begin quote from:
Winter Storm Creates Havoc Across U.S.
![a person that is standing in the snow]({"default":{"load":"default","w":"27","h":"18","src":"//img-s-msn-com.akamaized.net/tenant/amp/entityid/BB1dJAma.img?h=362&w=540&m=6&q=60&o=f&l=f"},"dpi":2})
© Scott Olson/Getty ImagesMillions of Americans were without power Tuesday after a winter storm brought snow, ice, blackouts and record-setting low temperatures to swaths of the U.S.
Nearly 75% of the Lower 48 states of the U.S. was under snow cover, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Snow Analysis daily report, including many places rarely hit by inclement weather. A week ago, 45% of the Lower 48 was under snow.
Even with the storm moving off the Northeast coast later today, dangerously cold wind chills from Arctic air are expected to linger over the Great Plains and Mississippi Valley through midweek, the National Weather Service said. And a new winter storm was emerging in the Southern Plains and would head toward the mid-South on Wednesday.
At least 14 people have died, according to the Associated Press. On Monday night, a tornado struck Brunswick County, N.C., killing three people, according to the county Sheriff’s Office.
With electrical grids facing strain because of the extreme weather, rolling blackouts have been instituted in a number of states. Over four million customers across the U.S. were without electricity on Tuesday morning, according to PowerOutage.US. More than 3.7 million of those outages were in Texas, the website said.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the state’s electricity grid, began calling for rotating outages overnight on Sunday to avoid widespread blackouts. But the severe power shortages forced companies to curtail power beyond short rolling blackouts, with many customers losing electricity for much of the day.
“Every grid operator and every electric company is fighting to restore power right now,” Ercot President and Chief Executive Bill Magness said Monday.
Water utilities were also affected by the weather, with some cities urging residents to boil water to make it safe to drink, even though they have no power.
President Biden declared a state of emergency in Texas after receiving a request from Gov. Greg Abbott, allowing the Federal Emergency Management Agency to coordinate all disaster-relief efforts. Mr. Abbott also sent the National Guard to conduct welfare checks and assist with emergency operations across the state.
In the Dallas-Fort Worth area, records were set for low temperatures on Sunday and Monday, when they were 9 and 4 degrees Fahrenheit, respectively, according to the local National Weather Service office. The service said it marked the first time the low temperature fell below 10 degrees in the area since 1996.
In East Austin, residents who had been through two subfreezing nights without electricity or heat wandered wearily along snowy sidewalks on Tuesday morning, many of them searching for any open business. Most businesses remained closed for a second or third consecutive day. Many of those who ventured out in cars found themselves either unable to drive on icy hills, or on streets blocked by other cars that had slid sideways across them.
Keria Rivera, a 30-year-old housekeeper, said her family had been without power since Sunday night. Her three children, ages 13, 11 and 9, wrapped blankets around themselves as they walked, looking for anywhere they could buy or get food.
“We only ate like one time a day because we don’t know how to find food and the food we do have needs to be cooked,” said Stefany Rivera, 13. “It was so cold, blankets stopped working.”
Robert Lewis, 40, a cook and retired Marine, said he and the friend he was staying with had been without heat or water for more than 48 hours. They had had little to drink. His cellphone died, so he had no way to call for help.
“All we could do was grab every blanket, every jacket that we could, and huddle up,” he said.
He had heard people tell of a lone 7-Eleven that was open, so he walked there, only to find a line around the block to get in and the shelves cleared of food, he said. He added that he got the last cup of coffee for sale. He was evaluating his next move, saying he would keep looking for supplies.
“I’m going into survival mode,” he said.
On Tuesday afternoon, Mr. Abbott called for the Texas legislature to investigate Ercot and the power outages, calling the situations unacceptable.
“The Electric Reliability Council of Texas has been anything but reliable over the past 48 hours,” Mr. Abbott said.
Ercot said on Twitter it was “restoring load as fast as we can in a stable manner. Generating units across fuel types continue to struggle with frigid temperatures.”
Rolling blackouts were also instituted in Lincoln, Neb., where temperatures were well below minus 10 Fahrenheit on Tuesday morning. Oklahoma, Louisiana and Kentucky had more than 100,000 residents without power.
In Oregon, the storm left nearly a quarter-million customers without power, prompting Gov. Kate Brown to declare a state of emergency over the weekend. “Utilities in our region have never experienced such widespread outages, including during the September 2020 wildfires,” the Democrat said Tuesday.
In Kansas City, Mo., 30-minute to 60-minute power outages were instituted by Southwest Power Pool, a regional nonprofit tasked by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission with managing the power supply in 17 central U.S. states.
“Along with the other states in the region, we’ve implemented temporary emergency outages today to help avoid larger uncontrolled and extended power outages throughout the region,” Evergy, a utility in the Missouri and Kansas region that is under the Southwest Power Pool’s jurisdiction, said on Twitter.
The extreme weather also disrupted the delivery and rollout of Covid-19 vaccinations from Texas to Florida. Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Twitter that Florida’s Department of Health and the Division of Emergency Management “are providing regular updates to our partners to ensure the vaccine is distributed as efficiently as possible as it arrives.”
In Kentucky, numerous vaccination sites, including a mass-vaccination site at Broadbent Arena in Louisville, were closed Tuesday because of the cold and snowy weather.
“I ask everyone to please stay home and avoid traveling unless absolutely necessary for work, food, medicine or medical care,” Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said Monday.
Chicago officials said all city-run vaccination and testing sites would be closed on Tuesday and that shipments of Covid-19 vaccines are delayed for an undetermined amount of time. “While there is currently no estimated time of arrival on the orders, we anticipate daily updates from CDC,” the city Department of Public Health said, adding that supply was expected to quickly catch up.
In Austin, Texas, where temperatures hit 8 degrees Fahrenheit on Tuesday and many people remained without power, the public health department said all testing and vaccination sites would be closed on Tuesday. “Operations will resume when weather permits,” Austin Public Health said.
Write to Talal Ansari at Talal.Ansari@wsj.com and Elizabeth Findell at Elizabeth.Findell@wsj.com
No comments:
Post a Comment