Power getting restored in Texas, but water crisis worsens MarketWatch 2/19/2021
ASSOCIATED PRESS
AUSTIN, Texas Power was restored to more homes and businesses Thursday in states hit by a deadly blast of winter that overwhelmed the electrical grid and left millions shivering in the cold this week. But the crisis was far from over in parts of the South, where many people still lacked safe drinking water.
In Texas on Thursday, about 325,000 homes and businesses remained without power, down from about 3 million a day earlier, though utility officials said limited rolling blackouts were still possible.
The storms also left more than 320,000 homes and businesses without power in Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama. About 70,000 power outages persisted after an ice storm in eastern Kentucky, while nearly 67,000 were without electricity in West Virginia.
AUSTIN, Texas — Power was restored to more homes and businesses Thursday in states hit by a deadly blast of winter that overwhelmed the electrical grid and left millions shivering
Power restored to more homes amid winter storms, but crisis far from over latimes.com - get the latest breaking news, showbiz & celebrity photos, sport news & rumours, viral videos and top stories from latimes.com Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday newspapers.
Austinites trudge through the aftermath of the first of a series of winter storms that have pummeled the state since Sunday, disrupting power and water supplies for hundreds of thousands of Central Texans. (Photo by John Anderson)
By Wednesday night, most of Austin was dealing with four overlapping crises: the continuing COVID-19 pandemic, the arrival of winter storms that brought the coldest weather in decades, the near collapse of the state electricity grid, and water system failures that forced a citywide boil water notice. Each of these helped make the others worse.
While COVID-19 infections have leveled off from the surges of previous weeks, area hospitals were nearly full before the storm hit. As the electric grid crisis forced nearly half of Austin into darkness and cold for three full days, residents dependent on power-driven medical equipment were forced to call 911 to be transported to hospitals. Many other Austinites required emergency medical care from