Watson Wire: Lessons Learned

When Winter Storm Mara hit us at the first of the year and just three weeks after I became mayor, it was pretty clear to me (and a lot of other folks) that the City was not running as it should.?It was so messed up that?I couldn’t even get into the Emergency Operations Center without surrendering my driver’s license.?That may sound small, but making sure I wasn’t a Kirk Watson imposter?really?was not?what we needed to be worried about.?As if anyone else with any sense would've wanted to be Kirk Watson at that moment.

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The people of Austin need and deserve their city government to work well — especially when an emergency strikes.?That’s why I stood up and promised we’d do better by you.

Now, I did not and will not promise that the lights will never go out again. Storms will happen. Electric and mechanical systems don’t always work right. And with climate change, we all need to expect and be ready for more extreme weather with expected and unexpected impacts. The City’s job is to ensure we’re well prepared to respond to the effects of those storms as efficiently as possible and to provide you clear, accurate and timely information. We also need to make our home as resilient as we can.

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Today, the City of Austin released the Winter Storm Mara?“After-Action Report”,?and it outlines serious shortcomings that existed back in February in the areas of emergency communications, planning and preparation, operational coordination, resource/asset management, technology and infrastructure, and shelter management. It’s incredibly frustrating that many of these same shortcomings had also been highlighted in the?After-Action Report on Winter Storm Uri?from back in 2021 and had not yet been addressed two years later.

This time, we will do better. We already are doing better, even without this report. It’s hard to admit how very angry I still am about how badly I thought things were being handled. It’s resulted in a lot of changes.

Progress Update

For example, in February, we changed city managers, bringing in Jesús Garza to serve as Interim City Manager. We tasked him to begin immediately addressing our emergency preparedness and response. There have been a number of important management changes and bolstered emergency management personnel throughout City departments. Texas mayors play a special role in disasters under state law. The system in Austin was badly busted back in early February. We’ve taken action to fix things, although I still think there’s work to do. Sometimes old habits are hard to break.

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Overall, however, the movement is good. The City?has increased staffing, added and updated training, hardened critical structures, expanded back-up power sources, revamped emergency operations plans, and targeted improvements to power restoration efforts, vegetation management and storm clean-up.

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Here are just some of the specific improvements:

• Upgrading?Austin Energy’s Outage Map?to be more accurate during high-traffic times;
• Equipping City facilities and shelters with emergency generators;
• Accelerating tree trimming and vegetation clearing near power lines and studying the feasibility of burying the power lines; and
• Conducting a regional assessment of the gaps and needs in our emergency response plans.

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Communication, Communication, Communication

The after-action report on Mara found a lack of communication between the Emergency Operations Center and elected officials as well as inefficient internal communications between city departments— no surprise, so did the 2021 report. Both reports highlighted that staff was not trained effectively and lacked an understanding of expectations during these emergency weather events.

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In response, Austin’s new director of the Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HSEM) (he was appointed since the February storm), has led the training of more than 50 communications staff throughout the city on emergency communication protocols, so that they are prepared for the next event. HSEM is also making sure all City Public Information Managers are trained on systems designed to align city-wide communications during an emergency.

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While these are significant communications improvements, I recognize that there is so much more to do before the next weather event— especially when it comes to Austin Energy. The good news is that Austin Energy recognizes the urgency, too, and is currently working on implementing several action items from the 2023 report, including establishing an operational procedure to produce systemwide estimated times of restoration for long-duration events. Having procedures in place on performing a full outage assessment before announcing estimated restoration times would’ve given customers an accurate and clear understanding of what was going on. This will be critical as we continue to have more extreme weather events that test our resiliency and response systems.

We will continue to take more proactive steps because we know extreme weather events will occur more frequently. We need you to take proactive steps, too, by signing up for emergency alerts, assembling emergency kits, and establishing family emergency plans.? Please sign up for these alerts right now.

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Back when this all happened in February, I said, “This has been a persistent challenge over the past several years and public frustration is absolutely warranted. Over and over again, we see the same failure. Even with reports that clearly state something has to change. So, something will change.”

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I’m working with others at the city to make that change. It’s happening. And this After-Action Report will not be ignored.