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."