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Great, those Austin hipsters can charge their Teslas again. Only took 'em four damn hours.

Oh brilliant, just brilliant. East Austin bakes in 107-degree heat for four freaking hours because some genius can't figure out how to keep the lights on. Maybe they should investigate who forgot to pay the electric bill.

Published August 21, 2024 at 5:50pm by Ella McCarthy


Breaking: East Austin Sweats Out Yet Another Power Fail

Well, isn't this just a barrel of laughs? Over 7,000 East Austin dwellers were left sweating buckets on one of the hottest days of the year, as the power decided to take a little vacation. The blackout finally ended around 9 p.m. Wednesday, according to Austin Energy's mouthpiece, Matt Mitchell.

The power poop-out started just before 5 p.m., with temperatures soaring to a cool 107 degrees. The affected areas? Everything east of Interstate 35 to Airport Boulevard, stretching from South Lakeshore Boulevard to East 11th Street. Good luck if you live in that sauna.

Mayor Kirk Watson graced us with his wisdom on X, confirming that the outage was due to "high energy usage causing substation equipment to trip offline." Mitchell echoed this to the American-Statesman, because who needs unique news sources, right?

Apparently, this was a local issue, not related to the statewide grid. Thanks for nothing, Electric Reliability Council of Texas. At least the city's cooling centers are keeping their doors open late. Parque Zaragoza Recreation Center and Pan Am Recreation Center are open until 11 p.m., so you can suffer in slightly cooler darkness.

Keep refreshing, guys. Who knows what other stupid events will unfold today.

Read more: For 7,000 Austin Energy customers in East Austin, power restored after about four hours