Power Outage

About 15,000 people were without power for several hours in East Austin on Wednesday evening. Austin Energy said high demand caused the outage.

Calls to bury Austin power lines have increased since February's mass power outage. Austin City Council will consider two proposals this week that could eventually lead to that.

The blackout continues to haunt those who experienced it.

Cronk said the city would “implement changes” to better prepare for future storms, but stopped short of naming precisely how the city failed in its response to this storm.

When utilities talk about "customer" outages, they are talking about electric meters that are out. There's usually more than one person affected when a meter goes down.

We're planning to host a radio town hall with representatives from Austin Energy, the City of Austin and KUT reporters in the coming days.

More than 100,000 Austin Energy customers didn't have electricity as the sun set Friday. They're filling beds with stuffed animals to keep warm, putting in contacts by candlelight and storing groceries in coolers.

Stoplights won't come back on until the power is restored.

The city has experienced ice storms in the past, but this week's wrecked local power lines like never before. Austin's tree-trimming policy and climate change played a big role.

Throughout the winter storm and power outages, the City of Austin has come under fire for a lack of sufficient communication. Mayor Kirk Watson began Friday morning's press conference by apologizing.