As large parts of Texas wake up to another day of a power crisis amid still cold winter weather, problems with water systems have added to the misery for a large portion of the state’s population.
Many Texans were supervised to boil tap water before drinking it after days of record low temperatures that damaged infrastructure, caused darkening and frozen water pipes.
Millions across the U.S. were left without electricity or heat in the aftermath of the deadly winter storm, while utility crew members rushed to restore power before this week again snow and ice.
Another major winter storm is expected to erupt in the Lower Mississippi Valley into the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast from Friday. National Weather Service saidwhich brings more heavy snow, sleet and icy rain to further complicate the recovery efforts.
Travel remains paralyzed across much of the United States, with roads treacherous and thousands of flights canceled. Many school systems have also delayed or canceled face-to-face classes.
But staying home also carries risks in places without power.
The winter weather in Texas caused a break in 1.8 million customers on Wednesday night, according to the website poweroutage.us. The number was from 6:00 ET to 630,000, the website said.
Without power or heat, some Texans have posted videos on social media of how they burn old furniture to stay warm. Others shared images of flooding caused by burst pipes and collapsed ceilings.
Extreme winter weather earlier this week and associated problems – power plants without power and lines breaking due to freezing – forced 276 water systems to issue boiling water notices, according to Toby Baker, executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
Nearly 264,000 Texans live in areas where water systems do not work at all.
Meanwhile, the city’s electric utility in Austin warned customers to be prepared not to have power until Wednesday and possibly longer.
A boiling water notice in the city was issued late Wednesday due to power outages at Austin’s largest water treatment plant and a drop in water pressure.
One of the local hospitals had to transport some of its most needy patients to other facilities and discharge others after the water pressure lost, which affected the heating system.
Sylvester Turner, mayor of the city, left more than 1 million people without power on Wednesday, adding that the power would not be restored for a few more days. The city has been under a notice about boiling water since Wednesday morning.
The city’s public works department has received more than 1,500 calls since Monday about water leaks and water outages, officials said.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo told MSNBC that the majority of her community, which includes Houston, is under a water-boiling notice, “but they do not have the power to boil the water.”
Galveston has broken water lines across the island due to icy temperatures and is under notice over boiling water. The city of 50,000 said there were an “unprecedented” number of broken pipes in homes if the power was off for so long.
“Now that power is slowly getting going again and temperatures are rising, we are experiencing a huge amount of water damage to homes and businesses,” the city said in a statement.
Icy overnight temperatures are expected to continue for days in parts of Texas. The weather service in Houston is not expected to see highs in the 50s until Saturday during the day.
Even after the power is restored and the ice begins to melt, each water system will require bacteriological sampling to clear the boiling water notices, Baker of the Environmental Quality Commission said.
Sampling can take up to 24 hours, he said, and the state will work to get help from neighboring states.
In places with water, the cold temperatures with lack of power caused the pipes in houses to burst.
“We literally regained our strength just half an hour ago after 61 long hours of freezing in this house,” Dallas Stacey Silverman said in an interview with Peacock’s Zerlina Maxwell on Wednesday.
Silverman’s 79-year-old mother stayed in the home because her pipes burst in the cold and flooded her home.
She blamed the state for what she said was years of neglect and underinvestment. “It’s not a natural disaster that happened,” she said. “… Our state government has completely let us down.”
Water shortages also affect other countries.
In Shreveport, Louisiana, fire trucks in the city have delivered water to several hospitals, and bottled water is being brought in for patients and staff, Shreveport television station KSLA reported.
Nearly 115 million people, from the southern plain to New England, were still under winter warnings as of Wednesday night.
Storm played a role in at least 35 deaths in eight states, including deaths due to traffic accidents. Three people were killed in a tornado in North Carolina on Monday and a woman and child died Tuesday in Houston from carbon monoxide poisoning after a car was used powerlessly in a home, officials said.
The winter storm has killed three people in Louisiana, including a 50-year-old man who slipped and fell on black ice, the health department said.
The Associated Press contributed.