‘Incredibly challenging few days’ begin in icy blast
Officials urge people to stay home as storm causes mess on roads
Joe Brown huddled with three other “downtowners” outside the George R. Brown Convention Center on Sunday afternoon, each of whom wore layers of donated clothes and carried trash bags with their belongings.
Outreach volunteers ferried the people from their respective homeless encampments to the city’s makeshift emergency shelter, part of the final steps to prepare the region for a historic 72-hour Arctic blast expected to bring subfreezing temperatures and icy rain that could force sporadic power outages and make roads impassible for several days.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo marked the beginning of an “incredibly challenging few days” by signing a local disaster declaration. A federal disaster order was also signed. During a news conference Sunday afternoon, Hidalgo noted that “the window to prepare for this historic storm has closed.”
“This is unprecedented. We’re not used to this weather,” she said. “But we’re tough, resilient people. We’ve been through a lot together. No one knows how to shelter in place like we do.”
Houston was expected to see the first major wave of winter precipitation starting Sunday night into Monday, with freezing rain likely transitioning overnight to sleet and snow, according to Space City Weather meteorologist Matt Lanza. Between 1 to 3 inches of snow could fall by noon, mostly northwest of downtown, while a tenth to a quarter inch of ice is expected more to the southeast, Lanza said.
Temperatures on Monday are expected to stay below freezing, with a high of 23 degrees and a low of 12 degrees at night, according to the National Weather Service Houston/ Galveston.
“So whatever falls is going to stay in place through the day and into Monday night,” Lanza wrote.
Hard freeze and wind chill warnings will remain in effect for the region through noon Tuesday, with conditions like
ly to kill unprotected vegetation and damage outdoor plumbing in that time. Pets should also have proper shelter, food and water, officials warned.
Residents should stay tuned to the forecast through the week. Another winter storm is expected to arrive Wednesday, potentially bringing more freezing rain to the Houston area, according to Space City Weather.
All Metro services will remain suspended through Tuesday or until conditions improve. Travel will become “difficult or impossible” during this stretch, according to the National Weather Service. Those who must drive should go slow and carry blankets, shovels and sand in their cars.
Deputies in Harris County by 3 p.m. responded to nearly 30 traffic accidents, five of which were described as major. Some of those collisions involved vehicles that slid into walls along a stretch of U.S. 290 from Farm-to-Market 2920 to Texas 99.
The Texas Department of Transportation began treating icy roads reported from Texas 6 to U.S. 290 and in Montgomery County along areas of Interstate 45. Ice was also reported on FM-1488 at FM-149 and at Texas 249 near FM-149.
“Conditions are only going to deteriorate,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez warned.
Meanwhile, Houston Fire Chief Sam Peña urged residents to practice heater safety. Keep space heaters away from combustibles, he said in a news briefing, adding that the department already responded to three fires stemming from improperly placed space heaters.
Peña noted ambulances will now be transporting patients to the nearest hospital, not to their hospital of choice. Officials also warned of carbon monoxide poisoning, cautioning against attempts to use gas stoves to heat homes and from starting cars in enclosed garages.
The storm is expected to take a toll on the state’s electrical grid. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the flow of power to more than 26 million Texas customers, last week predicted the state could set a record for winter demand on Monday.
The Public Utility Commission of Texas has urged Texans to conserve electricity through Tuesday as the extra use of power could “narrow margins between colddriven demand and the supply of available power.”
The commission asked that households keep their thermostats set to 68 degrees or lower and avoid using large appliances, such as ovens or washing machines.
CenterPoint Energy officials said Sunday that their electrical crews in the Houston area have started working 16-hours shifts in case of power outages.
Local governments started announcing closures of some services and schools late last week.
Houston Municipal Courts closed operations through Tuesday. Harris County services and buildings will be shut down Monday and Tuesday, and Fort Bend County offices will be shuttered Monday.
The wind chill could make the outside feel closer to single-digit temperatures. Harris County and Houston officials spent the weekend handing out blankets, sleeping bags and winter coats to the homeless.
In addition to the convention center, warming centers have been established throughout the city, including Lakewood Church. Other shelters opened in the Cypress area, including Copperfield Church at 8350 Texas Highway 6 North and The Foundry UMC at 8350 Jones Road, according to a list published through the Coalition for the Homeless.
The convention center hit capacity at about 500 people within hours of opening, according to Mary Benton, spokesperson for Mayor Sylvester Turner. Each person will have their own cot, and crates have been made available for pets, she said.
By Sunday evening, people seeking shelter there were directed to Lakewood Church, she said. She said the city was balancing COVID-19 protocols with the need for space.
“We don’t want to be in a situation where we’re cramming too many people into that dedicated space,” she said.
Turner said more shelters not yet named publicly will be online as needed, and he urged those in need of shelter to call 211 or 311 so they can be directed to the closest one to them.
At the convention center, people such as Tramon Barnes, 42, nabbed a spot in line early Sunday and waited up to five hours.
“We’re like statues,” he said. “We’re freezing.”
Brown was grateful on Sunday to join more than 200 other people experiencing homelessness who waited in line in drizzly, 35degree weather outside the convention center.
“We’re old and we’ve got injuries, and it’s making things 10 times worse,” he said, adding, “We would not survive without the generosity of the people.”
Republicans who supported the impeachment conviction of former President Donald Trump began a defiant counteroffensive Sunday against the threats thrown at them by Trump’s defenders, a sign that the divisions exposed in the Senate vote Saturday were deepening.
At the same time, Trump’s loyalists, led by Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, kept up the pressure, warning that any dissent would prompt a revolt from the right that would result in the election of more pro-Trump candidates, including the former president’s relatives.
Sen. Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, one of seven Republicans to vote to convict the former president of inciting an insurrection at the Capitol on Jan. 6., sent out a blistering takedown of him — after Republicans from the party’s Trump wing promised to unseat her in 2022.
“President Trump was not concerned about the Vice President; he was not concerned about members of Congress; he was not concerned about the Capitol Police,” she wrote in a statement on Twitter. “He was concerned about his election and retaining power.”
She added, “If months of lies, organizing a rally of supporters in an effort to thwart the work of Congress, encouraging a crowd to march on the Capitol, and then taking no meaningful action to stop the violence once it began is not worthy of impeachment, conviction, and disqualification from holding office in the United States, I cannot imagine what is.”
Gov. Larry Hogan of Maryland, a moderate Republican, defended the GOP senators who voted for conviction — Murkowski, Susan Collins of Maine, Richard Burr of North Carolina, Bill Cassidy of Louisiana, Ben Sasse of Nebraska, Mitt Romney of Utah and Pat Toomey of Pennsylvania.
“I think there were a lot more people who didn’t have the courage to vote that way,” Hogan told Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday. “But you’re right, there weren’t enough people willing to stand up.”
He said it reminded him of how his father, former Rep. Lawrence Hogan Sr. of Maryland, was the only Republican in the House to recommend all three articles of impeachment against former President Richard Nixon — a decision that he felt cost him future elections.
Two of the Republicans who stood up to Trump, Toomey and Burr, are not seeking re-election. The others, including Murkowski and Romney, have strong support in their states.
But Graham, a caustic former Trump critic who has become a dogged defender, warned the seven Republicans that their defiance would have consequences, predicting that Trump’s daughter-in-law now enjoyed front-runner status in the race to succeed Burr in two years.
“My friend Richard Burr just made Lara Trump almost the certain nominee for the Senate seat in North Carolina to replace him if she runs,” he said in an interview on Fox News Sunday.