Warmer weather helps restoration efforts, but thousands still lack power in Austin

Five days after a winter storm brought ice to the area, more than 50,000 Austin Energy customers were still without power Saturday evening. The city-owned utility had no estimate on when power would be fully restored.

“While the weather continues to improve — which is very helpful — the trees are compromised," Austin Energy General Manager Jackie Sargent said in a news conference with city officials. “They were stressed by the heavy loading of ice on them, so there is still the potential for tree branches to come down and for more debris to impede our outage restoration.”

Austin Resource Recovery said it continues to respond to reports of debris and brush around the city. It had a backlog of 500 service requests around midday Saturday; City Council Districts 6, 8 and 10 have reported the most calls. The agency is asking residents to call 311 with service requests