Port Aransas dealing with Natural Gas outage into Sunday night

KRIS 6 News
By: Frank Cardenas
Posted at 7:19 PM, Mar 19, 2023
last updated 9:41 PM, Mar 19, 2023

CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas — UPDATE: Port Aransas City Manager David Parsons said crew purged the gas lines around 6 p.m. Sunday night and started turning the gas and meters on.

He said they started with the schools, hotels and restaurants that remained open.

Parsons said the City of Corpus Christi will send 6 crews Monday morning to help and at least one person should be present for crews to turn on service.

Many restaurants and businesses in Port Aransas shut down early over the weekend after a disruption in the city’s gas lines caused the city to run out of natural gas.

According to a release on the city’s website, Port Aransas City Manager David Parsons said outages began on Friday and impacted a "large portion of the area."

In an update on Sunday, Parsons said crews completely shutdown all 1,900 meters throughout the city and they began to put pressure into the system to flush out the air at 1 p.m.

As of Sunday at about 4 p.m., Parsons said city crews are still in the purging stages of removing air from the system.

Parsons added the city will be able to start opening gas meters and providing gas, but it may be later Sunday night.

"Unfortunately, this stage won’t begin until after dinner begins and city staff doesn’t want businesses staff and customers sitting around with no gas service," Parsons said.

KRSI 6 News did reach out to parsons and the city of Port Aransas but have not heard back.

TIMELINE OF GAS RUNNING OUT

According to a text Parson's sent to city councilmen this weekend, the city’s off shore gas supply wells went down because of a mechanical issue and the repair vessel failed to get crews out due to high seas.

"The supplier calculated that there was enough pressure in the supply lines that we’d stay in supply until (Saturday). They did not notify staff of this issue,” Parsons said. “And they were incorrect in their assumption. Our supply ran out.”

In the meantime, the city attempted to hire a gas trucking company to deliver trucks early Saturday to recharge the system.

On Saturday, the city worked overnight into the afternoon to restore the gas line, but could not until they had "100 percent certainty in shutting off every meter in the city prior to re-pressuring the system."

Between Sunday morning into the afternoon, the city received confirmation of the shut off, and was able to "bleed the air out of the system."

KRIS 6 News is still awaiting further updates.