Sunday, March 28, 2021

Death Toll Doubles in Texas Winter Storms; State Says 111 Killed, Mostly By Hypothermia

 Ron Brackett

Published: March 26, 2021




Officials in Texas have doubled the estimated death toll from two winter storms that crippled much of the state and caused widespread power and water outages.

New data released Thursday by the state health department attributes 111 deaths between Feb. 11 and March 5 to the extreme weather.

That's more than the 103 deaths attributed to Hurricane Harvey in 2017 by the National Hurricane Center.

The first official state count, released last week, listed the tally at 57. Authorities said the number could change as information continues to be collected from around the state.

(MORE: Strong Winds Damage Buildings in Small Town of Bertram, Texas)

Most of the deaths were associated with hypothermia. Other causes of deaths during the storms included motor vehicle accidents, carbon monoxide poisoning, medical equipment failure, falls and fire.

The back-to-back winter storms in mid-February were also blamed for deaths in Oregon, Louisiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, Kentucky, Tennessee and North Carolina.

Texas was hit particularly hard when the state's power grid collapsed because of the frigid temperatures and a huge demand for electricity. More than 4 million homes and businesses lost power at the height of the crisis.

More than 1 million customers were left without electricity for days and hundreds of thousands had no running water.

Hypothermia and carbon monoxide poisoning cases rose as the dire conditions dragged on.

Calling it a "disaster within a disaster," Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said there were at least 300 calls regarding carbon monoxide poisoning in her county.

Harris County has confirmed at least 31 deaths because of the storm, the state figures show.

The updated numbers added three deaths in Dallas County, the first confirmed there. A March 1 report from the Dallas Morning News said the county's medical examiner was investigating as many as 17 deaths that could have been caused by the winter storms.

"We’ll probably never have a really accurate number," Dr. Jeffrey Barnard, Dallas County medical examiner, told the Morning News in the March 1 report.

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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