With snow back in forecast, San Antonio’s service failures mount
Cascading problems with the city’s electric and water utilities fed a growing concern Wednesday about food and shelter for stranded residents facing a new round of deep freezes, snow and sleet.
SAWS issued a boil-water notice to customers. It was citywide, though SAWS CEO Roberto Puente told City Council it was important for those experiencing “not normal” water pressure.
But water pressure was low to nonexistent in many areas. For those unable to boil, SAWS recommended adding an eighth of a teaspoon of household bleach per gallon of water, shaking well and letting it sit for 30 minutes before consuming.
“It’s safe to say we will be dealing with this situation for days, not hours,” Puente said.
The San Antonio Food Bank was seeing more people in need as the weather confined people to homes running low on not just heat and water, but staples in pantries and refrigerators.
As the state’s besieged electrical grid continued to leave millions of Texans in the dark, food was an issue even in grocery sand convenience stores, which saw their shelves stripped, adopted shorter operating hours and in some cases closed.
The National Weather Service forecast overnight snow, freezing rain, and sleet before 7 a.m. Thursday, then more snow and sleet through 10 a.m., with a high of 35. It predicted an overnight low of 21 heading into Friday morning, with a wintry mix from midnight to 6 a.m..
Friday offered hope for a breakthrough, with sunny skies and a high of 45, but CPS officials said power problems wouldn’t be resolved until Saturday at the earliest.
After days of temperatures in the teens and wind that made it feel even colder, San Antonio’s brief emergence above freezing Wednesday was cold comfort to 291,259 CPS Energy customers without electriciy just before sunrise. Power was restored to 87,274 of them by 5:32 p.m.
Food and the basics were becoming harder to find. Water and propane were unavailable at several H-E-B stores in all parts of town by the afternoon. At least one was out of milk, meat, and chicken as well. A worker there said there might be some pork left. Other locations had closed at 4:30 p.m.
An H-E-B statement warned that the storm had caused “severe disruption in the food supply chain,” complicated by water and power outages. Stores in San Antonio were to operate from noon to 5 p.m. Thursday. H-E-B shut down its senior support phone line and suspended curbside and home delivery orders.
Lines of vehicles snaked out of fast food restaurant and gas station parking lots. Where power outages affected traffic signals, drivers used an honors system, stopping and waiting their turn.
The Food Bank’s chief resource officer, Michael Guerra, who has been doing this work here and in Austin over the past 15 years, called the ripple effects of the storm unprecedented, crippling power, water and other basic infrastructure, and creating “a new twist in disaster response.”
Wednesday’s high temperature of 44 at mid-afternoon constituted a break from a historic winter storm that delivered a low on Monday of 9 degrees, shattering the old record for that date of 21 set in 1909. The high Monday also was a record, at 31 degrees the lowest maximum temperature for Feb. 15, set in 1895.
Most San Antonio-area school systems announced extended closures for Thursday and Friday due to the continued risks of driving and power outages.
The five apartment complexes containing the San Antonio Housing Authority’s most vulnerable populations have had only intermittent electricity and heat, and staff went door to door Wednesday asking elderly and disabled residents if they wanted to be moved to a downtown hotel, SAHA spokesman Mike Reyes said. Only about 60…
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