Staff should practice emergency situations more regularly, Austin city leaders say
AUSTIN, Texas - Austin leaders want city staff to practice emergency situations more regularly.
This comes after February's ice storm knocked out power to a third of Austin Energy customers.
Austin City Council members were briefed on emergency management plans and responses on April 11.
Challenges during the ice storm included a lack of uniformity between different departments.
Austin City Council fires Spencer Cronk as city manager over ice storm response
City Council voted 10-1 to oust Cronk with Natasha Harper-Madison voting no.
The city manager identified three areas for improvement:
- New procedures for initiating the emergency operations center
- Emergency communications
- Operations and planning
As part of that, city leaders want regular inter-department coordination exercises.
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