Severe storms cause damage, power outages across Austin area

AUSTIN, Texas - Severe storms on Wednesday night caused damage and flooding across Austin. According to Austin City Manager T.C. Broadnax, one person died in the storms.

The City of Austin held a news conference on Thursday morning about the damage.

Power Outage Update

"Looking at our outage history data in our system, which goes back to 2012, this event is the third-worst storm we have had in Austin Energy, following only Winter Storm Mara and Winter Storm Uri," said Stuart Riley with Austin Energy.

By the numbers:

According to Austin Energy, as of 10 a.m., more than 93 percent of customers have power. 

"We are committed to getting the remaining 38,000 customers back online as quickly and safely as possible," said Riley. 

Austin Energy has identified 104 broken poles, but crews are still assessing the damage, so there could be more. 

Some streets have poles that are toppled all along the street, requiring labor-intensive, time-intensive work for multiple crews to replace the poles.

Outage restoration activities are expected to extend for multiple days. There's currently no estimated time for restoration. 

"We have damage assessors who are patrolling our service area now, and we will provide additional information once those damage assessments of the system are complete," said Riley.

Austin Energy is working on restoring power to critical and public safety facilities, getting power on to hospitals, emergency call centers, for critical communications equipment, and main lines of the circuits.

Austin Energy has called for mutual aid from neighboring utility companies, with more than 200 crew members on their way to help with repairs and power restoration.

Austin Energy calls this the third worst storm in its history. Austin got three inches of rain in 30 minutes, hail, and winds up to 77 mph.

What you can do:

Call 512-322-9100 to report a downed power line. If fallen limbs are causing sparks, please call 911. 

Never touch a downed power line, even if it crosses a road or a vehicle. Stay at least 35-feet away from downed power lines and never use an object to move a downed line. 

Never touch anything in contact with a power line when a live wire touches the ground. Electricity can even fan out onto the ground, across the immediate area. So please stay clear. 

If you have an outage, please report that outage by calling 512-322-9100 or visit outagemap.austinenergy.com.

Water Rescues

Paramedics worked with Austin Fire Department and County Fire Department partners to help with water rescues across the county. Six people were swept away in high water.

One of the calls ended with the death of an adult who was reportedly submerged for more than 20 minutes. It happened on West North Loop Drive. That person's identity has not been released.

The other five were taken to medical facilities for their injuries.

Many of the water rescues were due to drivers driving around barriers in flooded areas. Remember, turn around, don't drown.

"One of our community paramedics came across a Department of Public Safety trooper who was utilizing a rope on an individual who was found barely holding onto a guardrail as swift water rose up to their neck," Chief Robert Luckritz with ATCEMS said.

"Of the other vehicle rescues, and I want to emphasize this, there were cars in our community that circumvented barricades. They went around barricades into what seemed like calm, still standing waters. Those resulted in our emergency crews having to go in and rescue," Andre de la Reza with the Austin Fire Department said.

Damage Reported in Austin

What we know:

Multiple places were damaged or flooded across Austin, including in North Austin, Central Austin and at the airport.

Gas station roof collapse

The Austin Fire Department reported it was responding to a rescue call in the 7500 block of the southbound service road of Mopac at Greystone Drive.

AFD says the caller reported that the "gas station pump's roof has collapsed and is on a car."

AFD later said everyone was out of the vehicle with unknown injuries.

Damage at Austin-Bergstrom

Austin-Bergstrom International Airport reported broken doorway glass near TSA Checkpoint 1 due to high winds.

No one was hurt and teams responded to clean up the glass.

Shoal Creek flooding

Video from Michael Hill-Mateo shows Shoal Creek flooding in Austin due to the storms.

ATXFloods showed that Shoal Creek at N Lamar Boulevard was closed briefly Wednesday night.

Broken glass at Texas State Capitol

Video from Scott Braddock of the Quorum Report shows damage at the Texas State Capitol.

Some of the glass near the top of the rotunda was broken. A large pane was seen hanging over the railing.

Two H-E-B locations closed

H-E-B told FOX 7 Austin that its Mueller location is "temporarily closed due to storm-related issues," but its drive-through pharmacy is open.

All other H-E-B locations in Austin remain open.

Video shows employees throwing perishable foods into the dumpster. H-E-B gave this statement when asked about the foods being tossed:

"Due to a sustained power outage, our H-E-B Mueller and Far West stores in Austin were unable to keep perishable foods at proper temperatures. To follow strict food quality and safety standards, we are required to throw away perishable foods when they are not properly temperature controlled, which also prevents us from donating those items to food pantries and food banks. When the stores reopen, they will have product available for customers."

Residents describe storm

What they're saying:

"The house was shaking, I just heard like somebody was like throwing like big rocks at the house, that's what it sounded like," Alfred Johnson, who lost power, said. "It's just crazy, man."

He describes trying to stay cool without power.

 [My grandma] grew up in a farm, so she can take the heat and stuff. But me... I can't do it," Johnson said. "Last night I had sat on the porch and got the water hose and sprayed myself down, and then I just opened the window."

Water was overflowing on Shoal Creek.

"Looking out the window from 30 feet, it was opaque, it can usually see through rain, it was just a grey wall," Diane Goss, who lives along Shoal Creek, said.

"It was just crazy wind, sideways wind, scary wind, lots of hail," Laurie Painter, another resident, said.

If you're cleaning up debris like tree limbs and leaves, place them by the curb. Don't throw them into creeks and culverts because that would cause more flooding.

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