The slow thaw and more frigid lows ahead was also taking a toll on Texas' distribution of COVID-19 vaccines. The largest grocery store chain in Texas, H-E-B, closed locations around Austin and San Antonio, cities that are unaccustomed to snow and have little resources to clear roads. And so that is really the result that we're seeing,' Woodfin said. 'This event was well beyond the design parameters for a typical, or even an extreme, Texas winter that you would normally plan for. He defended preparations made by grid operators and described the demand on the system as record-setting. We all living here know that,' said Dan Woodfin, senior director of system operations at the Electric Reliability Council of Texas. 'This weather event, it's really unprecedented. In Houston, where county leaders had warned that the freeze could create problems on the scale of massive hurricanes that slam the Gulf Coast, one electric provider said power may not be restored to some homes until Tuesday. 'We're living through a really historic event going on right now,' said Jason Furtado, a professor of meteorology at the University of Oklahoma, pointing to all of Texas under a winter storm warning and the extent of the freezing temperatures. Some utilities said they were starting blackouts, while others urged customers to reduce power usage. The Southwest Power Pool, a group of utilities across 14 states, called for rolling outages because the supply of reserve energy had been exhausted. The storm was part of a massive system that brought snow, sleet and freezing rain to the southern Plains and was spreading across the Ohio Valley and to the Northeast. Temperatures nosedived into the single-digits as far south as San Antonio, and homes that had already been without electricity for hours had no certainty about when the lights and heat would come back on, as the state's overwhelmed power grid throttled into rotating blackouts that are typically only seen in 100-degree Fahrenheit summers. The worsening conditions halted the delivery of COVID-19 vaccine shipments and left some Texas providers scrambling to find takers for doses expiring within hours. Texas is now getting another frigid blast of winter weather and has plunged the state into an unusually icy emergency Monday that knocked out power to more than 2 million people and shut down grocery stores and dangerously snowy roads. One Medstar official said no children were among the seriously injured.Īn investigation into the cause of the crash is now underway, with local politicians now questioning whether the roads were properly prepared for the wet and slippery conditions that had been forecast. Investigators confirmed that 36 of the 65 people who were injured were taken to local hospitals via ambulance. The death toll was initially reported at five, before officials confirmed a sixth fatality on Thursday evening. The tragedy was caused by Winter Storm Shirley, which wreaked havoc on many southern states, brought freezing temperatures to the area overnight Thursday, making the roads unusually icy.įirst responders described the scene as a 'mass casualty incident' with crushed cars stacked on top of one another and helpless drivers stuck inside. He never met a stranger and would do anything for anyone. ![]() In a statement to CBS, Wells' family shared: 'Mike was a great friend to many. Published: 20:33 BST, 15 February 2021 | Updated: 23:28 BST, 15 February 2021Ĭhristopher Vardy (left and right), 49, was identified as one of the victims killed in pile-up on Thursday morning
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |