People without power in record freezing temperatures.
Texas is currently facing one of the most devastating winter storms ever happened in the last 10 years, with temperatures dropping of 10 degrees celsius circa in Houston, setting a new record since 1906.
People are fearing rolling blackouts, and there is no estimate of when power will get back, as it shut down on Tuesday evening for 3 millions people. Even though power may have come back for some people, it’s very unlikely it will stay so. Police warned the citizens to prepare for other blackouts and stay strong for at least a week.
This sudden lack of electricity prompted people to abuse of dangerous sources to keep warm: officials say there have been at least 300 calls of cases of poisoning from carbon monoxide and 200 confirmed, the majority concentrated in the Harris County. That lead to at least a double tragedy, said the county’s judge Lina Hidalgo during the Tuesday’s conference: a 8 year-old and her mother were found dead after they ran a car in a garage to stay warm. People are recommended to boil water as it may be contaminated too.
Whilst the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is working on restoring the power availability, at least 10 people have been established dead due to exposure and icy rain, ABC 13 says. Additionally, two officers have reported minor injures caused by ice falls, an homeless man’s been found dead and a fatal car accident happened.
The former U.S secretary D. Brouillette said at “Mornings with Maria” that this situation is showing how much a different energy supply is needed, and implyed that shutting down green energy was “an avoidable tragedy”. “The weather is certainly, behind some of this, but the weather is not the cause of the tragedy, it’s the policies that we’ve decided to follow.” He then explained how far we moved from what is called “baseload electricity” and preferred and abused unreliable form of energy that come from potentially dangerous sources.
The weather is moreover causing multiple flight delays although the snow stopped falling in the East, is reported the closure of both Houston’s, Louisiana’s, Mississipi’s, Baton Rouge’s airports and major inconveniences are reported in Atlanta and Cleveland.
To adress the situation, Texans are lining up in the snow, because of Covid-19 restrictions, to shop food and primal necessities, as documented in various tweets right now. HEB grocery stores are, however, still open.
“I’ve signed a disaster declaration for Harris County to give our emergency officials the flexibility to utilize every available resource to respond to this historic weather”, says Hidalgo in a tweet to reassure Texans, “This is the beginning of an incredibly challenging few days for our region. Stay safe out there.” People are invited not to alarm and keep calm despite the horrible situation, placing at disposal the Lakewood Church as a warming center. Right now, the GRB Convention Center is at its full capacity.
Furthermore, animals are suffering too: sea turtles rescue centers are, along with volunteers, getting to rescue the turtles from frosty waters, as documented on various twitter accounts.
Fonti
https://www.fox26houston.com/news/mayor-turner-harris-co-judge-lina-hidalgo-sign-disaster-declaration-ahead-of-winter-storm
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholasreimann/2021/02/16/winter-storm-live-updates-officials-dont-know-when-power-will-be-back-in-texas/?sh=311f8515187f
https://www.yahoo.com/news/sea-turtles-rescued-texas-055857238.html
https://www.foxbusiness.com/energy/texas-winter-storm-shows-diverse-energy-supply-needed-ex-energy-secretary
https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/salvadorhernandez/deaths-texas-storm-ercot-power
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