Austin City Manager Spencer Cronk apologizes for storm response, promises to 'do better'

As the city continues to grapple with the fallout from a winter storm that left thousands without power over the past week, Austin City Council members on Tuesday had some hard questions for City Manager Spencer Cronk and other city officials about their response to the crisis — and about how such a situation can be prevented in the future.

Cronk, whose job could be on the line as he faces an evaluation from the City Council this week, apologized for the city's shortcomings in responding to the storm, and said that city departments' focus will remain on recovery efforts as Austin Energy works to restore power to all customers.

“The impact of this event has been profound, and I understand that many have suffered as a result,” Cronk said. “I acknowledge, share and feel your frustration and anger. Every storm is different and presents its own unique challenges. We have already learned so many lessons, and we will do better.”

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He said that the city is still in the midst of recovery, but that city staffers would analyze every step of this event and make changes that will ensure preparedness, better communication and more help for residents.

“As a community, as a wider society, we are only just beginning to understand the destructive impact of these extreme weather events will have on our lives in the years to come,” Cronk said. “No amount of preparation or planning can entirely shield us from the destructive side of nature. And it is important to be transparent about our own limitations and to work together to find solutions.”

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How many people in Austin still lack electricity?

As of Tuesday afternoon, there were still more than 7,500 Austin Energy customers without power, according to the city-owned utility's outage map. Austin Energy officials have said they hope to get everyone fully restored by Sunday, adding that the thunderstorms expected Tuesday and Wednesday could slow some restoration efforts.

Jackie Sargent, general manager for Austin Energy, said there are more than 1,000 people from across Texas, and some from as far as Alabama and Louisiana, working in Austin to get the power restored to the remaining customers.

“We are working diligently around the clock to restore service, and we will not stop until every customer's lights are turned on,” Sargent said. “More than 98.3% of our customers have power, but for our customers still without power, I'm sorry for how long this is taking. I wish I could give a specific estimate for each specific outage."

Sargent said the complexity and severity of ice storm damage on each individual outage just hasn't allowed the utility to give a more granular estimate for restoration. It is expecting everyone to be fully restored well before Sunday, but a midweek update will be given on that, she said.

Last week, Austin Energy officials also admitted to underestimating the storm's severity and the amount of ice accumulation, saying that multiple crews had been on standby, ready to respond to outages, but the problems slowly became overwhelming as the weather worsened.

More:Austin leaders underestimated ice storm that has 156,000 utility customers in the dark

Why can’t Austin Energy provide a more specific timeline?

Austin City Council members on Tuesday expressed frustration and dissatisfaction with Austin Energy's restoration timeline, saying that it adds to the hardship if residents have no idea when their power might come back on.

Council Member Vanessa Fuentes said people in her district are frustrated, and asked if a more specific timeline could be provided for people still without power.

Council Member Ryan Alter shared similar thoughts, saying the utility is prioritizing critical outages, such as hospitals, schools and fire and police stations, and that information should be communicated to the public.

“If something gets fixed because it's a critical load, I think people would feel a lot better understanding that someone got fixed before them because they were higher priority, and not because of where they were located," Alter said. “But there is a priority happening, and I don't understand why we are not able to find a way to get out that information."

Stuart Riley, Austin Energy interim chief operating officer, said that because the outages are so complex it makes it hard to give a specific time for restoration.

“As we get farther and farther along with fewer and fewer outages, the outages are getting more and more complex,” Riley said. “So the pace of it kind of slows down. But it's just complicated work.”

'We lost a lot of credibility with the public'

Communication with the public was one of the council’s chief criticisms, with members saying that some residents did not receive information about restoration and recovery until days later.

Additionally, the utility had to walk back its initial timeline for restoration, after assessing the damage and complexity of the repairs, further angering residents.

"One area we did not do well was to manage the expectations,” said Council Member Chito Vela. “We lost a lot of credibility with the public. ... I urge in the future that we need to be more careful about the expectations we set.”

Sargent and Riley said the utility continues to keep customers without power up to date through social media, text messages and emails. Riley said that emails on restoration were going out multiple times a day to those still affected.

“We are trying to give people our best estimate and give out the best information we have,” Riley said.

Residents also have criticized the confusion created by Austin Energy's outage map, which crashed last week.

“There are a lot of concerns with how it's set up now, and we'll continue to look at that in terms of weather,” Riley said.

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How is Austin going to make sure this doesn’t happen again?

Council Member Mackenzie Kelly, and several other council members, said residents are still in the dark, literally and figuratively, and that has created trust issues.

Austin Energy officials said that an after-action report could help them determine where the shortfalls were and how they can do better.

After the February 2021 freeze, Austin Energy put out an after-action report the detailed follow-up actions and lessons learned, such as improving communication efforts, updating the outage map and reducing impact on other utilities, including water and gas.

Austin Water Director Shay Roalson has said the water utility was not significantly impacted by the latest storm, and crews worked hard to keep pump stations without power running with generators, to minimize disruption for customers.

While a small pocket of the community was issued a boil water notice, Roalson said the city as a whole mostly operated smoothly.

But Council Member Alison Alter said Tuesday there is still a lot of work that needs to be done, and said the city failed again in its response. She said that it can be true that the city experienced an extreme climate event, but that “it can also be true that we failed at our emergency response and that we didn't learn those lessons and that we failed to prepare.”

“There are certain things that went well,” she said. “But at the same time, we failed in our emergency management preparation. We failed to execute in the crisis. We did fail with respect to communications. We failed with respect to customer relations. And I'm very concerned about emergency management preparations.”

Riley and Sargent said after power is restored to all customers they will take a more thorough look at the response, including tree trimming management, the outage map and communication efforts, all of which they said should be more detailed in an after-action report. It is unclear when that report would be conducted and completed.

What about Austin winter storm cleanup and debris pickup?

Last week, Austin and Travis County issued disaster declarations, opening up both to federal money and resources for recovery efforts. More details on how that can help residents individually is still being worked out and will be communicated as that information becomes available, according to the city.

Officials with the Austin Recovery Resource Center, Austin Public Works and Austin Transportation Department were scheduled to provide an update on cleanup and recovery efforts Tuesday afternoon. The city has previously that debris pickup is already underway.

City departments, partner agencies and community organizations are launching a series of information centers and multiagency resource centers to help provide information and answer questions about recovery resources, including charging centers; debris and damage information; mental health support; hot food; laundry facilities; and showers.

The city has also created a virtual resource center at visit https://www.austintexas.gov/recovery.

On Tuesday, Travis County leaders directed county staff to begin removing curbside debris in the unincorporated areas of Travis County once county roadways are clear. Travis County Judge Andy Brown said he anticipates the work will start this week.

This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Austin City Manager Spencer Cronk apologizes for winter storm response