Millions of Texans still without heat, power or water
Millions of Texans woke up Thursday morning still without heat, electricity or water — with the historic cold snap that crippled the power grid expected to linger for several more days.
As of early Thursday, 2.7 million Texas households were still without heat, while upward of 12 million people either have no drinking water on tap in their homes or have drinking water available only intermittently.
Volunteers help distribute water to local residents at a warming center and shelter after record-breaking winter temperatures in Texas on Feb. 17, 2021.REUTERS/Adrees Latif
It has particularly devastated some hospitals, forcing people to refrain from washing their hands despite it being the most basic safety measure, especially the coronavirus pandemic.
Some communities have become completely isolated with frozen roads still impassable in parts of the state.
Hospital officials at St. David’s South Austin Medical Center said some patients at the facility would be moved over to other hospitals in the area after the building began losing heat due to low water pressure on Feb. 17, 2021.Bronte Wittpenn/Austin American-Statesman via AP
“This is in many ways disasters within the disaster,” said Judge Lina Hidalgo, the top elected official in Harris County, which encompasses Houston. “The cascading effects are not going to go away.”
So far, no more storm deaths appear to have been reported from the 23 announced on Wednesday.
Father John Szatkowski of St. Paul The Apostle Church sweeps water from a broken water line out of his church in Richardson, Texas, Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021.AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez
Officials suspect many more people have died — but their bodies have not been discovered yet, according to Reuters.
While the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), a cooperative responsible for 90% of the state’s electricity, claimed “progress” in getting power back on the grid, the historic cold snap that crippled it will leave freezing temperatures for several more days, meteorologists warn.
Austin Fire Department and ATCEMS respond to a house fire that left two people dead, one critically injured and three others with minor injuries on East 12th Street in Austin on Wednesday, Feb. 17, 2021 amid the historic cold streak.
AP
After seeing a posting on Facebook, a woman drove from Johnson County, Texas to collect some of the dumpsters-full of ice cream thrown out at a Southwest Arlington Kroger store on Feb. 17, 2021.
Tom Fox/The Dallas Morning News via AP
Residents line up in their vehicles to enter a warming center and shelter after record-breaking winter temperatures in Galveston, Texas on Feb. 17, 2021.
REUTERS/Adrees Latif
Overhead power lines are seen during record-breaking temperatures in Houston, Texas.
REUTERS/Adrees Latif/File Photo
A mailbox is seen frozen in a snow covered neighborhood in Waco, Texas as severe winter weather conditions over the last few days has forced road closures and power outages over the state on February 17, 2021.
MATTHEW BUSCH/AFP via Getty Images
A man walks home through his neighborhood in Waco amid the power outages in Texas on Feb. 17, 2021.
MATTHEW BUSCH/AFP via Getty Images
People using their car to heat up their home in East Dallas, Texas on Feb. 17, 2021.
AP
Water from a broken water line reached into the sanctuary at St. Paul The Apostle Church in Richardson, Texas on Feb. 17, 2021.
AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez
People washing their hands after power returned to their apartment in Dallas on Feb. 17, 2021.
Juan Figueroa/The Dallas Morning News via AP
A fox or small coyote crosses Plano Road between cars moving through the Spring Creek Nature Area as a second winter storm brought more snow and continued freezing temperatures to North Texas on Tuesday night, Feb. 16, 2021.
Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News via AP
A car seen on a snow-covered road in Texas on Feb. 17, 2021.
MATTHEW BUSCH/AFP via Getty Images
Snow covers the ground in Waco, Texas, on February 17, 2021.
MATTHEW BUSCH/AFP via Getty Images
Tire tracks are seen in a snow covered neighborhood in Waco, Texas as severe winter weather conditions over the last few days has forced road closures and power outages over the state on February 17, 2021.
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But the most severe parts of the storm were finally moving away from the Lone Star State, weather watchers said.
“The worst is over and things will be getting better through the weekend,” Dan Petersen, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service in College Park, Maryland, said.
An Oncor crew works on along Elsie Faye Higgins Street in Houston amid the power outages across the state on Feb. 17, 2021.Smiley N. Pool/The Dallas Morning News via AP
Governor Greg Abbott has demanded an investigation into ERCOT, with critics accusing it of failing to heed federal warnings after a similar cold-weather meltdown in 2011.
Abbott said that “every source of power the state of Texas has access to has been compromised because of the cold temperature or because of equipment failures.”
People wait in long lines at an H-E-B grocery store in Austin, Texas on February 17, 2021.Getty Images
