Austin Area Endures 'Significant Weather Advisory'

AUSTIN, TEXAS — Meteorologists issued a "significant weather advisory" for the Austin area on Saturday as a result of strong thunderstorms.

"A line of showers and thunderstorms continues to move east this morning," the National Weather Service said. "Some of these storms will be severe with large hail and gusty winds the main threats. Activity will clear from west to east as the line progresses across the region."

The advisory was in effect until noon until it was expired about one hour later. In some areas, wind gusts were predicted to reach up to 50 miles per hour. Saturday's storms encompass a wide swath of Central Texas along a line from northwest of Lampasas to Boerne moving east, weather officials said.

Related story: Town Of Franklin, Texas, 'Like War Zone' After Tornado

Among the cities that experienced strong winds were Austin, Cedar Park and Round Rock. Further south, the cities of Boerne, Georgetown and New Braunfels also had strong winds, officials reported.

No major incidents in terms of traffic wrecks or other emergencies were reported in the Austin area as the region experienced its second consecutive weekend of strong rain. The town of Franklin, Texas, near College Station bore the brunt of the long line of thunderstorms sweeping across the Central Texas landscape after a tornado formed. More than a dozen people sustained non-life-threatening injuries amid considerable property damage in the storm's wake there.

Austin Energy's outage map indicated more than 6,000 residents were left without electricity as powerful winds whipped through the region. Just after noon, nearly 3,000 residents at the Westgage community in South Austin were left without power, another 3,000 in Central Austin. In the latter part of the city, the neighborhoods of Allandale and Crestview were among those left in the dark as strong winds accompanied the storms.

Crews were working furiously to restore electricity to homes — as some 500 utility customers remained without power by late afternoon — when another round of outages hit. A wide swath around West Campus was hit, including the Wheatsville cooperative on Guadalupe Street, the Growler's pub that was emptied of customers an apartment complexes throughout the sector. That outage lasted about half-an-hour before power was restored.

Austin Energy officials said a big tree limb that hit a power line was the culprit for the widespread outage:

Weather officials also previously issued a flood advisory for eastern Travis and Williamson counties that expired at 12:15 p.m. amid threats of minor flooding of creeks, streams and low-water crossings.

As a precautionary measure, officials in Williamson County opened the emergency operations center in Georgetown, Texas, to assess current weather conditions. Saturday's rains follow another strong series of storms that descended to the Austin area last weekend, resulting in flooding conditions in the downtown area and several inches of rain throughout the region.

The website ATXfloods.com kept drivers apprised to weather conditions, listing low-water crossings in real time as they closed.

The calm after the storm is expected to run through Sunday. The National Weather Serviceforecast for the Austin area calls for sunny skies on Sunday with a high near 71 degrees. Winds will have calmed down by then, expected to reach no greater than 10 miles per hour. Sunday night calls for a low of 51 degrees with calm winds.