Posted on 02/02/2023 2:42:23 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Thousands of frustrated Texans shivered in their homes Thursday after more than a day without power, including many in the state capital, as an icy winter storm that has been blamed for at least 10 traffic deaths lingered across much of the southern U.S.
Even as temperatures finally pushed above freezing in Austin — and were expected to climb past 50 degrees (10 Celsius) on Friday — the relief will be just in time for an Arctic front to drop from Canada and threaten northern states. New England in particular is forecast to see the coldest weather in decades, with wind chills that could dive lower than minus 50.
Across Texas, 430,000 customers lacked power Thursday, according to PowerOutage.us. But the failures were most widespread in Austin, where frustration mounted among more than 156,000 customers over 24 hours after their electricity went out, which for many also meant their heat. Power failures have affected about 30% of customers in the city of nearly a million at any given time since Wednesday.
Allison Rizzolo, who lost power in Austin, told KEYE-TV that she wished there were more clarity from the city on what to do or expect.
“I get that there’s a fine line between preparedness and panic, but I wish they’d been more aggressive in their communications,” Rizzolo said.
Unlike the 2021 blackouts in Texas, when hundreds of people died after the state’s grid was pushed to the brink of total failure because of a lack of generation, the outages in Austin this time were largely the result of frozen equipment and ice-burdened trees and limbs falling on power lines. The city’s utility warned all power may not be restored until Friday as ice continued causing outages even as repairs were finished elsewhere.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
My daughter’s power is out in Austin. She fled to an AirBnB in another city to try and get some work accomplished. Most aren’t so fortunate.
Climate change strikes again!
Wait until they start fining you for using a fireplace to keep warm like they now are doing in jolly England.
https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-64261624
Wait! Already here....
$500 fine in SF for using a fireplace
Austin, lol
Obviously we need more global warming.
We could use some of that global warming
Gee, you’d think that after last year Texas would have reopened some of those coal powered power plants.
need to replace fosil fuel produced energy with renewable.
Just another city utility that isn’t doing its job in a dim city. There is no excuse for tree limbs to be falling on power lines.
I agree.
Gas range. EOM
Spent 35 years in the electric utility industry and went through many icing events. Ice storms are the worst. The effects in many cases are system wide. It’s nearly impossible to provide proper overhead line clearance in an urban or remote rural environment. In addition if the ice accumulation is significant enough the weight of the ice along can exceed the carrying capacity of the line or other fixtures.
I was supposed to return to Dallas last weekend but I decided to stay put in Florida. It was obvious that this was going to be a mess.
Wait for a few hours. s/s
Well they’re stupid enough to rely Alternative energy power when they have plenty of oil in the ground
Where I live all power lines are underground.
More anti-Texas propaganda from AP.
Well Ken, Paul, how are the other states doing?
I bet they wish they only lost power to 0.01% of their population.
.
A $60 Dyna Glo propane heater is all you need.
One would think they learned their lesson the last time.
People will survive but busted pipes will not. When it warms up and the pipes thaw, then the fun begins. People need to stay close to their property to monitor the thaw and watch for leaks to avoid disastrous flooding and damage. Know where your main water shut off is in the house.
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