Texans try to conserve heat as temperatures knock out utilities
Treacherous weather conditions have led to more than 550 car crashes in the area since Sunday, Houston police Chief Art Acevedo said.
Texas House Speaker Dade Phelan said that a legislative panel announced would hold a hearing February 25 to investigate what led to the outages.
And Gov. Greg Abbott called for a review of ERCOT’s preparations and decisions.
“Far too many Texans are without power and heat for their homes as our state faces freezing temperatures and severe winter weather. This is unacceptable,” Abbott said.
More cold, snow and ice ahead
Up to 6 more inches of snow could fall in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, while freezing rain is forecast for Austin, San Antonio and Houston.
A truck braves the frozen roads in Houston on Monday, February 15.
Relying on fireplaces and generators
Barbara Martinez had a mission Tuesday that she wouldn’t normally undertake: Find more wood for the fireplace that has become her home’s main source of heat in freezing weather.
Her home in the Houston suburb of Jersey Village has been largely without power since Sunday at 3 a.m., she told CNN.
She, her elderly parents, and her two dogs have been huddled together in one room with a fireplace.
“We have several layers of clothing and it’s cold,” Martinez said. “We’ve been using our cars to charge up phones, and (the) signal here is nearly impossible to use.”
“We hope the power comes back soon because we are running out of firewood,” she said. “My goal today is to find more firewood.”
Barbara Martinez’s father sits in front of the fireplace at her home in a Houston suburb.
In the Fort Worth suburb of Watauga, Elijah Dorminy’s family has depended on their generator to make it through the deadly cold — and he fears soon even that won’t be an option.
Dorminy, his wife and their four children were worried what will happen when they need to refill their generator with gas again. Only one gas station still had fuel in Watauga, Dorminy told CNN on Monday evening.
“Pray for us, this is going to be rough,” he told CNN.
Water shut off in Abilene, and cell phone service interrupted outside Houston
The city of Abilene said it was forced to shut off water service Monday evening because of a power outage at three water treatment plants.
The city of about 120,000 people is located about a 150-mile drive west of Fort Worth.
When service is restored, a boil water notice will be in effect, and customers should bring water to a vigorous boil for at least two minutes before consumption, according to the statement.
Texans with electricity are asked to conserve as much as possible in an effort to relieve the demand on the state’s power grid and help restore service,” according to the city’s statement.
State’s largest school district closes
Several of the state’s school districts announced that classes — both in-person and virtual — will be canceled due to the weather.
The Houston Independent School District, the largest in the state, will be closed through Thursday due to freezing weather, according to a message on the district’s website.
To the north, the Dallas Independent School District, as well as the neighboring Arlington and Fort Worth Independent School Districts were closed Tuesday, according to statements on the district’s websites.
Fort Worth’s closures run through Wednesday while students Dallas schools are off that day, too, but return to virtual learning Thursday and Friday.
Covid-19 vaccines and appointments at risk
The storm has complicated Covid-19 vaccinations, causing appointments to be postponed and threatening supplies.
“With the current icy conditions expected to remain until at least tomorrow, we want to ensure the safety of the public. We also want to remind the public who may be concerned about the small delay for their second dose, that we are still within CDC guidelines to ensure the vaccine will still work with no issues,” the release stated.
After power was lost at the Harris County Public Health Department building and backup generators failed, officials had to race to allocate and save 8,400 vaccines before they spoiled, Hidalgo, the county judge, said Monday.
Harris County officials settled on Houston’s Ben Taub, Lyndon B. Johnson and Methodist Hospitals, as well as Rice University and the Harris County Jail as the locations to receive the vaccine overnight, Hidalgo said.
CNN’s Alisha Ebrahimji, Keith Allen, Gregory Lemos, Jeremy Grisham, Carma Hassan, Amanda Jackson, Ed Lavandera, Rebekah Riess and Amir Vera contributed to this report.
