Amid an explosion of winter weather in the U.S., millions in Texas remained powerless Tuesday amid intermittent temperatures, with authorities warning of treacherous travel conditions in many states. It has been confirmed that at least two people died due to the cold.
The massive winter storm that immobilized the southern plains was on its way to the eastern Great Lakes and New England, where heavy snow and freezing rain were expected Tuesday, the National Weather Service (NWS) said.
The storm left record-setting cold temperatures with warnings against cold winds from the U.S.-Canada border to the U.S.-Mexico border in the central part of the country. In bad news for millions of people without power, more snow and ice were forecast Tuesday and Wednesday along a front that stretches from Texas to the Appalachian states.
The worst disruptions were in Texas, which affected more than 4 million homes and businesses. More than 250,000 people lost power across parts of Appalachia and another quarter of a million were without electricity after an ice storm in northwestern Oregon.
“We are experiencing a very historic event that is currently taking place,” said Jason Furtado, a professor of meteorology at the University of Oklahoma.
Texans struggled. In Austin, Matthew Micik walked without power for 24 hours, and the temperature in his home was less than 35F (1.6C). After finding a hotel room in nearby San Marcos, he told the Guardian that he had been driving through ice and snow to find that most of the city had also lost power. He spent the night in his car.
From Galveston, Jessica Knofla said ‘only a few fast food restaurants are temporarily open and the lines were a mile long. They all had to close because they had no more food. Everyone who lives here has basically had no warning and is stuck on a black island with no big shops open and no lights on the road. This is absolutely furious and I’m fucking pissed. ”
At the southernmost point of Texas, Brownsville, on the border with Mexico, temperatures dropped below 30F (-1C). People were in homes that were not built to retain heat, a problem throughout the state.
Many did not have water due to frozen or burst pipes. Kelsey Muñoz, an intensive care nurse in Dallas, said: ‘Right now I have power and I hope I can not tell myself through this. For water, however, I had to collect snow and melt it. Never thought I would have to do this in Texas. ”
The disappearance forced one province in Texas to get more than 8,000 doses of Moderna’s coronavirus vaccine into the arms of humans. The public health institution in the province of Harris lost power between 01:00 and 02:00 on Monday and its backup generator also failed, said Rafael Lemaitre, a spokesperson for Judge Lina Hidalgo.
Looking for large groups of people in places where they would not have to drive and with appropriate medical staff on hand, officials distributed the doses at three hospitals, Rice University and the prison in the country. Hidalgo, the top-elected official in Houston, said she does not believe vaccines are being lost.
The conditions also delay the delivery of new vaccines. State officials said Texas, which would receive more than 400,000 doses of vaccines this week, did not expect deliveries until Wednesday.
Authorities in several countries have reported deaths in accidents on icy roads. In the death in Texas, a woman and a girl died of suspected carbon monoxide poisoning in Houston, in a house without electricity from a car running in a garage, police said. According to law enforcement, the likelihood is to blame for the deaths of two men along the roads in the Houston area.
Frustration has arisen over power outages that are expected to resolve only later on Tuesday. The state’s overwhelming power grid has imposed power outages that are usually only seen in 100F (38C) summers.
“Things are likely to get worse before it gets better,” Hidalgo said.
The Southwest Power Pool, a group of utilities in 14 states, called for disruptions because the supply of reserve energy was depleted. Some utilities said they start with power outages, while other customers have requested to reduce power consumption. Government officials said the rising demand was driven by people trying to keep houses warm and cold weather beating power stations offline.
Elderly and homeless people were the most vulnerable. Every major city implemented ’emergency alert centers’, but it was not clear how they could follow Covid safety protocols. More than 500 people were in one shelter in Houston, but Mayor Sylvester Turner said other heating centers had to be closed because they lost power.
VIA (the San Antonio Transportation Authority) suspended service, but deployed supervisors to search homeless people who had to drive to one of several heating centers.
Alex Fleming, a pastor, was a volunteer at First Baptist Church in San Antonio, which serves as an emergency warning center. The capacity is 45 people. According to him, they sheltered a total of 26 people on Monday night.
“I think we’ll be capable because it kept growing every day. Many places are overcrowded, ”said Fleming. ‘The only problem is that you can only take so much. You have to turn people away sometimes. ‘