AUSTIN, Texas — A new report shows how Austin and Travis County departments responded to an ice storm in Feb. 2023.
The report refers to the storm as Winter Storm Mara. Beginning early morning, Feb. 1, two days of freezing rain led to ice buildup on power lines, utility poles and trees.
Nearly a third of Austin Energy customers lost power, including some first responders.
The Austin/Travis County After-Action Report is broken into six focus areas with Austin Energy’s and Austin Resource Recovery’s After-Action Report included.
The focus areas include:
- Communication
- Planning & Preparedness
- Operational Coordination
- Resource & Asset Management
- Technology & Infrastructure
- Shelter Management
The report shows the city submitted for more than $45 million to be reimbursed by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). However, the city received $37 million back because the rest was not able to be validated.
A timeline of events begins Jan. 29, showing a Winter Storm Watch was issued for Central Texas. The timeline goes through Feb. 12 and details weather conditions and daily emergency response efforts.
“The strengths underscore the effectiveness of our collaborative efforts, strategic planning, and timely execution. We showcased our ability to adapt to dynamic situations and deliver quality results,” the report shows.
The report shows strengths include response efforts by departments such as the Austin Fire Department (AFD) and Austin Travis County Emergency Management Services (ATCEMS).
“The City and County excelled in responding to a multitude of escalating issues in several ways, including being able to arrange quick ad hoc chainsaw training, positive adaptability to new ideas and procedures (e.g., customer service request to grid method), and the extended use of technology to enhance department response and coordination,” the report shows.
But challenges remain.
“Communication breakdowns during critical phases of the Mara response highlighted the need to maintain frequent and reliable communications across various mediums. As the Austin-metro area experiences more extreme weather events, better communication options and stronger protocols for communicating with internal and external stakeholders has become vital to a successful and prompt emergency response,” the report shows.
The After-Action Report shows more than 60 issues listed as observations. From those observations, 78 recommendations were made.
Observations include communication protocols that need improvement for work across departments, at the emergency operations center and to elected officials. A lack of network infrastructure led to redundancy across communication platforms. Language service delays hindered communication to the public.
“Departments worked efficiently together and executed internal communications well,” the report shows. However, improvements need to be made.
The report shows, “an unclear chain of command structure in multi-department efforts led to changing directives and duplication of assignments,” under the Planning & Preparedness focus area. A similar issue was found in Operational Coordination.
“There were concerns regarding silos and overlapping objectives between departments. There was a lack of uniformity and understanding of different departmental processes, frequently changing directives, an unclear chain of command, and information coming from multiple data sources with duplication and inaccuracy,” the report shows.
“Many Departments successfully provided continuous fleet services to support rapid restoration. Additionally, some departments supported additional mutual aid crews with food, lodging, and staging area assistance,” the report shows.
Austin Energy’s After-Action Report
Austin Energy’s After-Action report gives more details about its response efforts and lists more than 80 total “follow-up actions.”
AE’s observations include,
- Establishing Estimated Times of Restoration (ETR)
- Communication Systems & Customer Experience
- Public Communication
- Customer Care
- Incident Command Operations
- Emergency Management Administration
- Damage Assessment
- Restoration Coordination
- Response Planning
- Tree Trimming/Vegetation Management Coordination
- Mutual Aid Efforts
- Collaboration with City of Austin Departments and Other Governmental Entities
- Logistics Coordination & Supply Chain Management
- Financial Management
“In addition to the immediate actions identified in Section III of this report (internal emergency management leadership, long-duration outage best practices, outage map improvements, improved communication planning, vegetation management contracts, and undergrounding feasibility study), Austin Energy will proceed as swiftly as possible on follow-up actions that prioritize improved customer experience, enhanced emergency preparedness, storm response and coordination, and mutual aid efforts that will have the greatest possible impact coming into winter of 2024,” the report shows.
The general manager of Austin Energy retired in March, amid pressure from the public due to mass power outages.
Austin Energy’s report shows it will provide quarterly updates on its progress to complete the follow-up actions.
Currently, Austin Energy is working with contractors to bring its vegetation management up to industry standards. Under a city council resolution, Austin Energy has a feasibility study underway to identify the cost and effectiveness of buying power lines.
Austin Resource Recovery After-Action Report
In response to the storm, Austin Resource Recovery (ARR) also issued its own after-action report.
“The weight of the ice caused trees, limbs, communications infrastructure, wires, and poles to sag or snap resulting in additional “hurricane-level” damage,” the ARR report shows.
On Feb. 3, ARR added contracted personnel to help with storm debris management and monitoring.
“Between February 3, 2023, and April 19, 2023, ARR crews and contractors collected over 170,000 tons of storm debris. This is enough storm debris to fill the Q2 Stadium four times over,” the report shows.
That weight does not include storm debris from businesses and multifamily properties using private haulers.
AAR’s observations include a lack of training in completing disaster-related documentation, repairs needed to its fleet, emergency management training, departmental staffing, unsafe behaviors by contractors, and disaster-related maps.
The ARR report shows 21 areas of improvement, with 23 different recommendations.
ARR’s response effort ended on April 19.
Response to reports
“City of Austin staff will continue to serve our community and seek ways to improve how we navigate climate change impacts in Central Texas,” a City of Austin Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HSEM) spokesperson wrote to KVUE News.
Austin’s city manager’s office posted a public memo.
"Prior to the issuance of this report, significant changes and improvements were already completed or underway to improve response efforts to future emergencies," Bruce Mills, Austin's Interim Assistant City Manager, wrote in the memo.
“Winter Storm Mara was a significant event that exceeded initial forecasts and resulted in unprecedented damages and power outages across the City. Mara resulted in 10.5 million trees sustaining severe damage or complete destruction, leaving 170,000 tons of debris requiring clean-up for Austin Resource Recovery customers. This amount of debris management compares to a level 1 hurricane. Following major weather events and emergencies the City performs an After-Action Report to review its successes and opportunities for improvement in its emergency operations. Austin’s Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management has taken steps to improve items found in the After-Action Report as outlined in the report’s adjoining memo, and under new leadership, will continue to make operational improvements to emergency preparedness, response and recovery,
“We look forward to completing the next steps in the After-Action process, which is the Corrective Action Plan. The goal is for this to be completed by December 2023 and the community will be able to find more details on the plan in the Community Resiliency Improvement Status Portal (CRISP) database.
“It will take everyone working together to navigate the hazards we face as a city. City government needs the support of the community to succeed before, during and after an emergency. HSEM has made available resources to help community members become more prepared and resilient. Austinites can learn how to prepare for hazards at monthly Emergency Preparedness Pop-Up Events in every Council district, the new Ready Together preparedness classroom training, and by using the Neighborhood Preparedness Guide to plan with their families and neighbors. These programs are available to help Austinites proactively prepare themselves before an emergency. More details on how individuals, families and neighborhoods can get prepared are available at readycentraltexas.org,” an HSEM spokesperson wrote.