TEXAS, USA — The mayor of Austin is apologizing for the city’s failure to prepare and respond to widespread power outages.
“As mayor, I accept responsibility on behalf of the city and I apologize that we’ve let the people down in Austin,” Mayor Kirk Watson said.
The outages have left hundreds of thousands of people with no heat in frigid temperatures, and the main question on everyone's mind is when will power be fully restored.
“This has been a persistent challenge over the past several years and public frustration is absolutely warranted,” Watson said.
The mayor says failing to communicate clearly, accurately and timely was a failure.
On social media, some are sympathizing with the mayor.
"They can't do anything about a large production of ice breaking the lines people," one user wrote.
Others, like Austin FC goalie Brad Stuver, are frustrated over the several days-long power outages.
"Over 30 hours without power," Stuver tweeted. "We have reported our outage every hour since we lost power at 2pm Wednesday."
Some people have even shared how they've admitted family members to the hospital because of the weather.
“Today, however, we’re cautiously optimistic,” Austin Energy General Manager Jackie Sargent said.
Austin Energy said they’ve turned a corner during this winter recovery phase.
“The number of customers affected has begun to come down because our restoration numbers are going up, while the number of repeated outages are going down,” Sargent said.
In Dallas, black ice continued to impact the area as of Friday.