AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Thousands of frustrated Texans shivered in homes without power for a second day Thursday, most of them around booming Austin, and fading hopes of a quick fix stirred grim memories of a deadly 2021 blackout after an icy winter storm across the southern U.S.
The freeze has been blamed for at least 10 traffic deaths on slick roads this week in Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma.
“We had hoped to make more progress today,“ said Jackie Sargent, general manager of Austin Energy.
Across Texas more than 280,000 customers were without power Thursday night, down from 430,000 earlier in the day, according to PowerOutage.us.
The failures were most widespread in Austin, where impatience was rising among 150,000 customers nearly two days after the electricity first went out, which for many also means no heat.
Power failures have affected about 30% of customers in the city of nearly a million at any given time since Wednesday.
But the differences were little comfort to Austin residents and businesses that also lost power for days two years ago. »
