Icicles coat and hang off an electrical line after a few days of sleet and snow, Thursday, Feb. 2, 2023, in Richardson, Texas. frustrated Texans shivering in their homes
In Austin, city officials compared the damage from fallen trees and iced-over power lines to tornadoes as they came under mounting criticism for slow repairs and shifting timelines to restore power. The failures were most widespread in Austin. Impatience was rising there among about 126,000 customers two days after the electricity first went out, which for many also meant no heat. Power failures affected about 30% of customers in the city of nearly a million at any given time since Wednesday.
Unlike the 2021 blackouts in Texas, when hundreds of people died after the state's grid was pushed to thebecause of a lack of generation, the outages in Austin this time were largely the result of frozen equipment and ice-burdened trees and limbs falling on power lines. But the differences were little comfort to Austin residents and businesses that also lost power for days two years ago.this week in Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma.