AUSTIN – The National Weather Service has issued a red flag warning for all of South Central Texas. The warning will be in effect from 9 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday.

Central Texas fire watch

NWS predicts northern winds of 15 to 30 mph with gusts up to 40 mph. Relative humidity is set to be 15-20%, along with dry vegetation. The agency says that the combination of these conditions will favor the spread of wildfires.

The Critical Fire Weather Watch comes just days after Austin and Travis County officials announced wildfire preparedness, including what’s being called No-Ember November.

For the entire month, the city and county leaders will be hosting social media and community events aimed at making sure people are aware of fire prevention practices, as well as how to be prepared when a wildfire strikes.

The city and county have also updated their Community Wildfire Prevention Plan, which looks to reduce the risk of wildfire damage by making sure communities are aware of what to do when fires spread.

Austin homes could be at risk

What they’re saying:

“This time of year, we also start seeing the grasses, which are fuel for fires, they start to cure out and go dormant for the winter months,” says Walter Flocke, a fire analyst with the Texas A&M Forest Service.

“Austin ranks 5th in the nation for the number of homes at risk for wildfire. It is important that we as community leaders take action to educate the public on this risk and steps they can take to protect themselves while we are also planning for how to prepare for, respond to, and recover from disasters,” says Austin Mayor, Kirk Watson.

“Specifically, this plan will access and map current wildfire hazards, vulnerabilities and hazards across the county,” says Travis County Judge Andy Brown.

One of the major factors in the new plan is community input.

“We’re not writing these plans for the community, we’re writing them with the community,” says the director of Austin Emergency Management.

What you can do:

Mayor Watson is also urging the public to enroll with Warn Central Texas, which be one of the primary ways officials will be able to notify communities of emergency events.

Any HOA’s, businesses or other community leaders are also encouraged to visit Ready Central Texas. The site will allow the public to request preparedness training for disasters.

ANN ARBOR, MI — A coffee shop with Austin, Texas, “vibes” has arrived in Ann Arbor.

Hazel Coffee Co, 2111 Packard St., unveiled its offerings in a soft opening Wednesday, Nov. 5, co-owner Bryan Caragay said.

“The community around here has been the most supportive,” Caragay, 29, said. “We have had dozens of people yesterday and today just say how happy they are for us that we got through it and congratulating us.”

Caragay co-owns the shop with his wife, Hailey Polidori Caragay. The two hope to make their coffee shop unique by adding a “coffee-and-community tagline.”

“We really wanted to bring that Southern hospitality to the Midwest and just have a really collaborative, creative environment,” Hailey Polidori Caragay, 29, said. “We want it to be a place people gather from all aspects of creativity.”

Hazel Coffee Co. comes after years of doorstop drop-offs and event-catering, Bryan Caragay said.

The couple, originally from the Plymouth-Canton area and both 2018 Central Michigan University graduates, started a coffee catering company in 2020 when they resided in Austin.

Bryan said his wife dropped off coffee orders door-to-door and used one espresso machine to prepare drinks at the start.

The couple moved to Ann Arbor in 2022 and transitioned their coffee business to catering carts. Bryan said they opened the coffee shop as “a home base” for patrons.

“We get a lot of people saying that they loved our coffee at our catering events but there was nowhere they could actually come and enjoy the coffee themselves,” Bryan said.

The couple “blindly moved” to Ann Arbor because the city has “similar vibes to Austin.”

They began seriously touring potential sites about two years ago, but the locations were either too expensive or “the landlords weren’t great.”

Construction of Hazel Coffee Co., named from an early memory of Hailey’s mother drinking hazelnut coffee, began in May in a vacant lot, close to YORK Food and Drink and Core Collective.

Bryan credits the coffee shop’s landlords, whom he calls “the most amazing landlords you could ever imagine,” for helping him and Hailey with the shop’s initial financial struggles.

Hailey said many local business owners have already stopped by the coffee shop and are excited to collaborate.

“We took a lot of inspiration from coffee shops down in Austin, Texas where everything is super welcoming,” Bryan said. “Our whole thing is you should be able to walk in and get a very well-dialed espresso like a specialty coffee shop would offer. But also, if you’re somebody who’s not into that and you want a chai or a matcha, we’ll be able to provide that for you as well.”

Bryan said the couple does not want customers to be judged for their drink orders.

Menu items include a cinnamon sugar latte, maple sea salt latte and other house-made drinks.

“(Customers) should expect to feel welcomed immediately when they walk in the door,” Bryan said. “They should always feel like someone has made a connection to them and that when they come in, we’re going to make sure that they leave with something they were happy with.”

Hazel Coffee Co is open from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. every day.

The couple is also passionate about technology. In their sophomore years at CMU, they came up with Guarded Safety, a smartphone safety app that alerts users’ contacts if they feel like they’re in a dangerous situation.

The couple’s product won the October 5×5 Night pitch competition at Fenn Valley Vineyards in Fennville in 2017.

Read more: CMU students’ app to improve college safety wins 5×5 Night contest

Want more Ann Arbor-area news? Bookmark the local Ann Arbor news page.

AUSTIN (KXAN) – A slew of authors have dropped out of the lineup for this weekend’s Texas Book Festival (TBF).

“Goosebumps” author R.L. Stine, along with 17 others, won’t appear at the festival due to “unforeseen circumstances,” according to a news release Friday:

• Brian Goldstone
• David A. Graham
• Peter Guralnick
• Alejandro Heredia
• Nathalia Holt
• Julia Ioffe
• Basia Irland
• Graci Kim
• Patricia Lockwood
• Cappy McGarr
• David Nasaw
• Mayra Olivares-Urueta
• Lyla Sage
• Crystal Silva-McCormick
• Peter Swanson
• Jennie Erin Smith
• Bryan Washington

The release came after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) issued repeated ground delays and limited flights at airports across the country due to the ongoing government shutdown. 

Air traffic controllers have been working unpaid since the shutdown began Oct. 1. The staffing shortages have put pressure on the FAA to take precautions, with the agency announcing Wednesday it would make cuts in “high-volume markets.”

While Austin-Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) is not among the 40 airports experiencing these cuts, 35 of those airports have direct flights arriving from AUS. 

Festival organizers did not specify if writers pulled out as a result of delayed or cancelled flights, only writing that one reason they pulled out was “ongoing flight challenges.”

The 2025 Texas Book Festival is Nov. 8-9 in downtown Austin. Admission is free, but there are ticketed sessions for select authors. Those currently scheduled to to appear include Chelsea Handler and Matthew McConaughey. 

TBF is a non-profit that brings authors to K-12 schools and awards grants to Texas public libraries to encourage literacy, according to the organization’s website.