Nobody really pictured it getting this cold in Texas. Nevertheless, starting Friday, Harris County Judge (aka county manager) Lina Hidalgo started telling everybody that it was going to be as bad as a Category Five hurricane. She told people not to leave their homes for any reason beginning Sunday afternoon. Houstonians don't know how to drive on ice.
So we hunkered down. And then, Monday morning, there was SNOW on the ground -- 1/2 inch in our backyard. The dog was very confused. I went outside with her and recharged the bird feeder, tossing seed on the ground and window ledges for extra.
We've had it easy (so far). But as the temperature at both Houston's airports rose to a mere 22 degrees this afternoon, things got increasingly dire for others. One of the local energy companies, CenterPoint, has 1.2 million customers in Houston alone with no power, and that means people are huddled under blankets or using the heat in their cars until Tuesday at the earliest. What happens when the gasoline runs out?
CenterPoint's customers represent only one third of the Texas households who have reported power shortages. Those 3.6 million people aren't living through rolling blackouts; they're in a siege against the deadly weather. Tonight it's supposed to go down to 9 -- NINE! -- degrees in Houston.
Frozen wind turbines and limited gas supplies are making it hard to produce power, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which runs 90 percent of the electric grid in the state. The agency has declared its highest emergency level in over a decade.
Surrounding states, including Oklahoma and Louisiana, are having similar problems, But Texas made its own bed by deliberately making its electric grid separate from the rest of the nation's to minimize Federal regulation. The old-time, stubborn Texans in charge then have made it very difficult for the Feds to help with the crisis now.
In this blazing hot state, precious few have seen temperatures like these even for a few hours. Today, the entire state was below freezing, with temperatures ranging from 25 degrees in Brownsville in the south to 15 degrees below zero in the Panhandle, according to CNN. Just as Hurricane Harvey was an unending three-day scream from a wounded climate, what used to be a cold snap -- a night below freezing -- has morphed into a monster intent on taking lives and property.
"The ultra-low temperatures will last for several days, meaning that what becomes frozen will remain frozen for a long period of time," said Texas Governor Greg Abbott, quoted by CBS News.
We'll see how that works out, because we really have no choice.
How big a role do you think climate change has in this unusual weather?
How are things in your state? What have you done to protect yourself and home from this natural crisis?
https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/15/us/power-outages-texas-monday/index.html?fbclid=IwAR1k3jDSsME5VXtOAchC22Pmiyu1fyLpWzaXfrfWOOaiGYdJoPATZNcGyhg
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