Austin Energy releases data on the full impact of May 2025 microburst storm
June 16, 2025
With help from mutual aid crews from across Texas, Austin Energy teams worked around the clock to repair damage and reconnect over 124,000 customers following the third-worst storm in the utility’s history. Considering only the damage to utility infrastructure, this was the second-worst storm, with more damage occurring in Winter Storm Mara (2023) but less damage in Winter Storm Uri (2021). Austin Energy leveraged findings from those prior storms to enhance its response to the May microburst storm.
Storm-related outages began the evening of May 28. Crews began restoring power immediately, making significant progress before another round of storms roughly doubled outages overnight into May 30. By late Sunday, June 1, crews successfully restored power to all customers who could safely receive it.
By the numbers
- More than 124,000 total customers affected
- More than 72,500 customers affected at the peak of the storm
- 91 power poles replaced
- 52 transformers replaced
- 32,283 feet of overhead cable restored
- 25,000 outage-related inquiries fielded
Lessons learned; solutions implemented
Following Winter Storm Mara in 2023, Austin Energy completed a comprehensive after-action report, identifying ways the utility could respond more effectively to extreme weather events. The restoration and recovery efforts from the May microburst effectively utilized those findings, including:
- An improved Incident Management Team structure to enhance communications and coordination
- Damage assessment processes to more quickly understand the magnitude and complexity of the restoration needs
- Phased “Restoration 1-2-3” process to aid the community in understanding restoration priorities
- Enhanced outage map capacity
- Enhanced mutual aid coordination and pre-drafted contracts
Austin Energy would like to thank the greater Austin community for its patience, consideration and solidarity with our line crews and mutual aid providers. Crews worked as quickly and safely as possible, overcoming complex issues, including using a helicopter to repair a transmission line, restoring power around a federally protected hawk’s nest, and repairing a downtown substation due to falling pieces of a downtown skyscraper.