People work to remove tree limbs blocking the roadway on West Craig Place in San Antonio’s Monte Vista neighborhood Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026. Strong winds and heavy rain swept through the area Friday evening, leaving many homes without power.
Sam Owens/San Antonio Express-News
Tacos Woodys owner Sebastian Orzco immediately hired a repairman to fix his taco truck’s seating area, which was damaged in Friday’s storm.
Sebastian Orzco
The Salvation Army’s downtown shelter sustained significant damage to its roof during a storm late Friday, Aug. 28, 2026.
Salvation Army
San Antonio saw its wettest day of the month this weekend, causing widespread damage and leaving thousands of residents without power for what could be days.
Interim CPS Energy CEO Frank Almaraz said it could take days for power to be restored across the city, leaving San Antonians to figure out how to get through the outage in the meantime.
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More than 100,000 CPS customers were without power at the storm’s peak, and CPS officials said crews are working to repair 250 downed power lines, affecting more than 60,000 people as of late Saturday afternoon.
With temperatures soaring into the high 90s, many across San Antonio were trying to figure out how to make do until power is restored.
Alex Martinez, who lives down the street from Chris Madrid’s burger place on Blanco Road, said he lost power around 9:30 p.m. Friday, spoiling all of the food in his refrigerator.
Martinez spent Saturday morning cleaning debris off his lawn and helping a next door neighbor remove large branches off her roof. He was leaving his home Saturday afternoon to get something to eat and buy a generator, hoping to get his refrigerator running until power is restored.
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His wife received a text from CPS Saturday morning telling residents in their neighborhood that it could take several days to get power restored. Martinez said he saw CPS trucks drive by last night, but said he has not seen “a single truck return” to address the damage.
READ MORE: CPS: San Antonio power outages could last days; VIA offers free rides to cooling centers
Martinez and his family planned to stay with relatives, who had their power restored early Saturday morning, until they could turn their air conditioning back on.
“We can complain on social media, but at the end of the day, we have no voice,” Martinez said. “The city is going to do whatever they want to do.”
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At a news conference Saturday, city officials assured residents they were working hard to resolve issues and they asked for patience. CPS said its crews “are working to assess widespread damage, including downed lines, broken poles and damaged trees, and are restoring power safely. Due to the severity of the storm, some outages may take several days to repair.”
For business owners, the storm brought another set of challenges.
Sebastian Orzco, owner of Tacos Woodys, a food truck on the corner of Blanco and Fredricksburg Roads, said the wind started “blowing like crazy” around 10 p.m. on Friday night. His taco truck soon lost power, forcing him to close two hours early.
Customers at a party next door immediately started leaving when the rain began, he said, and struggled to get to their cars out of the parking lot amid the heavy rain.
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Heavy winds took down the canopy and lights covering the picnic tables next to his truck. He was expecting a worker to come Saturday afternoon to repair the damage.
His power came back on around 4 a.m., allowing him to reopen Saturday morning.
“I had never seen rain quite like this before,” Orzco said. “It was really ugly.”
READ MORE: Storm damage, power outages force San Antonio businesses to close
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The storm also is putting additional strain on social services.
The Salvation Army’s women’s and family shelter downtown is without power and lost a significant portion of its roof, Salvation Army San Antonio Commander Jeremiah Romack told the San Antonio Express-News. The surrounding area was also littered with fallen trees and debris.
Romack said the Salvation Army is assessing the roof to determine whether it will have to find a new location for the shelter, which operates around the clock and houses about 140 clients at any given time.
When the roof collapsed, the clients were moved to a safe section of the building, where they are staying for now.
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“But if the power doesn’t come back on soon, it’s going to get pretty warm in there,” he added. “We’re working to figure out a solution.”
To provide support for the thousands left without power, the city is keeping libraries and park centers open as cooling centers.
The city also opened “resiliency hubs” with air conditioning where people who suffered storm damage or lost power can spend the night. They are Copernicus Community Center, Garza Community Center, Miller’s Pond Community Center, Normoyle Senior Center, the Northeast Senior Center and the Southside Lions Center.
At the Landa library branch in Monte Vista, residents looking to cool off packed into the library’s reading nooks.
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“Usually, we get influxes of children and families on the weekend,” Librarian Stephanie Rosen told the Express-News. “Today, people are looking for outlets — every outlet, every seat is taken, and that’s not standard.”
Bags of chips and cold water bottles were laid out on a table in the branch’s marbled entryway. Rosen offered water to a table full of middle-aged patrons working on their laptops.
When asked by one man how late the library would be open, she said until 6 p.m.
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“They have said that right now we aren’t extending our hours because other facilities are filling that role,” Rosen said. “But it’s very possible that will change because in past emergencies we have extended our hours.”