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Austin Energy Working To Restore Power To Thousands


About 5,000 Austin Energy customers were without power Friday morning.

Up to 50 power poles caught on fire overnight, leaving many people in the dark.

Ed Clark with Austin energy says the weather is to blame.

Dirt and dust builds up on power lines and poles when it has been dry and when we have not had significant rain. The misty morning means trouble for dusty power lines and poles. The mist and dust basically mix to form a mud. The mud then seeps down the poles and into a device that holds power lines to poles. The mud accumulates in the devices and current continues to run through the pole and into the device and the mud catches on fire.

Austin Energy had 12 crews out and more to fix the power poles and lines. Clark says all power should be restored by noon.

Austin Energy is not the only carrier that has been dealing with outages. Oncor and Pedernales Electric also had scattered outages.