Austin Energy: Customers should prepare not to have power through Tuesday night—and maybe longer

After nearly 36 hours of widespread power outages impacting around 40% of customers, Austin Energy provided a midday update Tuesday that means another very cold night for some Austinites, who should not expect to have power through Tuesday night and "possibly longer," the local utility tweeted.

AE's outage map showed that 205,958 customers were impacted as of 12:45 p.m., with other local energy companies also reporting widespread outages.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages 90% of the state's power supply, provided intermittent updates Tuesday, saying that it had directed some local utilities to restore power to households but also that frigid temperatures continued to cause problems.

"While ERCOT says conditions are improving, we want customers to know this is a dynamic situation + conditions re changing throughout the day," Austin Energy wrote.

Hundreds of thousands of Austinites face a second night without power—and perhaps also without water or internet access—amid subfreezing temperatures. Residents report that they're stuck in homes hovering around 40 degrees and moving between their cars to warm up.

Four warming centers are now open.

• Palmer Events Center, 900 Barton Springs Road
• Mendez Middle School, 5106 Village Square Dr.
• Northeast Early College High School, 7104 Berkman Dr.
• Del Valle High School, 5201 Ross Road

Due to high demand and limited capacity, these centers are intended for the city's most vulnerable populations, especially those who have medical devices that require electricity to operate.