Downed power lines snag traffic

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Downed power lines in North Austin diverted Tuesday traffic.

It happened around 9:30 a.m. at Gessner Drive and 300 East Anderson Lane, where a power pole bent over. That's near North Crest Boulevard.

Austin Energy officials said it looks like the pole was possibly damaged last week during the strong winds.

• Photos: High winds wreak havoc

Crews have put the pole back in its place securely, but it will have to be replaced Tuesday. In addition, there were no widespread outages, though there were some small ones – mostly due to tree limbs on power lines.

The U.S. Highway 183 frontage road heading west is closed at Interstate 35, and officials said they don't know how long the road will be closed.

In-Depth: Feb. 26 winds

The high winds wreaked havoc on airline schedules, knocked out power to tens of thousands of electric customers and fouled traffic signals.

Dozens of people reported downed trees, damaged roofs, power failures in stores and even bricks being torn from the wall of a North Austin building.

The gusts blew over at least three big rigs on the State Highway 130 toll roads. Some of the gusts reached 50 mph, although there were no injuries reported.