AUSTIN (Talk1370.com) -- Approximately 600 line workers continued their efforts Sunday, attempting to restore electric power to thousands days after the city's worst ice storm in years plunged hundreds of thousands of the utility's customers into the dark. And late Sunday, officials said it may take up to a week to restore "nearly all" of those outages.
As of Monday morning, more than 95% of Austin Energy customers are in service - leaving some 27,000 without power spread across some 1,200 individual outages. Many of those have been without electricity since early Wednesday morning, when the worst of the ice began to wreak havoc on power lines.
Sunday afternoon, city leaders gave their sixth update on restoration efforts since Thursday morning - this time, with the backdrop of Austin Energy crews working on repairing one of the hundreds of outages affecting electric service.
"Restoration efforts will continue in earnest around the clock until the entire network is back online," said Jackie Sargent, general manager of Austin Energy, at a press briefing Sunday afternoon. "I want you to know that we have not forgotten you."
Sargent and City Manager Spencer Cronk both warned of an upcoming storm system that could hamper restoration efforts - and lead to new problems - with strong, possibly severe thunderstorms in the forecast for late Tuesday.
"It's important to know that our trees are still vulnerable after the winter storm, and may have broken limbs high up in their branches that you can't see," said Cronk. "With strong winds in the forecast as early as Tuesday, additional tree limbs may fall, potentially creating further damage."
While the utility has continued to say that the damage to the electric system is too severe to come up with an estimate of when restoration efforts would be complete, Sargent and Austin Energy's VP of Electric System Field Operations Elton Richards both indicated that crews were working towards one through the day on Sunday.
"By later today, we anticipate being able to provide the public with an approximate time of when the bulk of the restorations will be complete," said Sargent.
That estimate came late Sunday night. In a statement issued just before 10 p.m. Sunday evening from Austin Energy, the utility released its estimate of next Sunday, Feb. 12, for the restoration of "nearly all" customers, "with the exception of those in need of electrical repairs to customer-owned or maintained equipment." The utility said the estimate was based on the "rate of restoration since the start of the storm, number of workers involved in the restoration process, a more complete damage assessment, and weather."
"We continue to restore power to customers and expect many of our remaining affected customers will have electricity before Sunday," the statement continued. "The expected weather conditions this week may damage power lines and already weakened trees, causing additional outages, increasing the risk for our lineworkers, and slowing progress. Austin Energy will reassess the situation and provide a revised update midweek."
Besides affected residents, the power outages have also created significant challenges for the city's traffic signals. 32 traffic signals were still not working as of Sunday afternoon, prompting officials to once again urge drivers to treat dark signals as a four-way stop.
The city said its transportation crews have reset 225 signals since Monday.
Crews began placing portable, temporary stop signs at high-traffic locations without working signals Sunday afternoon.
Many of the area's school districts will also see students return to classes on Monday, with some exceptions where individual campuses remain without power. Only one Austin ISD campus remained without power as of Sunday afternoon, with officials making plans to offer classes for Hill Elementary students at Padrón Elementary.
