SAN ANTONIO — Thousands were without power for 16 hours in Stone Oak Wednesday.
Neighbors say trees falling on power lines caused the outages that began around 4 a.m. and didn’t get restored until 6:30 p.m.
Overnight rain turned all trees white in Stone Oak. Freezing temperatures coated the branches with thick ice, causing tree branches to snap.
"It looks like a battlefield. All the trees that are breaking off,” said Stone Oak resident, Ricardo Duarte.
Many neighbors woke up at 4 a.m. to loud noises, similar to thunder.
"It was a big crack. A big limb, so it sounded like an explosion,” said Duarte. "It was purple lights that were flashing. I could hear the thump. I said, ‘That’s a transformer that just blew.’”
Duarte says he warned family members in advance that he may be out of reach for the day.
"I called my sister in El Paso and told her, 'Listen, my phone's ready to die because I've had no power. Make sure you tell mom.'"
In the Stone Mountain neighborhood, Callie Willett-Ussery says her fiancée ran outside early Wednesday morning and found a large tree sprawled across their front yard.
“When the tree first fell, we actually felt our house shake,” said Willett-Ussery. “Our main concern was the roof. Luckily, this tree was so far away from our roof that there was no damage there."
Another oak tree, not quite as large, fell near their front door.
"The problem is these branches are getting weighed down so much right now by the ice,” she explained.
Willett-Ussery says she and her fiancée had to charge their phones in his car since he had a full tank of gas.
On the bright side, she said, should their lights go out again, they'll have plenty of firewood to keep warm.
"Our first step is to just let the tree thaw out and we'll probably just cut it up and save it for a fire for the next instance when things go out,” said Willett-Ussery.
Next door, Myra Garza had two trees fall in her backyard.
“We're hoping it doesn't hit the back of the house. If it does, we will leave the house immediately,” said Garza.
She packed bags for her family just in case. Garza is also supporting other neighbors with supplies who may be running low.
“We provided [our neighbor] with weighted blankets, hand warmers as well as non-perishable food like apple sauce, oranges,” said Garza. “I just threw it over the fence about an hour ago."
Garza was prepared to lose power. She used solar power to charge the phones and she laid out tents and sleeping bags in the house to keep her family warm.
“I've lived here 20-something years and I've never seen this much snow and ice. Even living here in Stone Oak since 2012, I've never seen this. So it's pretty scary,” said Garza. “I know everybody makes fun of us for getting scared with bad weather. This is dangerous weather. Very different from something cold."
Neighbors tell KENS 5 this winter storm is worse than Winter Storm Uri in February 2021. They say at least during that time, they still had power.
Thankfully, no injuries were reported due to downed trees in the Stone Oak area.
"We're so thankful to live in a neighborhood where our neighbors come and check in on us and we check in on them,” said Willett-Ussery.