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The Austin Firefighters Association continued its public relations battle against the city over a denied workers compensation claim on Friday.

Earlier this week, the union sent out a blistering press release condemning the city for denying the workers compensation claim of Lieutenant Suzanne LaFollette, who is fighting stage-four ovarian cancer that she and the union believe is related to her work as a firefighter.

The union sent out a press release that accused an attorney working for the city of making it clear "he had no interest in the science of [LaFollette]'s cancer claim and the matter was set for an April contested case hearing before an administrative law judge."

The statement states that LaFollette and the union are "disappointed but not surprised" and thanked Austin City Council Member Paige Ellis for adding her support.

The statement quotes Ellis, who said, "All Austin firefighters and their families deserve nothing less than the city's full commitment to preserving their health and stability in a time of great need. If the federal government can act on this so can we."

AFA President David Girouard said, "Austin firefighters are grateful to the citizens and members of the City Council who have reached out to support Suzanne as she fights for her life, and fights the city's third-party workers compensation attorney."

He continued, "We find the facts and the science indisputable. I'm confident that with the council's support and when all the evidence is considered that Lt. LaFollete's nearly two decades of service to Austin will be ruled the occupational cause of her cancer diagnosis."

The press release also quoted an attorney for LaFollette who said the case "has met and exceeded the legal standard" required for her cancer to be recognized as a result of her work as an Austin firefighter.

She says she didn't do these in the past and paid the price.

An Austin woman who once suffered the consequences of forgoing extreme weather preparation is advising her neighbors to get serious ahead of a winter storm. Here’s what she suggests.

TikTok creator Anastasia (@stasiamorrow) posted a video with her advice last month. “Attention all Austin residents: I’m going to give you a quick rundown of the things that you should do to prepare for this winter storm—coming from somebody who didn’t do these and had to pay the price,” she says to start the video.

In the caption, she wrote, “Try to find a place with a generator if you can. Stay safe and check on your loved ones.”

The first piece of advice is on the subject of plumbing. “All of your faucets need to be dripping. Hot and cold water,” she says. “Both need to be dripping.”

The second recommendation addresses potential water needs. “Next, you want to fill up a bathtub before the storm with water so you have water to use in your toilets and things if your water gets shut off,” she says.

Anastasia’s third suggestion is to charge all of your electronic devices. “All of your power banks,” she says. “Everything. Get it charged now, because you don’t want to be going to your car at 4 in the morning.”

With regard to food, she recommends staying stocked but not over buying. “Don’t go and buy everything,” she says. “Buy the staples. Buy some canned beans. Buy some canned vegetables and buy beef.”

She adds, “If you’re gonna grill, it doesn’t need to be frozen, but preferably freeze it. You can always thaw it out, but that way it stays cold.”

The last recommendation has to do with heating your home properly. “And, finally, before the storm, make sure your thermostat is set hotter than you usually set it in case you lose power,” she says. “You want to make sure that your apartment is still going to be warm and it’s not absolutely freezing.”

In the comments section, viewers debated whether this level of prep is necessary or if it’s overkill.“Y’all taking this too seriously,” wrote one viewer. “Looks like a normal day in Minnesota.”

A person replied, “Yeah, and this isn’t Minnesota? Come on, don’t be obtuse. The infrastructure is not made for freezing temperatures, ice, and snow.”

Someone else indicated they aren’t taking it as seriously as Anastasia. They wrote, “I’m playing Fortnite.”[[File:Winter Storm Uri in Austin, Texas 05.jpg|Winter_Storm_Uri_in_Austin,_Texas_05]]

Local officials are urging residents to take the potential of inclement weather seriously, and (responsibly) stocking up on food, batteries, and other emergency items is a good idea. Here is a list of things to grab from HEB or any other local grocery store with inventory still in stock.

Patch Texas contacted Anastasia via TikTok comment and direct message for comment.

Austin, TX – Cooler temperatures are expected tonight across Central and South-Central Texas as clouds clear behind a passing cold front.

According to the National Weather Service Austin–San Antonio office, overnight low temperatures are forecast to range from the upper 30s to the upper 40s across the region. Clearing skies are expected as the night progresses, allowing temperatures to drop more efficiently, especially in outlying and rural areas.

Communities along major corridors including I-35, I-10, and U.S. Highway 290 can expect cooler conditions by late evening into early Wednesday morning. Forecast lows include near 38 degrees in portions of the Hill Country, around 40 degrees in Austin and San Antonio, and low to mid-40s across the Coastal Plains. Light to moderate northerly winds may add a slight chill during the overnight hours.

The National Weather Service noted that the cooler night follows the passage of a cold front, but no hazardous weather is expected. Dry conditions will persist, and no precipitation is forecast overnight or into midweek.

Looking ahead, a warming trend is expected to develop later in the week and continue into the weekend. Daytime highs are forecast to rebound into the upper 70s to lower 80s by Saturday and Sunday across much of the region, including Austin, San Antonio, New Braunfels, and Del Rio. Overnight lows will also moderate, returning to the 50s by the end of the week.

Major travel routes are not expected to see weather-related impacts, though early morning commuters may notice cooler temperatures before sunrise Wednesday. Bridges and roadways are expected to remain dry.

Students, commuters, and young workers heading out early Wednesday should dress for cooler conditions before temperatures warm later in the day.

Residents are encouraged to continue monitoring updates from the National Weather Service as the late-week warming trend takes hold.

Austin's long-awaited "wishbone" pedestrian bridge opens Saturday at the eastern end of Lady Bird Lake, completing the biggest gap in the Ann and Roy Butler Hike and Bike Trail.

For the first time since Longhorn Shores was developed in the mid-1970s, people will be able to move along this edge of the lake without being routed next to fast-moving cars and trucks.

The $25 million bridge was mostly funded by voter-approved debt authorized in the 2020 bond election. But the project wound up costing more than expected, so U.S. Rep. Greg Casar, D-Austin, secured more than $4 million in federal funding, allowing construction to kick off in July 2024.

Casar will speak at a ribbon-cutting ceremony scheduled for Saturday at 10 a.m. He'll be joined by Mayor Kirk Watson, among other elected officials. The city says the grand opening will include food trucks and live music.

People on the Butler Trail have had to detour to the Pleasant Valley Road bridge to cross the water. The city started widening the bridge's notoriously slim sidewalks in 2021. But now trail users will have a dedicated car-free crossing that treats the eastern end of the lake as an integral part of Austin's most popular trail.

"It looks simple but it was quite complicated," said Laurie Thering, the city's project manager on the bridge. "It was just fun to do something for the community."

At the heart of the new bridge is a 65-foot-wide central plaza, designed to be both a gathering place and a scenic overlook. The plaza will have shade created by trumpet creeper, a native vine that will grow through trellises wrapped around poles into overhead frames that will support the plant. It could take up to two years for the vine to fully cover the trellises.

The plaza has art benches made from Austin-area trees that would otherwise have been chipped or burned. Fourteen benches have been installed and more are planned.

The company that did the work behind this is no stranger to building pedestrian infrastructure along Lady Bird Lake. Dripping Springs-based Jay-Reese Contractors built the Butler Trail Boardwalk, the Pfluger Pedestrian Bridge, the 2nd Street Bridge over Shoal Creek and the Confluence at the end of the Waterloo Greenway, set to open June 6.

"It's kind of a blessing [to work on the bridge]," said Bryce Burgess, a superintendent with the contractor. "I have the coolest office in town. ... Definitely something I will use once the fences come down."

The city will own the wishbone bridge, but it will be maintained by the Trail Conservancy, a privately funded nonprofit that has a long-term agreement to operate and maintain the Butler Trail.

South of the bridge, a new 160-foot-long tunnel was constructed under Pleasant Valley Road to replace a dimly lit, 6-foot-wide passageway made from a box culvert. The old tunnel would often flood when it rained.

The new 30-foot-wide arched underpass includes better drainage, recessed lighting and a mosaic tile mural along the tunnel walls. The artwork is titled "Absolute Equality: Unity Tunnel."

On Tuesday morning, a team of people were carefully lifting completed tile mosaics from a truck into the tunnel to be installed.

"It's been two years in the making, and in the next four days, we're going to bring it together," said Reginald Adams, the Houston artist selected to design and install the artwork.

Adams held several public workshops inviting people to create tiles by making impressions of their handprints. More than 200 of those tiles will adorn the outer end of each side of the tunnel.

"That will be the welcome into the tunnel," he said. "As people come in and out of the tunnel, they'll be able to see their contribution to this public art installation."

The three-legged pedestrian bridge is unusual for its shape. Most bridges are designed to connect one place to another. Transportation engineers generally avoid three-way crossings because they're more complex and costly to build.

But the bridge is also unusual for how it came to be. The design was not among the initial options considered by city engineers and consultants. Thirteen people wrote in the suggestion at a public meeting in November 2018, according to a preliminary engineering report.

City staff took the suggestion seriously enough to study it. Planners added the wishbone concept to their slate of possible alternatives. The competing options proposed more conventional designs, including expanding the existing Pleasant Valley Road bridge to allow for wider sidewalks on both sides.

When engineers evaluated the options, the wishbone bridge offered clear advantages. The three-pronged design provided the most convenient connections to Holly Shores, Longhorn Shores and the unnamed peninsula. The bridge reduced steep climbs and allowed for wider paths. And it had less impact on water levels in a location designed by FEMA as a special flood hazard area.

The wishbone bridge concept also proved to be the most popular choice among Austinites. In a series of public meetings, the design received more support than any competing alternative.

"It's not a common kind of construction, but its problem is also not common," said Al Godfrey, an architect who helped design the boardwalk along the Butler Trail that opened in 2014. "So the fact that it would take this form makes perfect sense."

Godfrey believes the structure will fundamentally change how people experience the eastern end of the Butler Trail.

"This bridge will be transformative. It will be a spectacular enhancement to the trail," Godfrey said. "Many will regard the bridge as having completed the trail, and in a sense, it's true."