BELL COUNTY, Texas — Oncor was reporting thousands of customers were without power across Central Texas Friday morning.
According to several posts from residents on social media, the outages began Thursday night as temperatures dipped into the teens.
According to the Oncor outage map, majority of customers without power were in the Belton area. As of 11 a.m. 1,236 customers had no power with restoration not expected until 6 p.m.
The city of Belton posted to its Facebook page that "due to continuous brief intermittent power outages city hall, utility billing, the Harris Community Center and Lena Armstrong Public Library" were closed. The city said they would return to regular business hours on Dec. 28.
It's important to note, the restoration times will vary from one area to another.
The map also showed customers without power in Killeen, Harker Heights, Holland and Salado.
The outages were not as widespread in McLennan County and other rural areas of Central Texas.
Oncor said its crews and resources were "fully engaged on restoring local power outages and will continue working around the clock."
Outages can be reported by texting "OUT" to 66267, using the MyOncor app or calling 888-313-4747.
"Due to very high usage, power may need to be restored in stages," a statement on the Oncor website said. "This can include restoring smaller numbers of customers in an area over time to prevent a significant increase in electrical demand, such as heating, from turning on all at once and straining our equipment -- similar to when you trip a breaker in your home by plugging too many things into one outlet."
Anyone dealing with an outage can find a warming shelter on the KCEN website or by visiting TDEM.texas.gov/warm.
As of 11 a.m. Friday, the Texas power grid was operating with 6,630 megawatts of reserve power, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas website.