{"id":420655,"date":"2026-08-30T00:12:10","date_gmt":"2026-08-30T00:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/420655\/"},"modified":"2026-08-30T00:12:10","modified_gmt":"2026-08-30T00:12:10","slug":"san-antonians-grapple-with-how-to-get-through-storms-aftermath","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/420655\/","title":{"rendered":"San Antonians grapple with how to get through storm’s aftermath"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"People<\/p>\n

People work to remove tree limbs blocking the roadway on West Craig Place in San Antonio\u2019s Monte Vista neighborhood Saturday, Aug. 29, 2026. Strong winds and heavy rain swept through the area Friday evening, leaving many homes without power.<\/p>\n

Sam Owens\/San Antonio Express-News\"Tacos<\/p>\n

Tacos Woodys owner Sebastian Orzco immediately hired a repairman to fix his taco truck\u2019s seating area, which was damaged in Friday\u2019s storm.<\/p>\n

Sebastian Orzco\"The<\/p>\n

The Salvation Army\u2019s downtown shelter sustained significant damage to its roof during a storm late Friday, Aug. 28, 2026.<\/p>\n

Salvation Army<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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More than 100,000 CPS customers were without power at the storm\u2019s 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.\u00a0<\/p>\n

With temperatures soaring into the high 90s, many across San Antonio were trying to figure out how to make do until power is restored.<\/p>\n

Alex Martinez, who lives down the street from Chris Madrid\u2019s burger place on\u00a0Blanco Road, said he lost power around 9:30 p.m. Friday, spoiling all of the food in his refrigerator.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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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 \u201ca single truck return\u201d to address the damage.<\/p>\n

READ MORE: CPS: San Antonio power outages could last days; VIA offers free rides to cooling centers<\/a><\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe can complain on social media, but at the end of the day, we have no voice,\u201d Martinez said. \u201cThe city is going to do whatever they want to do.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n

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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\u00a0 \u201care 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

For business owners, the storm brought another set of challenges.<\/p>\n

Sebastian Orzco, owner of Tacos Woodys, a food truck on the corner of Blanco and Fredricksburg Roads, said the wind started \u201cblowing like crazy\u201d around 10 p.m.\u00a0on Friday night. His taco truck soon lost power, forcing him to close two hours early.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

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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.<\/p>\n

His power came back on around 4 a.m., allowing him to reopen Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had never seen rain quite like this before,\u201d Orzco said. \u201cIt was really ugly.\u201d<\/p>\n

READ MORE: Storm damage, power outages force San Antonio businesses to close<\/a><\/p>\n

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The storm also is putting additional strain on social services.<\/p>\n

The Salvation Army\u2019s women\u2019s and family shelter downtown is without power and lost a significant portion of its roof, Salvation Army San Antonio Commander Jeremiah\u00a0Romack told the San Antonio Express-News. The surrounding area was also littered with fallen trees and debris.<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

When the roof collapsed, the clients were moved to a safe section of the building, where they are staying for now.<\/p>\n

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\u201cBut if the power doesn\u2019t come back on soon, it\u2019s going to get pretty warm in there,\u201d he added. \u201cWe\u2019re working to figure out a solution.\u201d<\/p>\n

To provide support for the thousands left without power, the city is keeping libraries and park centers open as cooling centers.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s Pond Community Center, Normoyle Senior Center, the Northeast Senior Center and the Southside Lions Center.<\/p>\n

At the Landa library branch in Monte Vista, residents looking to cool off packed into the library\u2019s reading nooks.\u00a0<\/p>\n

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\u201cUsually, we get influxes of children and families on the weekend,\u201d Librarian Stephanie Rosen told the Express-News. \u201cToday, people are looking for outlets \u2014 every outlet, every seat is taken, and that\u2019s not standard.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bags of chips and cold water bottles were laid out on a table in the branch\u2019s marbled entryway. Rosen offered water to a table full of middle-aged patrons working on their laptops.<\/p>\n

When asked by one man how late the library would be open, she said until 6\u00a0p.m.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThey have said that right now we aren\u2019t extending our hours because other facilities are filling that role,\u201d Rosen said. \u201cBut it\u2019s very possible that will change because in past emergencies we have extended our hours.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"People work to remove tree limbs blocking the roadway on West Craig Place in San Antonio\u2019s Monte Vista…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":420656,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[82,84,83],"class_list":["post-420655","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio","tag-san-antonio-headlines","tag-san-antonio-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420655","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=420655"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/420655\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/420656"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=420655"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=420655"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=420655"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}