Austin’s ongoing power outage has 6,296 Austin Energy customers waiting for their electricity to be restored on Friday evening.
Lindsey Schoenfeld and her mom have been without lights and air conditioning for two days.
“We have lived here about 8 years and we have never seen anything like this,” said Schoenfeld. “They were moving furniture out of the living room. They took every towel in the house to mop up the back because the water had gone from our backyard, through our back door and was going through our living room.”
The Northwest Hills neighborhood took one of the most damaging hits from Wednesday’s microburst thunderstorm.
On Friday, families got a text from Austin Energy that crews were starting to replace 12 utility poles that snapped and cracked during the severe weather. As of Friday evening, Austin Energy says seven of the 12 new poles are up.
“We realize that a lot has happened and a lot of work needs to be done and that communication is helpful,” said Schoenfeld.
Northwest Hills isn’t the only neighborhood facing time-consuming repairs. Across the city, 80-mile-an-hour winds took down more than 100 power poles.
“You would normally see damage like this during a tornado or major hurricanes. But for us to have a relatively short event it was pretty catastrophic and we’re seeing the damage here,” said Craig Brooks with Austin Energy.
Brooks says it normally takes six to eight hours to remove a broken pole, dig a hole, set a new pole, string wire, and then re-energize. Mutual aid crews from Houston and San Antonio are here to expedite the process, but with many broken poles in people’s backyards Austin Energy says it is still not able to set a work completion date.
“That’s a moving target because right now we’re having to do a lot of hand digging. We’re physically digging holes by hand because we cannot utilize equipment so it’s taking quite a bit of time,” said Brooks.
Friday’s cloud cover is keeping temperatures down and making the wait more bearable than it might be. Families are hoping the crews have air conditioners running again before the sun and heat return this weekend.
“We’ve all been sharing generators or anything that can help run fans. We’re moving food around to help save food,” said Schoenfeld.
Austin Energy told CBS Austin that all electricity to customers will not be restored on Friday. The chances are better on Saturday, although no promises are being made.
Austin Energy reported at 6:30 p.m. on Friday that seven of the 12 new poles are up in the Northwest Hills neighborhood.