Jan Wesner Childs
The deaths of at least 59 people across a dozen states are being blamed on this week's pair of back-to-back winter storms and frigid cold that left millions of people without heat or clean drinking water.
The victims succumbed to carbon monoxide poisoning, falling through ice, car crashes, a tornado, a house fire, slips and falls and just plain cold.
At least three people in the Houston area died of hypothermia inside their homes, the Houston Chronicle reported, citing the Harris County Institute of Forensic Sciences. A man in Abilene was also found dead inside his freezing home, according to the Associated Press.
A barefoot man was found dead early Thursday in a parking lot in the Houston area, the Houston Chronicle also said. He was wearing a jacket, but no shirt underneath it. The wind chill dropped to 19 degrees that morning.
"This weather is not just cold, it’s deadly," said Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, who oversees emergency management in the county, said 10 people had died of hypothermia. And the county has seen more than 600 cases of carbon monoxide poisoning.
In all, at least 59 people died nationwide because of the weather this week, the AP reported.
(MORE: Latest Winter Storm Forecast)
Other numbers as the pair of winter storms, named Uri and Viola by The Weather Channel, trekked across the U.S. from west to east, are also staggering.
Fourteen million people without clean drinking water in Texas alone.
Five million power outages in one day.
At least 2,400 daily cold records tied or broken from Feb. 12 to Feb. 16, according to NOAA's Weather Prediction Center.
And five tornadoes.
Federal emergencies were declared in Texas, Louisiana and Oklahoma, which paves the way for the Federal Emergency Management Agency to supply equipment and other resources.
Here's a look at some of the major impacts of the extreme winter weather.
Water Outages
Fourteen million people in Texas were under boil water advisories as of late Thursday afternoon, Tiffany Young, a spokesperson for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, told weather.com in an email.
That's twice the number previously reported by media outlets and is higher than the total population of any other states besides California, Florida and New York.
In a follow-up Friday morning, Young said more than 1,180 public water systems in 160 Texas counties had reported disruptions in service due to the weather.
(MORE: Chimpanzee, Monkeys, Lemurs Perish In Cold At Texas Animal Sanctuary)
Officials have said the water issues stem from frozen water lines, power outages that took water plants offline and a large number of people leaving their faucets dripping.
Boil water notices are issued when there is a threat of water contamination. That can be caused by outages and low pressure.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a news conference Thursday night that his city's 2.3 million residents will remain under a boil water advisory until at least Monday.
The city was coordinating the distribution of bottled water.
A man in Abilene died while awaiting medical care that was delayed due to lack of water, according to the AP.
U.S. Health and Human Services Acting Secretary Norris Cochran declared a public health emergency in Texas. The move gives more flexibility to healthcare providers and suppliers, according to a news release.
In a phone call Thursday night, President Joe Biden told Texas Gov. Greg Abbott that the White House would "instruct additional federal agencies to look into any immediate steps that could be taken to support Texans at this time," according to a summary of the call.
Other areas were also struggling with water outages, including Memphis, where about 260,000 homes and businesses were told to boil water and the airport canceled all flights Friday due to water pressure issues, the AP reported.
Power Outages
More than 5.6 million homes and businesses were without power at the height of the outages on Monday morning, according to poweroutage.us. The bulk of those – 4.3 million – were in Texas. Millions of people remained without power over the next several days as freezing temperatures and increased demand resulted in rolling blackouts.
The huge number prompted calls for investigations and hearings into how that many outages could have happened.
By Friday morning, the number of outages in Texas had dropped to about 195,000. Officials said most of the remaining outages were due to ice and other weather impacts, rather than intentional blackouts.
Officials warned that rotating outages could return if electricity demand rises in the coming days.
Including Texas, more than 535,000 homes and businesses in seven states were still without power as of about 11:45 a.m. Friday, according to poweroutage.us.
Besides Texas, the states with the most current outages are Mississippi with more than 100,000; Louisiana with about 75,000; Oregon with 70,000; Kentucky with 55,000; West Virginia with about 51,000; and Virginia with 37,500.
In some areas, power was restored after snow and ice earlier in the week, only to be knocked out again.
The weather also led to hazardous driving conditions across large parts of the U.S. and caused the delay of COVID-19 deliveries. Vaccination sites and testing locations were shut down in several states.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
The Weather Company’s primary journalistic mission is to report on breaking weather news, the environment and the importance of science to our lives. This story does not necessarily represent the position of our parent company, IBM.
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