Nearly two years after Winter Storm Uri, San Antonio is facing a federal lawsuit alleging its emergency preparedness plan is discriminatory and leaves “residents with disabilities out in the cold.”
Filed Jan. 27 in San Antonio federal court, the civil lawsuit is the first of its kind against a Texas city and one of only a handful nationwide, said Stephanie Duke, a staff attorney at Disability Rights Texas and the nonprofit advocacy agency’s disaster resilience coordinator.
Disability Rights Texas filed the suit along with two law firms, Winston & Strawn LLP and Daniel & Beshara, P.C., on behalf of nine San Antonio residents who say the city’s plan put their lives in jeopardy during the February 2021 storm and is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.
“We spent a good amount of time trying to get San Antonio to come to the table pre-suit trying to resolve the problem,” Duke said. “Unfortunately, that did not happen.”
“We didn’t want to end up in litigation because that takes time, it takes resources and it doesn’t solve the problem right away,” she added.
The city did not make anyone available for an interview, citing the pending litigation. The city was issued a summons Monday, according to federal court records, and has 21 days to respond to the lawsuit.
Read the full article, Lawsuit: San Antonio Emergency Plan Leaves Residents with Disabilities Out in the Cold, on the San Antonio Express News website.