HOUSTON- Millions of people were still without power on Wednesday in Texas, the oil and gas capital of the United States, with some facing water shortages as an unusual winter storm pummeled the southeastern part of the country.
The National Weather Service (NWS) issued a winter storm warning for a swathe of the country ranging from east Texas to the East Coast state of Maryland.
According to the NWS, the storm would bring ice, sleet, and heavy snow to parts of Texas, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi as it tracks to the northeast, causing power outages, tree damage, and making driving hazardous.
Even though the Arctic air mass was beginning to lose its grip on an area of the country not used to such extreme cold, the frigid temperatures would continue, the NWS said. “The Arctic air will also continue over the Plains and Mississippi Valley with temperatures of 25 to 40 degrees below average,” the NWS reported Wednesday afternoon.
US President Joe Biden was forced to push a visit to the Pfizer Covid-19 vaccine manufacturing site in Kalamazoo, Michigan to Friday due to the inclement weather. More than 30 storm-related deaths have been reported by media in the United States since the cold weather arrived last week, many in traffic accidents. Hundreds of thousands of residents of the Texas metropolis of Houston are suffering from both power outages and a loss of water pressure.
“Water pressure is very low,” Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner tweeted. “Please do not run water to keep pipes from bursting.” Several Texas cities advised residents to boil their water before drinking it or using it for cooking.
The electricity power back after 24 hours for few hours. It’s not the power company’s problem it’s their way of distributing the power since usage went up due to cold weather & production is the same. This is what ERCOT said.
The Government of the USA declares an emergency and issued public safety alert message to the Millions of people “life-threatening road conditions will spread throughout. Stay Off Roads. Weather will cover roadways with ice, potentially cause power outages & burst pipes.”
