HOUSTON:Millions of Texans braved their third day without heat on Wednesday following a punishing winter storm that has killed at least 21 people, as icy conditions threatened to hamstring the country's second-largest state and surrounding region for days.
Some 2.7 million households were without power, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), a cooperative responsible for 90% of the state's electricity which has come under increasing fire for a massive failure of the power grid.
Laura Nowell, a 45-year-old mother of four in Waco, Texas, said her family has been without electricity since before dawn on Monday and has been trying to keep warm by bundling up and running and sitting in their car for short stints.
"We've never had this much cold. There is ice everywhere," Nowell said, adding that she was frustrated by the lack of communication about rolling blackouts to conserve the power grid. "Tell me what's going on. It's silence."
The National Weather Service said the worst of the weather had passed the Fort Worth area, but it kept a storm warning in effect through 8 p.m for the eastern part of the state and warned that unusually low temperatures would continue for days.
Moreover, a snow and freezing rain crippling the region was moving east and heavy ice accumulation was expected in parts of Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi before the storm reaches the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast on Thursday, it said.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the top official in the most populous county in Texas, on Wednesday said the storms were straining not only the local electric grid but triggering a cascade of effects, including lost water pressure, carbon monoxide poisoning and halted COVID-19 vaccinations.
Hidalgo said she did not trust that ERCOT had a handle on the situation and warned the outages may last several more days.
"I'm telling my community do not expect the power to come back even after the weather passes," Hidalgo said on CNN. "We've never seen the grid fail."
The storm has killed at least 21 people across four states, and the weather service predicted that temperatures would remain 20 to 35 degrees below average across parts of the central and southern United States for a few days. That could lead to further ice accumulation.
UNPREPARED
Texas' deregulated energy market gives little financial incentives for operators to prepare for the rare bout of intensely cold weather, an issue critics have been pointing out for years. Natural gas wells and pipelines in Texas, the country's biggest energy-producing state, do not undergo the winterization of those farther north - resulting in many being knocked offline by the prolonged freezing weather.
ERCOT, which instituted blackouts to cope with the surge in demand, asked that people focus on fixing the problem first before assigning blame. It said it hoped to get soon to where customers only had to cope with short rolling blackouts.
"The best case at this point is that today or tomorrow we're able to at least get back down to the point where all the consumers are experiencing outages that are no longer than 30 minutes to an hour at a time," Dan Woodfin, ERCOT's senior director of system operations, told a briefing.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott has demanded that state lawmakers investigate ERCOT and pass reforms.
Austin Mayor Steve Adler blamed the power failures on a lack of preparedness and also called for reforms.
"We need to start taking a look at extreme weather. It's not as unusual as it used to be," Adler told MSNBC.
The Federal Emergency Management Agency has supplied Texas with generators and is preparing to provide diesel fuel to help ensure availability of backup power, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters on Wednesday. President Joe Biden had approved an emergency declaration for the state on Sunday.
Meanwhile, people were coping the best they could.
Trilby Landry, a 57-year-old homeless man, was escaping the cold at the Gallery Furniture store in Houston, which had opened its doors as a warming center, joining people who had fled homes with busted heating systems and water pipes.
"We're makeshifting," Landry said in an phone interview. "Everybody's in a whirlwind right now. They are letting people sleep on couches and chairs. People just want to go home."
Reuters
Thu Feb 18 2021
Tiffany Woodley, front, rests on a bed while taking a shelter at Gallery Furniture store which opened its door and transformed into a warming station after winter weather caused electricity blackouts in Houston. REUTERS pic
Sektor pendidikan terima RM64.1 bilion, tertinggi dalam sejarah
Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim memberitahu Kementerian Pendidikan diberi peruntukan RM64.1 bilion peruntukan tertinggi dalam sejarah.
Kerajaan meluluskan Forest City sebagai Pulau Bebas Cukai - PM
Skim Pejabat Keluarga Tunggal telah diluncurkan untuk Zon Kewangan Khas Forest City bagi menggalakkan pengurusan dana Keluarga, kata PM Anwar Ibrahim
Belanjawan 2025: Ada ibu bapa warga emas? Ini manfaat membabitkan mereka
Belanjawan 2025 menaikkan bantuan bulanan untuk warga emas serta memperluaskan pelepasan cukai berkaitan penjagaan kesihatan dan sukan.
Peruntukan RM6.7 bilion pacu pembangunan Sabah
Cadangan peruntuk RM6.7 bilion untuk Sabah 2025 memadai untuk meneruskan projek pembangunan pada tahun akhgir Rancangan Malaysia Ke-12 (RMK12).
Perkhidmatan komuniti bergerak di Sabah, Sarawak diperluas
Tambahnya Bank Simpanan Nasional (BSN) bergerak ditambah empat lagi menjadikan 12 buah terutamanya untuk Sabah dan Sarawak bagi memudahkan penyaluran bantuan kerajaan.
Usaha memperkasa pembangunan ekonomi masyarakat luar bandar
Perdana Menteri, Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim berkata setiap pedesaan, miskin bandar, di kampung, pedalaman dan rumah panjang diberi peruntukan antara RM50,000 hingga RM100,000
Pembangunan fasiliti di Sabah, Sarawak terus jadi fokus kerajaan
Ini apabila sejumlah RM 253 juta diperuntukkan untuk projek pembesaran Lapangan Terbang Tawau dan Lapangan Terbang Miri. Selain itu, Kerajaan Persekutuan dan Sarawak bekerjasama membangunkan Pusat Kanser Sarawak yang dianggarkan 1 bilion ringgit.
Pemberian Khas Sabah, Sarawak dicadang dinaikan RM600 juta
Kerajaan bercadang menaikkan kadar Pemberian Khas Sarawak dan Sabah sekali ganda kepada RM600 juta.
Atur kemasukan warga asing, SPRM tahan dua pegawai penguat kuasa dan ejen
Mereka dipercayai terlibat mengatur kemasukan warga asing menerusi laluan kaunter khas di Lapangan Terbang Antarabangsa Pulau Pinang (LTAPP).
Belanjawan 2025: Gred Turus tidak ambil kenaikan gaji tujuh peratus
Barisan Pengurusan Tertinggi penjawat awam Gred Utama iaitu Turus bersetuju untuk tidak menerima lagi kenaikan gaji sebanyak tujuh peratus dalam SSPA yang bermula 1 Disember depan.