Thousands of South Side residents without power amid freezing temperatures

Residents say they are ‘frustrated’ and ‘concerned’

SAN ANTONIO – Families living in a community on the city’s South Side say they are concerned for the elderly in the area.

Carolina Vasquez, an area resident, says she has many health conditions including diabetes and bronchitis. Like many residents in her neighborhood, she does not have power.

Vasquez’s daughter, Viana Galindo, lives across the street and says she is dealing with the same issues.

“I have no water either,” Galindo said. “My parents do, so I have to carry water from across the street.”

Galindo said it’s the second night without power or water.

Galindo said she has a message to energy companies and leaders in Texas: “They don’t care.”

Galindo said she was disappointed with her service from CPS Energy.

Some residents living in the area still don’t have electricity or water and across the street, homes have both, residents say they don’t understand.

John Moreno, a CPS Energy spokesperson, said that there could be different reasons for power outages.

“I’ve talked with folks that have been out of power for more than 24 hours and some of that may be that they‘re impact double. They could be impact because of the rolling outage and they could be impacted by some of our infrastructure that has been damaged,” Moreno told KSAT.

Galindo said she is hoping for good news soon.

“I am upset but what can you do?” Galindo said. “You know, I really trust in God to help me too.”

San Antonio City District 3 Councilwoman Rebecca Viagran issues the following statement:

Along with my council colleagues, I have requested Mayor Nirenberg to call an emergency Council Meeting to discuss the area’s outages. Many in District 3 and throughout the city are suffering from the cold, lack of electricity and water.

We have heard from many of our residents, and we are listening. We are conducting wellness checks on some of our most vulnerable members in the district. Our residents are struggling, and we need answers.

Like many of you, I know firsthand these are not “rolling blackouts” we are experiencing - these are outages. We want to be brought into the loop and given the most up-to-date information promptly. We ask CPS Energy to work together with Council to develop solutions on how to resolve this situation quickly. During the interim we are working on efforts to bring relief to our residents.

We know in particular the Mission De Lago, area is struggling without power we are working to bring relief to all areas within the Southside.

Stay Informed

As always, Your Weather Authority team will keep you updated. You can get the very latest forecast anytime by bookmarking our weather page and downloading the KSAT Weather Authority App - available for both Apple and Android devices.

Read also:


About the Authors:

Tiffany Huertas is a reporter for KSAT 12 known for her in-depth storytelling and her involvement with the community.

Before starting at KSAT in August 2011, Ken was a news photographer at KENS. Before that he was a news photographer at KVDA TV in San Antonio. Ken graduated from San Antonio College with an associate's degree in Radio, TV and Film. Ken has won a Sun Coast Emmy and four Lone Star Emmys. Ken has been in the TV industry since 1994.