Anger over Texas’ power grid failing in the face of a record freeze in the winter is growing, as millions of residents trembled, without the assurance that their electricity and heat in many homes would run out 36 hours or longer, or soon stay as soon as it finally does.
“I know people are angry and frustrated,” said Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, who woke up more than 1 million people without power in his city. “Me too.”
Between 2 and 3 million customers in Texas still had no power, almost two full days after historic snowfall and single-digit temperatures caused an increase in electricity demand to heat homes that were not accustomed to such extreme lows, which binds the power grid of the state and widespread causes eclipses.
The winter weather that overwhelmed power networks unprepared for climate change and left millions of people without electricity in a record-breaking cold held its grip on the center of the country on Wednesday.
At least 20 people have died across the country, some struggling to find warmth in their homes. In the Houston area, one family died of carbon monoxide due to car exhaust fumes in their garage; another perished after flames spread from their fireplace.
Some blame the polar vortex, a weather pattern that usually stays near the North Pole, but increasingly visits lower latitudes and stays outside its welcome. According to scientists, human-caused global warming may be partly responsible for making the southern escapes longer and more frequent.
More than 100 million people live in areas covered Wednesday by some form of winter weather warning, vigilance or advice as another winter storm hits Texas and parts of the Southern Plains, the National Weather Service said.
Utility services from Minnesota to Texas and Mississippi have implemented glowing power outages to ease the burden on power networks to meet the extreme demand for heat and electricity, as record low temperatures have been reported in city after city.
The weather also threatened to affect the country’s Covid-19 vaccination effort. Joe Biden’s administration said delays in vaccination and delivery were likely. After visiting Milwaukee on Tuesday, Biden said the weather was just as “cold as the devil up there”.
The worst power outages in the US were by far in Texas, where officials requested 60 generators from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and planned to prioritize hospitals and nursing homes. The state has opened 35 shelters for more than 1,000 residents, the agency said.
The crash sparked growing outrage and demands for answers about how Texas, whose Republican leaders plagued California last year over its glowing disappearance, failed such a massive test of the state’s great pride: energy independence.
Amber Nichols, whose home in north Austin has had no power since early Monday, said: “We are all angry because there is no reason to freeze entire neighborhoods to death.”
Travel remains untouched in large parts of the country, with roads treacherous and thousands of flights canceled. Some of the deaths include people dying in their cars in underground temperatures. Many school systems have postponed or canceled classes.
Republican Gov. Greg Abbott has appealed to the network manager, the Texas Electric Reliability Board. His outrage sets a very different tone than just a day earlier, when he told Texans that Ecrot gives priority to home customers and that power is being restored in hundreds of thousands of homes.
“That’s unacceptable,” Abbott said.
Authorities said a fire that killed three young children and their grandmother in the Houston area likely spread from the fireplace they used to keep warm. In Oregon, authorities on Tuesday confirmed that four people in the Portland area had died from carbon monoxide poisoning.
At least 13 children have been treated for carbon monoxide poisoning at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth and one parent has died from the toxic fumes, hospital officials said.