Spring Branch – Two days without power is more than enough for Latisha Loria.
“It’s not been fun,” she said. “It’s cold. I’ve got animals. We’ve lost all our fish.”
Loria and her neighbors who live just outside of Spring Branch lost power Wednesday afternoon as ice took took down tree limbs and power lines. By Friday evening, they were still among the 2,250 meters in Comal County that Pedernales Electric Cooperative (PEC) reported as being affected by outages.
Across its entire service area, which stretches up to the edge of Fort Hood, PEC reported 21,815 meters, about 5.7% of its total, were affected by outages
Although PEC vowed on Friday that its staff “will work around the clock to bring power back,” it also warned it was difficult to know when individual outages could be fixed, and some outages could last into the weekend.
Loria and her neighbor, Jeremy McCombs, were both frustrated by their inability to get in contact with PEC.
“They either hang up on you or they just -- phone lines are busy,” McCombs said.
While McCombs had a generator that allowed him to power an RV for he and his family to stay in and heat lamps in the house to keep his animals warm, it’s not a cheap solution. He says he burned through $160 worth of gasoline in just two days.
The power outage has also kept him close to home, unwilling to leave in case the power comes back on. He’s worried the heat lamps could be a fire hazard, and the water heater will need to be relit.
“You know, I can do better things in my day than just sitting around waiting for an electric company,” he said.
A PEC spokesman did not return KSAT’s calls.