AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- Austin City Manager Spencer Cronk apologized for the city's shortcomings in its response to last week's ice storm - one that knocked out electricity to hundreds of thousands of customers.
Cronk, speaking at a City Council work session Tuesday morning, said city staffers have already learned many lessons from this event.
"The impact of this event has been profound, and I understand that many have suffered as a result," said Cronk. "As a father with two children of my own, I have no doubt that there are many other parents who struggled caring for their families in these unfair and unbearable circumstances."
Cronk highlighted the extraordinary scale of the damage caused by the storm, even quoting Texas Public Utility Commission chairman Peter Lake, who described it as an "ice hurricane."
"Every storm is different and presents its own unique challenges," said Cronk. "For this disaster, we have already learned many lessons and we will do better. I am certain of it. We are still in the midst of recovery, but we will analyze every step of this event and implement changes that will make us better prepared for the next natural disaster and ensure we can protect, inform and assist our residents."
Council members will consider an emergency item on Thursday's agenda to evaluate Cronk's employment as city manager. While a discussion will be held in executive session, any action coming out of that discussion would happen at a future meeting.
Austin Energy crews, along with mutual aid crews, have been working 24/7 to restore power since the ice storm began last Tuesday. As of Tuesday afternoon, the number of customers without power had dropped to 6,443, in just over 600 separate outages. Utility officials say they believe all of the customers that are in a position to have their power restored will be back online by Sunday.
"As we are still in the middle of responding to this emergency and with more weather on the way, my focus continues to be on supporting the recovery efforts," said Cronk. "Austin Energy has coordinated the largest collaborative effort in the city’s history, with utilities from as far away as Louisiana and Alabama arriving to help restore power to customers. We have more than 1,000 crew members working on the remaining power outages."
