Fair Oaks Ranch Weathers Winter Storm

Fair Oaks Ranch Weathers Winter Storm

The City of Fair Oaks Ranch is pleased to report that power to almost all homes lost during this week’s ice storm had been restored as of Thursday evening. On February 1, residents around the Fair Oaks Ranch area began losing power in their homes. As the night continued, CPS Energy identified 78 outages affecting approximately 5550 households in Fair Oaks Ranch and the surrounding area. Pedernales Electric Cooperative (PEC) identified over several thousand more outages throughout its service area, which includes the northern part of Fair Oaks Ranch. As the outages occurred, City teams immediately sprang into action.

The loss of power impacted several City operations and its services to residents. As power loss continued into Thursday morning, the City’s top priority was to maintain water service throughout the City as electrically powered water pumping stations could not keep up with demand. Further, the power loss also affected water transmission from the Guadalupe Blanco River Authority (GBRA), which provides most of the City’s water. Grant Watanabe, Director of Public Works, noted, “The biggest impact was to our water utility.  Due to the power outage, we could not get water from GBRA, and we could not operate our wells.  Basically, the only water available for the duration of the outage was the water already on site in our ground storage tanks.” The City issued a water conservation notice to residents to maintain water pressure. As residents worked to temporarily reduce their consumption, the City’s water utility team coordinated with GBRA on receiving additional water. Water service was fully functional by about noon Thursday, and the prompt work from the City and GBRA allowed the City to avoid the issuance of a boil advisory and the inconvenience it would have caused many residents who were still without power. Grant continued, “Luckily, we avoided the need to issue a boil water notice and this event showed us where additional improvements may be needed."

The City of Fair Oaks Ranch coordinated with CPS to deploy a mobile community center

Meanwhile, the City coordinated the quick dispatch of a CPS mobile community center while power was still out to most of the community. The center, which set up at Fair Oaks Ranch Elementary School, allowed residents to warm inside the heated vehicle. Residents were also offered plenty of food, drinks, blankets, along with free charging of their mobile devices throughout the day and into the evening until power was restored to all residents. 

Although the power outage was unforeseen, City leaders worked hard to ensure the City of Fair Oaks Ranch did everything it could to prepare its area for the storm. The City of Fair Oaks Ranch began preliminary discussions about upcoming weather preparation for this event as early as last Friday, January 27, 2023, and finalized plans of action prior to the event.   

The Public Works department stocked the needed supplies to treat roadways in advance. Based on the experiences of recent winter storm events the City prepared the existing and new equipment that would be vital to work quickly and efficiently throughout the event. City maintenance began pretreating City roadways and bridges before the winter weather was expected to begin with a mixture of salt and an eco-friendly solution to lessen ice buildup. 

Fair Oaks Ranch City crews picking up tree limbs and clearing a roadway

This new solution included the use of a beet juice mixture to treat roadways. The Public Works Department was able to use this new process through an existing partnership with the City of Helotes. The Fair Oaks Ranch team had been researching new techniques for treating icy roadways and discovered that Helotes along with San Antonio and several other cities throughout the nation, including larger cities such as New York City, had utilized this treatment solution for many years. Reports from Public Works and the Police Department all reported favorable conditions as a result of the treatment. 

While city crews coordinated treatments for roadways and ensured water and wastewater systems remained operational, the Police Department patrolled the streets throughout the event with a focus on identifying potential road hazards including ice, damaged power lines, and debris. 

Fair Oaks Ranch Police Department briefly closed the intersection of Rocking Horse Trail and Pimlico Dr. due to a compromised power pole.

On Thursday, officers began door-to-door welfare checks throughout the City to ensure that any residents who needed additional medical assistance, transportation, food, or other needs were properly attended. 

The Police Department reported most of the increase in calls due during the ice storm were non-emergent alerts from security and fire alarm systems due to the power outages. 

Throughout the event, the City communication teams also were placed on high alert ensuring the City’s emergency communications platform, Regroup, was ready for its first use during a storm. Residents are encouraged to sign up for Regroup notifications by visiting (https://www.fairoaksranchtx.org/543/Regroup-Registration) or by calling the City for Regroup assistance at 210-698-0900.

City Manager Tobin Maples, who oversaw the entire City response, said, “I couldn’t be prouder of how the City staff came together and once again stepped up to provide excellent services to our community.   Watching our Public Works departments volunteer to stay on site through the night, witnessing our Police Department’s coordinated efforts to keep our community safe, and seeing the interagency cooperation with other cities and utility providers all while providing frequent updates to our residents was commendable to say the least. We are so lucky to have such dedicated and loyal men and women working for our City.”

Overall, the City did experience several challenges from the extended power outages and roadway conditions, but we were quick to monitor and coordinate as a team to ensure our community was taken care of and that they remained informed of conditions as soon as we had updates to share.    

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