San Antonio neighbors still without power as city announces cooling centers, resiliency hub locations

SAN ANTONIO – Many neighbors spent the night without electricity after more than 110,000 CPS Energy customers lost power during Saturday’s storm.

“I just feel bad for the elderly people that are here,” said Cathy Vela, who lives at the Villa Tranchese Apartments, in a neighborhood along San Pedro, north of downtown. “Like us, we can walk to go get a taco and a sandwich at McDonald’s. They can’t. They’re disabled. Some of them are on walkers.”

In a news conference on Sunday morning, city leaders encouraged those impacted to take advantage of city cooling centers and resiliency hubs.

Libraries operating as cooling centers

During the day, neighbors can go to their local San Antonio Public Library branch to cool off and charge their devices.

City officials also announced VIA Metropolitan Transit will be offering free rides to those who need transportation to one of the cooling centers.

The following locations will be open and available during their regular operating hours:

The Bazan, Las Palmas and San Pedro branches closed Saturday due to power outages, including access to outdoor WiFi.

Community centers to serve as resilience hubs, will remain open overnight

For those who need support outside of library operating hours, need medication refrigerated or require additional support, San Antonio Parks and Recreation will open several community centers to serve as resilience hubs and will remain open overnight.

The following sites will be available:

• Normoyle Senior Center, 700 Culberson Ave.

• Gilbert Garza Community Center, 1450 Mira Vista

• Miller’s Pond Community Center, 6175 Old Pearsall Road

• Copernicus Community Center, 5003 Lord Road

• Southside Lions Senior Center, 3303 Pecan Valley Drive

• Northeast Senior Center, 4135 Thousand Oaks Drive

Deputy City Manager Maria Villagomez said the city is checking on people who are already listed as medically vulnerable or in need of specialized assistance.

“We have a list of those critical individuals,” Villagomez said. “So we’re actively working right now in assessing where those individuals are in connection with the outages so that we can start reaching out.”

City and CPS Energy officials said those who are not registered on the vulnerable population list, but need help, should call 311.

Officials said they will continue monitoring outages and connecting residents with cooling centers, overnight resilience hubs, and transportation as power restoration efforts continue.

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