From News Nation:
“100 million
Americans brace for more cold, snow and power outages”
Winter weather
that has overwhelmed power grids and left millions without electricity in
record-breaking cold kept its grip on the nation’s midsection Wednesday. At
least 20 people have died, some while struggling to find warmth inside their
homes. In the Houston area, one family succumbed to carbon monoxide from car
exhaust in their garage; another perished after flames spread from their
fireplace. Blame the polar vortex, a weather pattern that usually keeps to the
Arctic, but is increasingly visiting lower latitudes and staying beyond its
welcome. Scientists say global warming caused by humans is partly responsible
for making the polar vortex’s southward escapes longer and more frequent.
More than 100
million people live in areas covered Wednesday by some type of winter weather
warning, watch or advisory, as yet another winter storm hits Texas and other
parts of the southern Plains, the National Weather Service said. NewsNation
meteorologist Albert Ramon said the storm will move from Texas and Oklahoma
Wednesday morning, to the Mid-South in the afternoon and then into the
Northeast by the late evening. The latest storm front was predicted to bring
snow and ice to East Texas, Arkansas and the Lower Mississippi Valley before
moving to the northeast on Thursday. Winter storm watches were in effect from
Baltimore to Boston, and Texas braced for more icy rain and possibly more snow.
“There’s really no letup to some of the misery people are feeling across that
area,” said Bob Oravec, lead forecaster with the National Weather Service.
Utilities from
Minnesota to Texas and Mississippi have implemented rolling blackouts to ease
the burden on power grids straining to meet extreme demand for heat and
electricity as record low temperatures were reported in city after city. More
than 3.3 million customers remained without power by Wednesday at 1:30 p.m. EST
in Texas, Louisiana and Mississippi; more than 200,000 were without power in
four Appalachian states as well as in the Pacific Northwest, according to
poweroutage.us, which tracks utility outage reports. The weather has threatened
the nation’s COVID-19 vaccination effort. President Joe Biden’s administration
said delays in vaccine shipments and deliveries were likely.
White House
COVID-19 coordinator Jeff Zients acknowledged Wednesday that the weather was
impacting vaccine distribution, and some vaccination centers remained closed. “People
are working as hard as they can, given the importance of getting the vaccines
to the states and to providers, but there is an impact on deliveries,” Zients
said “What we’re encouraging governors and other partners to do is to extend
hours once they’re able to reopen.” The worst U.S. power outages by far have
been in Texas, where officials requested 60 generators from the Federal
Emergency Management Agency and planned to prioritize hospitals and nursing
homes. The state opened 35 shelters to more than 1,000 occupants, the agency
said.
What is
happening? The topsy-turvy weather explained Austin Energy said customers should be
prepared to be without power for at least all day Wednesday, potentially
longer. It also said Wednesday morning’s ice storm in the Austin area caused
additional outages. Texas’ power grid manager, the Electric Reliability
Council of Texas, said electricity had been restored to 600,000 homes and
businesses by Wednesday morning but that 2.7 million households were still
without power. Oklahoma’s largest electric utility reported no outages
Wednesday, a day after rolling blackouts in and around Oklahoma City stopped
electric-powered space heaters, furnaces and lights in minus-8 degree weather.
But Oklahoma Gas & Electric warned customers of the potential for more
short-term service interruptions due to the extreme cold and high demand for
natural gas. Nebraska also avoided another round of rolling power
outages as subzero temperatures started to ease. Entergy imposed rolling
blackouts Tuesday night in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi and Southeast Texas
at the direction of its grid manager, the Midcontinent Independent System
Operator, “as a last resort and in order to prevent more extensive, prolonged
power outages that could severely affect the reliability of the power grid,”
according to a statement from the New Orleans-based utility. The
Southwest Power Pool, a group of utilities covering 14 states, said the
blackouts were “a last resort to preserve the reliability of the electric
system as a whole. The situation in Texas drew attention at Wednesday’s
International Energy Forum, including messages of support from Saudi Arabia’s
energy minister and OPEC Secretary General Mohammed Barkindo. “As the
extreme weather in Texas has shown, we cannot take energy security for granted,
even in a country like the United States,” Barkindo said at the forum, which
was held virtually. Travel remains ill-advised in much of the United
States, with roadways treacherous and thousands of flights canceled. Many
school systems delayed or canceled face-to-face classes. But even
staying home can be hazardous in places without power. Authorities said
a fire that killed three young children and their grandmother in the Houston
area likely spread from the fireplace they were using to keep warm. In Oregon,
authorities confirmed Tuesday that four people died in the Portland area of
carbon monoxide poisoning. At least 13 children were treated for carbon
monoxide poisoning at Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth and one
parent died of the toxic fumes, hospital officials said. In Texas, at
least, temperatures were expected to rise above freezing by the weekend. “There
is some hope on the horizon,” Oravec said. The weather also caused major
disruptions to water systems in the Texas cities of Houston, Fort Worth,
Galveston, Corpus Christi and in Memphis, Tennessee, and Shreveport, Louisiana.
In Houston, residents were told to boil their water — if they had power to do
so — because of a major drop in water pressure linked to the weather. In
Abilene, Texas, firefighters were hampered by low water pressure as they tried
to extinguish a house fire this week. “They had to watch that house
burn,” City Manager Robert Hanna said Tuesday at a news conference.
Stories of
kindness emerged from the crisis. In Clinton, Mississippi, Army veteran
Evelyn Fletcher has been cooking and delivering meals to sidelined truck
drivers, travelers and people staying at hotels after losing power at home. “They’re
stranded, they’re isolated — people are in need of support right now,” Fletcher
said. On Monday, Fletcher made 85 meals. On Tuesday, she made 30 plates,
while a local restaurant, T’Beaux’s Crawfish and Catering, cooked 75 plates of
shrimp and gumbo that she and other volunteers delivered. And on Wednesday,
Fletcher was cooking a pot of turkey noodle soup, hoping to deliver another 70
meals. “People are worried about more snow,” she said. “We are going to
keep people fed and keep them feeling hopeful.”
^ Another major
snow and ice storm. ^
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