Storm Damage Update

OPEN IMAGE GALLERY

A downed tree rips up soil and sidewalk on West Avenue (Photo by Nora Ankrum)

The latest on the impact of Wednesday night's storm, courtesy of Austin Energy (or, more particularly, AE spokesman Ed Clark, who we are pretty sure has not slept in the last two days – someone get that man a coffee). As of 10:30am, there are an estimated 3,000 customers without power. There's about 200 repairs left to do involving tree cutting or line damaged, but only 50 of those are directly causing power outages: the rest are tree-trimming and clean-up work. There's only a handful of jobs waiting with 50 or more customers; the rest are for individual houses.

The city confirms that Solid Waste Services will be helping the cleanup by doing curbside pickup of downed trees and tree limbs, which will then be recycled as Dillo Dirt. (see below the jump for full details). There are also traffic lights still out at Enfield and MoPac and Lake Austin Boulevard and Veterans Park. Ice will also be available to save food from spoiling at Fire Station 14 on Airport and the LCRA headquarters on Lake Austin Boulevard.

We've also collected some shots of the damage caused: Click on the picture to the right for the gallery.

Large Brush and Yard Trimmings
Special Advisory, May 15, 2008: SWS to assist with storm damage cleanup

Solid Waste Services can help residential Pay As You Throw customers dispose of downed trees and limbs. Whenever possible, please cut up and bundle branches for your weekly yard trimmings collection. Otherwise, please set your brush at the curb according to the guidelines below and call 3-1-1 to be placed on a waiting list for collection of storm debris.

Guidelines:

Please set brush at the curb before requesting to be placed on the collection waiting list.

Brush must be less than 15 ft. long. They should be stacked in one row, no more than four ft. high, with the cut ends facing the street. Please do not place branches under low-hanging tree limbs or power lines, on top of your water meter, in alleys or vacant lots, or next to your mail box, a utility box, a fence or a wall. Depending on volume, it may take several weeks to collect all the storm debris. For faster service, you may want to contact a private contractor.

Yard Trimmings: Grass, leaves and small branches are collected each week on your recycling and yard trimmings collection day. More information about yard trimmings...

Large Brush: Large branches (over 3 inches in diameter and up to 15 feet long) are collected during specially-scheduled large brush collections. More information about large brush …

Your yard waste is "recycled" and used to make Dillo Dirt, an EPA-certified soil conditioner.