During the recent winter storm, the Austin Community College District (ACC) Emergency Operations Center (EOC) team was activated to assess threats posed by inclement weather and to take action to mitigate risks posed to students, faculty, staff, and facilities. These actions included continually monitoring weather conditions as they deteriorated on Monday, January 31; taking part in collaborative weather emergency calls with other local governmental and educational partners throughout the week; and closing the college for three days during the height of the storm and power outages.

ACC was fortunate that only four campuses (Eastview, Riverside, South Austin, and Elgin) lost power during the storm, with all campuses returning to full operations by Monday, February 6.

“Much credit must go to our police, facilities, and safety teams that worked throughout the storm to ensure our campuses came out the other side with little damage,” said Dr. Molly Beth Malcolm, Executive Vice Chancellor of Operations and Public Affairs. “I also want to acknowledge the work of our multidisciplinary EOC members, including communications, instruction, student services, and finance and administration, who all came together to assess the weather threats and make recommendations on closures to Dr. Rhodes.”

This week, ACC is partnering with the City of Austin Office of Resilience to offer a multi-agency resource center at the ACC Riverside Campus on Saturday, February 11, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. 

The temporary resource center will offer food and water to those impacted by the storm. It will also feature government and nonprofit social-service providers who will be on hand to help residents.