Ron Brackett
One person is dead and at least six others in the hospital due to weather-related incidents in Louisiana and Texas, as temperatures continue to plunge and millions remain without power as Winter Storm Uri batters the South.
A 50-year-old man died after slipping on ice and hitting his head on the ground in Lafayette Parish, Louisiana, the state's department of health said in a news release. The coroner classified his death as weather-related.
Officials in Harris County, Texas, said hazardous conditions brought on by the storm may have caused the death of a homeless man Monday afternoon, The Weather Channel reported. The man was found dead in his van after denying an offer to go to a homeless shelter.
Also in Harris County, one child and one adult were in critical condition after six people in Houston were transported to a hospital to be treated for carbon monoxide poisoning, according to the Cy-Fair Fire Department.
"A family was reportedly using a charcoal grill to heat their apartment unit," the department tweeted. "Please remember to never run a generator or grill inside your home. These produce carbon monoxide, which is a deadly, colorless and odorless gas."
Severe weather spawned by the storm also caused damage and injuries in Georgia and Florida.
(MORE: Latest Forecast For Winter Storm Uri)
More than 3.6 million Texas homes and businesses were without power Monday evening as record-breaking cold and Winter Storm Uri extended an icy grip across the central United States. In all, more than 4 million outages were being reported in 10 states as of about 6 p.m. EST, according to poweroutage.us.
The Southwest Power Pool, which manages the electric grid across parts of 14 states, warned that demand has exceeded its electric supply, and told its members to begin controlled outages. SPP said individual utilities would determine how to handled the outages.
“After exhausting usage of available reserve energy, SPP has now subsequently directed its member utilities to implement controlled interruptions of service to prevent further, more widespread and uncontrolled outages.” SPP said said.
SPP manages the electric grid in Kansas and Oklahoma, and in parts of New Mexico, Texas, Arkansas, Louisiana, Missouri, South Dakota, North Dakota, Montana, Minnesota, Iowa, Wyoming, and Nebraska.
Rolling blackouts, which were supposed to last 30 to 60 minutes, had already started in Kansas City and Independence, Missouri, KSHB reported. The alert also affected electric cooperatives across Kansas, including much of the central and western parts of the state, KSHB reported.
Oklahoma Gas & Electric said rolling blackouts also had begun in that state, KWTV reported.
In Texas, the agency that oversees most of that state's electric grid declared an "energy emergency alert three" early Monday after the grid experienced a systemwide failure, KTRK reported. The extreme winter weather forced generating units to trip and go offline, according to KXAS-TV.
Instead of rotating outages that were to last 15 to 45 minutes to manage the load, utilities experienced outages that have lasted for hours, officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas said in a briefing Monday.
“This event was well beyond the design parameters for a typical, or even an extreme, Texas winter that you would normally plan for. And so that is really the result that we're seeing," Dan Woodfin, senior director of system operations at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, said in the briefing.
Texas set a winter peak demand record Sunday night, and that demand was expected to increase Monday and Tuesday as temperatures fall into the low single digits or colder.
Officials with the Electric Reliability Council said in the briefing it is up to each provider to decide how to shift outages as demand continues to exceed the supply of electricity, according to WFAA.
Blackouts couldn't be rotated in Southeast Texas any longer because there's not enough supply to move around the system, Kenny Mercado, executive vice president for CenterPoint Energy, told KPRC.
“This is a very serious situation, and we do not want the system to go down,” Mercado said. “We’ve got to keep a balance. We have to keep the load demand balanced across Houston, and not only that, but balanced across the entire state of Texas, and we’re watching it very closely.”
CenterPoint customers that still have power are part of the emergency service areas, including water and sewer plants, hospitals, police and 911 centers.
"The Texas power grid has not been compromised," Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a tweet Monday afternoon. "The ability of some companies that generate the power has been frozen. This includes the natural gas & coal generators. They are working to get generation back on line."
Abbott later said he had deployed National Guard troops to conduct welfare checks and set up warming shelters.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said several of the warming centers opened in his city had to close because they lost power, the Chronicle reported.
The Dallas Morning News reported that Walmart closed 368 stores in Texas and other Southern states because of the weather. Several grocery stores closed early, too.
(WATCH: How Winter Storm Uri Choked Texas’ Power Grid)
Meanwhile, more than 109,000 homes and businesses had no power in Louisiana, another 61,800 lost electricity in Mississippi and over 12,300 in Arkansas, according to poweroutage.us. Nearly 12,000 customers in Alabama had no power Monday afternoon.
Officials and utilities in Kansas also urged customers to conserve energy as natural gas prices spike because of demand, KCTV reported. Gov. Laura Kelly issued a state of disaster emergency on Sunday because of the expected wind chills and stress on utility and natural gas providers, KWCH reported.
“As the extreme cold temperatures continue to affect the region, we are urging Kansans to conserve energy in order to help ensure a continued supply of natural gas and electricity and keep their own personal costs down,” Kelly said.
The Oklahoma Corporation Commission, which regulates utilities in that state, said unprecedented demand was straining Oklahoma's electric grid and natural gas infrastructure.
The frigid temperatures, ice and snow also forced several Texas oil refineries to close, including Motiva Enterprises' complex at Port Arthur, the largest refinery in the United States, Reuters reported.
Travel Difficulties
Winter Storm Uri continued to create traffic and other travel chaos as it moved toward the East.
More than 2,850 flights have been canceled, according to flightaware.com. More than 1,800 of those were at Dallas-Fort Worth and Houston area airports.
Shortly before 10 a.m. CST, Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport said all inbound flights were being held at their origin until 11 a.m. Monday because of snow and ice. George Bush Intercontinental Airport in Houston said it would remain closed until at least 1 p.m. and reassess conditions then. Austin-Bergstrom International Airport said all flights Monday were canceled because of the weather.
Ice and accidents forced the closure of Interstate 10 from Baton Rouge to Lafayette, Louisiana, on Monday morning, the Louisiana State Police said. Both directions of I-110 were closed because of ice.
The State Police said 14 vehicles, including three jackknifed semitractor-trailers, were involved in a crash near Whiskey Bay on westbound I-10 early Monday, KSLA reported. Five separate crashes happened about the same time in the eastbound lanes of the interstate along the Atchafalaya Basin Bridge, Trooper Taylor Scrantz told the station.
Shortly before 9:30 a.m. Monday, Interstate 55 was closed in both directions because of ice on the roadway from State Road 40 near Independence, Louisiana, to the Louisiana-Mississippi border, the DOT reported.
The Louisiana Department of Transportation reported that all state-maintained roadways, except for I-20 and I-49 (sections that remain open), in the seven-parish Northwest region were deemed impassable because of winter weather conditions. Numerous bridges were closed because of icing.
Interstate 55 is iced over near Brookhaven, Mississippi, on Monday, February 15, 2021. State transportation officials pleaded with motorists to stay off the roads.In Mississippi, the state Transportation Department said ice was reported on roads and bridges in 66 counties. A crash on I-20 at U.S. 80 in Rankin County blocked all lanes of the interstate, the department said.
A semi that slid off the road shut down westbound I-22 in Lee County, the Mississippi Highway Patrol reported.
A pileup of more than 20 vehicles blocked both directions of U.S. Highway 231 in Morgan County in northern Alabama, the Sheriff's Office tweeted. No major injuries were reported. "Northbound is sheet of ice," the Sheriff's Office said.
Houston Police Chief Art Acevedo tweeted that the Police Department was working 134 traffic crashes across the city's roadways at about 10:30 p.m. Sunday. That included a 10-car pileup on Interstate 45 south of downtown that happened about 10 p.m.
Meanwhile, There's Winter Storm Viola
Yet another winter storm, Viola, left behind snow-covered roads and tens of thousands of power outages in the Pacific Northwest as it began its trek eastward.
More than 330,000 homes and businesses in Oregon had no power as of 9 a.m. PST, according to poweroutage.us.
Portland Mayor Ted Wheeler declared a state of emergency because of the weather. Downed trees and power lines made travel difficult in the city.
Gov. Kate Brown declared a state of emergency Sunday in nine counties because of power outages, transportation disruptions and downed trees and power lines, KGW reported.
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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