of buyers on the sidelines. If we do see rates come down in the last half of the year, you’ll see more closed numbers and buyers frantic in the market.”

Unfortunately, a majority of experts expect mortgage rates to continue hovering between the 6 and 7 percent marks through this year and 2026.