Mayor (City of Austin) and Travis County officials on Friday urged Austinites to prepare for a period of cold, rainy weather and announced operational changes to support people who are vulnerable to the cold.

County Judge Andy Brown said the county and city have coordinated preparations and that the public should “expect and prepare for cold weather tomorrow.” He listed newborns, older adults, people with chronic illnesses, outdoor workers and people experiencing homelessness as groups at elevated risk.

Bill Wilson, interim director of the Austin Office of Homeland Security and Emergency Management (HESEM), said the city opened overnight cold-weather shelters earlier in the week and, because of anticipated precipitation and lower daytime highs, is transitioning to 24-hour shelter operations through Friday morning. He also announced activation of the Austin-Travis County Emergency Operations Center at 2 p.m. from the press conference. Wilson urged residents to protect “the 4 P’s: people, pets, pipes and plants,” and warned against using generators, grills or ovens indoors because of carbon monoxide and fire risks.

Eric Carter, Travis County chief emergency management coordinator, and other county staff said the county is coordinating with smaller cities and towns inside Travis County and that health and human services staff will coordinate mental health services and senior assisted living centers if the Emergency Operations Center is activated.

Stuart Riley, Austin Energy deputy general manager, described the utility’s preparations: inspections, winterizing equipment, mutual-aid agreements and 24/7 staffing for crews. Riley said Austin Energy is not anticipating an inadequate power supply for the event and that customers should sign up for outage alerts; he gave the utility’s emergency web pages and a text-registration code for outage alerts.

Richard Mendoza, director of the City of Austin Transportation and Public Works, said road crews will monitor conditions and be on standby to apply anti-icing materials if needed, with priority given to high-profile routes and facilities such as hospitals, warming centers and fire/EMS stations. Mendoza also reminded drivers that, should traffic signals lose power, drivers should treat them as four-way stops and report outages via 311.

City officials said warming centers — public libraries and Parks and Recreation facilities open during normal business hours — remain available and an interactive map of warming centers and shelter information is posted at austintexas.gov/alerts. Officials repeated instructions to sign up for warncentraltexas.org and to download the Ready Central Texas app for updates, checklists and resources.

City staff also said cold-weather shelters open when overnight temperatures are forecast to drop below 35 degrees at Camp Mabry, per the city’s current threshold, and that registration for overnight shelter currently occurs between 6 and 8 p.m. at 1 Texas Center, 505 Barton Springs Road. A cold-weather shelter hotline was provided as 512-972-5055.

Officials reported that Austin Energy’s online conditions page showed normal operating conditions at the time of the briefing and that the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) had declared a weather watch through Jan. 10.

During a brief question-and-answer period, city staff described the city’s expanded tree-trimming program, noting a seven-year cycle goal for more than 300 electrical circuits and that work is prioritized by reliability and wildfire risk. Shelter staff reported three recent shelter activations during the week and gave counts for Sunday (about 200), Monday (just under 300) and Tuesday (just over 300).

No formal votes or legislative actions were recorded during the briefing. The announcements were logistical and operational: activation of the EOC, extension of shelter hours and continued monitoring by multiple city and county departments.