4.3 million People across Texas, USA, have been left with constant power disruptions, without water, and food shortage after the brutal winter storm hit the US state. The rarest winter storm, ‘Uri’, has claimed more than a dozen deaths. The local authorities have been warning about the frigid conditions from the beginning. After sharp criticism from all over the state, the new president, Joe Biden, has declared an emergency in Texas and ordered federal assistance to aid response efforts.
Considering the uncertainty, the power grid operators asserted that there is no way that they can predict when the power outages will end.
What caused the power outages?
With the unprecedented temperatures, the electricity demand has reached unprecedented levels. While the primary sources of energy including coal, nuclear, natural gas, wind, and solar have been drastically affected by the extreme weather conditions and ice, the power grid operators are left with no choice but to roll blackouts in different parts of the state unable to meet the demands.
The Electricity Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) has issued a three-level emergency urging the citizens to dial down their electricity needs until the situation is brought under control, whereas traffic lights and other infrastructure would run with the limited power.
Despite keeping the citizenry informed, the ERCOT has drawn sharp criticism from its subjects including the state leadership, the Governor, that it has been anything but reliable since the winter storm breakout.
The sudden and unexpected cold snap has left the prices of natural gas and coal soaring to unprecedented levels, which has accentuated the demand pressure on ERCOT.
Power outages, water disruptions, and food shortages:
As of February, 8.6 million people have had to suffer water disruptions and 16,900 customers were without power across the state. Videos on various social media platforms started trending as Texas people are boiling ice because of drinking water disruptions. The increase in food demand has caused the resources to exhaust. Several food outlets can be seen complaining about the lack of resources. Videos featuring delivery persons explaining their hardships during the winter storm are breaking the internet. “People yell at us, we’ve got numerous orders to deliver with limited resources,” says a person working in a pizza delivery outlet.
How has the state reacted?
Governor Abbott has assured that the state has been trying to rope in more and more plumbers to look into broken pipes. He also urged the residents to keep in touch with their insurance agents. He also advised the residents to stay in touch with their respective local emergency coordinators to receive reimbursements.
The state has announced a relief fund to assist the affected people without insurances. The mayor urged the residents to document the damages to claim reimbursements.
What was the outcome?
While everything is ready for the large-scale vaccination drive, the winter storm has forced the Covid-19 inoculation centers to be closed delaying the rollout of vaccination. Power outages have resulted in inactive freezers and generators that ensued spoilt vaccine doses.
Before the Uri storm hit Texas, it was on the track of vaccinating 1 million people per week.
National Guard troops have been deployed across the state to monitor the residents during the winter storm. Several deaths have happened due to Carbon Monoxide poisoning as people resorted to staying in cars to keep warm.
