Austin Energy officials confirmed major outages on Tuesday were wind-related.
AUSTIN, Texas — Some Austin residents were without power Tuesday as Austin Energy said high wind gusts were to blame.
Much of Central Texas was under extreme fire danger conditions brought on by powerful wind gusts reaching 40 to 50 mph, prolonged drought conditions and extremely low humidity.
Some of those wind gusts knocked out power in areas of the city, according to an Austin Energy spokesperson. Two notable outages – one near Clayton Lane and U.S. 290 and another near Hollybluff Street and Bluff Bend Drive – were confirmed by officials to be wind-related.
As always, you can check Austin Energy’s active outages on its online outage map or by using the outage tracker below.
Austin Energy said its crews were responding to wind-related outages across its service area with extra crews staged for faster response. The utility company said wind gusts as high as what we saw Tuesday can cause trees to blow over and power poles to snap, leading to outages.
Additionally, Austin Energy’s own bucket truck operations could be impacted due to wind-related safety issues. The company is asking the community to be patient as crews work to assess the damage and restore power.
Meanwhile, ONCOR, Bluebonnet Electric Cooperative and Pedernales Electric Cooperative reported hundreds of outages as well on Tuesday.