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EMERGENCY CREWS
After days of freezing temperatures and dangerous road conditions, Elgin officials say preparation and coordination helped the city overcome Winter Storm Fern without widespread outages or serious injuries.
Bastrop/Travis County Emergency Services District No.1 responded to more than 50 calls over a roughly 72-hour period as freezing temperatures lingered, according to Fire Chief Chris Botello. Many of those calls involved medical emergencies and downed or arcing power lines as ice accumulated across the area.
“We’re still doing all our calculations … but it was pretty much what we expected.” Botello said. “Obviously, response time was a lot slower than normal, we can’t go really fast on that kind of stuff.
City officials said the storm was more intense than initially expected, but preparation efforts made after previous winter weather helped reduce disruptions. According to Community Services Director Stacey Osborne, several departments were coordinating throughout the storm and maintained consistent messaging to residents.
“The biggest challenge was just the fact that you couldn’t do anything about the ice accumulation and the temperatures didn’t go above freezing,” she said.
City staff activated daily emergency operations center meetings with Bastrop and Travis county emergency officials, Texas Department of Transportation and other local departments, Osborne added.
Some roads could not be fully treated due to thick ice, but crews were able to sand critical areas that see excess traffic. The city reported no widespread power outages or water disruptions.
“We did have things in place so our crews could operate safely, and that was all because of preparation,” Osborne said.
Botello said fire crews adjusted response strategies to account for rough conditions on roadways by deploying smaller four wheel drive trucks instead of heavier fire engines when possible.
“A 40,000-pound truck going down an icy road isn’t ideal,” he said.
Some of the most difficult conditions were reported on less-traveled rural roads, including parts of FM 3000 and areas of lower and upper Elgin.
Despite the shaky conditions, Botello said there were no injuries among fire personnel and no equipment failures.
Looking ahead, Botello urged residents to plan for expected storms accordingly.
“Prepare sooner, keep an eye out for the weather updates,” he said. “Make sure you have blankets, food, water and definitely make sure your pets are taken care of — reach out if there’s any assistance needed.”
Osborne said the city plans to continue using the same emergency communication framework during future events, with storm updates archived on the city’s emergency information page at elgintexas.gov.
