City Of San Antonio: City Of San Antonio, Bexar County, CPS Energy, SAWS And VIA Share Coordinated Winter Weather Response Information

San Antonio TX

06 February, 2022

5:51 AM

Description

Press release from the City of San Antonio: Wednesday, February 2, 2022 CONTACT: CITY OF SAN ANTONIO: Laura Mayes, 210-207-1337; [email protected]; Michelle Vigil 210-207-4494; [email protected]; BEXAR COUNTY: Tom Peine, 210-420-8694; [email protected]; SAWS: Anne Kenny Hayden 210-823-0194; [email protected] CPS Energy: Dana Sotoodeh, 210-353-2344; [email protected] VIA: Lorraine Pulido, 210-410-6699, [email protected] INFORMATION CURRENT AS OF 5 P.M. SAN ANTONIO (February 2, 2022) – The National Weather Service has forecasted San Antonio area will be under a Winter Weather Advisory from 6 a.m. – 6 p.m. Thursday. Hard freezes in the low teens to low 20s are forecast Thursday night and Friday night across all of South Central Texas. A moderate confidence exists for icing impacts to occur in the San Antonio area. Bitterly cold wind chill values are forecast Thursday through Saturday morning dropping as low as the teens and single digits. Winds Thursday into Thursday night will be sustained 15 - 20 mph, gusting to 25 - 30+ mph. Winds decrease slightly Friday with 10 - 15 mph sustained, gusts to 25 mph. The City strongly urges all San Antonians to take proper precautions by remembering the Four Ps: People, Pets, Plants & Pipes. People: Keep warm and dress in layers. Check on your elderly family or neighbors. Pets: Bring pets inside to keep them safe and healthy. Plants: Bring potted plants inside. Cover outdoor plants with cloth fabric. Pipes: cover outdoor pipes and allow faucets to slowly drip to prevent them from freezing. To help residents prepare for winter weather, the City has issued a Winter Weather Preparedness Guide, which can be downloaded at this link. Roads and Traffic Infrastructure The Police and Public Works Departments are prepared to activate the City's Ice Plan in coordination with TxDOT should precipitation occurs. Public Works has crews on-call should traffic equipment malfunctions or fallen trees occur because of the expected wind conditions. TxDOT Crews will continue to pretreat the roadways, direct connectors, and highways through the day. Monitoring of weather conditions continue and will be watching elevated structures tonight and into tomorrow morning. Warming Centers City of San Antonio Warming Centers Four City operated warming centers will offer short-term emergency shelter starting at 7 a.m. tomorrow, February 3 through noon Friday, February 4. The centers will use appropriate COVID-19 prevention protocols. Masks are strongly encouraged. Anyone coming to the centers should bring clothes, supplies and medicine that they will need. Pets are welcome. Residents in need of transportation assistance may contact 311. The centers are located at: Garza Community Center 1450 Mira Vista, 78228 Harlandale Community Center 7227 Briar place, 78221 Hamilton Community Center 10700 Nacogdoches Road, 78217 Denver Heights Community Center 300 Porter Street, 78210 Unsheltered Population The City's Department of Human Services has been working with nonprofit partners to prepare overnight shelter and meals for the unsheltered population. The Human Services Department will also assist with transportation of unsheltered individuals. The City's Homeless Connections Hotline will be open through 6 p.m. on Thursday and Friday to help connect individuals to resources and assistance through the cold weather. The Homeless Connections Hotline number is 210-207-1799. Bexar County Warming Centers Bexar County is operating six warming sites through Saturday, February 5, 2022 at 12:00 p.m. or until conditions improve. The sites will abide by COVID-19 safety protocols to include physical distancing and strongly encouraged to wear a face mask. ESD 2 – 2096 Talley Rd, San Antonio, TX 78251 ESD 3 – 23103 Bulverde Rd, San Antonio, TX 78260 ESD 8 – 20825 Babcock Rd, San Antonio, TX 78255 China Grove Fire Department – 2456 FM 1516 S, China Grove, TX 78263 Leon Valley Conference Center – 6427 Evers Rd, San Antonio, TX 78238 Bexar County Fire Marshal's Office – 9810 Southton Road, San Antonio, TX 78223 CPS Energy CPS Energy generating units and teams are prepared for the anticipated winter weather. Since Winter Storm Uri, CPS Energy has strengthened the resiliency of our power plants against sustained freezing temperatures by implementing winterization initiatives to protect the plants, pipes, and other critical equipment. CPS Energy does not anticipate state-mandated outages but as always energy conservation is important to help customers save money on their bills. CPS Energy crews are prepared to respond quickly and safely to any outages and will continue to provide customers with important updates. A customer message was sent today via email and text and in English and Spanish based on customer preferences. CPS walk-in centers will be closed on Thursday, February 3, 2022. As a reminder, customers are encouraged to sign up for Energy Alerts or call (210) 353-2222 to provide their emergency contact information. Visit our winter preparation pages in English at cpsenergy.com/prepare and Spanish at cpsenergy.com/preparar and continue following the CPS Energy social media channels for weather-related updates. Pre-K4SA Sites All sites will be closed on Thursday February 2. Friday's schedule is pending. Metro Health COVID-19 test sites operated by Curative and Community Labs, as well as the mass vaccination site at the Alamodome will close tomorrow, February 3, 2022. SAWS No weather impact so far; the majority of SAWS equipment is underground and we don't expect major issues. SAWS Crews are in place with winterized equipment to provide repairs as needed. Public-facing Payment Centers and Counter Services will be closed Thursday, February 3, 2022. Friday start time is to be determined. SAWS facilities are in energy conservation mode in case it is needed. 311 311 has extended their customer service hours through midnight today. They will open at 6 a.m. on Thursday through midnight and will open at 6 a.m. on Friday. Animal Care Services Pets should be brought indoors. Animal Care Officers will be on patrol through the rest of the week addressing potential violations and violators can face impoundment of their pet, fines up to two thousand dollars, and 180 days in jail for repeat offenders. New state law dictates dogs can no longer be tethered with chain at any time; however, the State and City animal laws also dictate dogs cannot be left outdoors restrained and unattended in the case of officially defined extreme weather or situations in which an animal is in severe distress. Residents can report possible animal ordinance violations by calling the City's 311 Customer Service line seven days a week. VIA VIA Metropolitan Transit Offices and Transit Centers will remain open for regular business hours and bus, VIAtrans, and VIA Link services will continue to operate as long as it is safe to do so. There are no planned service disruptions at this time. However, road conditions could be affected as this weather event develops, resulting in possible service and scheduling delays or detours. Route detours and schedule adjustments due to severe weather will be announced on VIAinfo.net, VIA's social media channels, and through local media. Residents needing transportation to an area Warming Center should call 311 to request transportations assistance. VIA is one of several transportation providers supporting local emergency operations, please note that emergency trips cannot be arranged directly with VIA. Residents must call 311 to have their transportation arranged. Persons traveling to or from an area Warming Center using bus service, VIA Link or VIAtrans service, can travel fare-free starting today and as long as warming centers remain open. For more information, residents can also call the VIA goLine at (210) 362-2020. This press release was produced by the City of San Antonio. The views expressed here are the author's own.