Deadly Freezing Rain Expected To Continue Through Wednesday In Austin

AUSTIN, TX — The deadly storms that have pummeled Texas in recent days will continue to bring treacherous ice to Austin through Wednesday, according to authorities.

At least six people have died on slick Texas roads since Monday and two officers were seriously injured, including a Travis County deputy who was pinned under a truck, authorities said.

Nearly 260,000 power outages were reported Wednesday in Texas, including more than 130,000 in the Austin area, according to PowerOutage, a website that tracks utility reports.

Pablo Vegas, who heads the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, vowed that the state's electrical grid and natural gas supply would be reliable and that there wouldn't be a repeat of the February 2021 blackouts, when the grid was on the brink of total failure.

Videos posted Wednesday to Twitter captured transformers lighting up the sky as they exploded in Austin, leaving the city in darkness, AccuWeather reported.

Images on social media showed downed trees and fallen branches in the Austin area, made heavy with heavy ice.

“Numerous power outages and tree damage will become more likely due to increasing ice,” according to the National Weather Service, which added that much of south-central Texas will see “very hazardous travel conditions with any non-emergency travel being discouraged.”

One person in Austin was killed in a predawn pileup Tuesday, authorities said, and a Travis County deputy who stopped to help the driver of an 18-wheeler that went off an icy highway Tuesday was hit by a second truck that pinned him beneath one of its tires.

A winter storm warning is in effect for Austin until 6 a.m. Thursday, with additional ice accumulation of one-quarter inch to three-quarters of an inch possible, as freezing rain is forecast to pummel the area intermmittently throughout the day and overnight.

DoorDash suspended its Austin operations until 9 a.m. Thursday due to the hazardous conditions, according to KXAN reporter Christopher Adams. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport remained open but had canceled 89 departing flights as of 7 a.m. Wednesday.

Temperatures Wednesday in Austin lingered around the freezing point but felt like they were in the teens, colder than Anchorage, Alaska, where the temperature was similar but felt as if it was in the mid-20s, according to AccuWeather.

The forecast Thursday in Austin calls for a much-needed thaw, with a high of 44 degrees, according to the National Weather Service.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.