Deep in the cold heart of Texas

Water-drinking crisis as pipes burst in Lone Star

Power outages in Texas dropped below half a million on Thursday for the first time in four days — but millions were still without safe water after a storm now being blamed for at least 36 deaths.

More than 363,000 homes and businesses were still without electricity in the Lone Star State Thursday evening — down from about 3 million the day before and an earlier peak of more than 4 million.

But Texans still without heat huddled together under blankets for body warmth, built fires and blocked openings around doors as temperatures plunged to a low of 17 degrees in Dallas and 26 in Houston Thursday.

Even residents who got back electricity were still plagued by unsafe drinking water — or none at all — due to frozen pipes, authorities said.

The lack of water sparked a hygienic nightmare at some hospitals, forcing people to refrain from washing their hands amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Texas officials ordered 7 million people — a quarter of the nation’s second-most populous state — to boil tap water before drinking it.

E. coli and other bacteria pose major safety risks due to possible water-line breaks, halted treatment facilities and mechanical-equipment problems caused by the storm, a spokeswoman for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality told The Post.

Gov. Greg Abbott urged residents to shut off water to prevent more busted pipes and preserve pressure in municipal systems.

The extreme weather also disrupted water systems in several

Southern cities, including in New Orleans and Shreveport, La. — where city firetrucks delivered water to several hospitals, and bottled water was brought in for patients and staff, Shreveport television station KSLA reported.

Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards sought a presidential emergency declaration Wednesday evening, seeking federal money and supplies in response to extended power outages in his state.

Meanwhile, officials at St. David’s South Austin Medical Center in Texas said some patients at the Texas facility would be moved to other hospitals in the area after the building began losing heat due to low water pressure.

The storm across large swaths of the US has now been blamed for the deaths of at least 36 people — the majority of which were attributed to traffic accidents. The second most common cause of death was carbon-monoxide poisoning after people used vehicles or generators to keep warm.

In the Houston area, one family succumbed to carbon monoxide from car exhaust in their garage. A grandmother and three children died when flames escaped the fireplace they were using to keep warm.

Officials suspect many more people have died — but their bodies have not been discovered yet.

“This is in many ways disasters within the disaster,” said Judge Lina Hidalgo, the top elected official in Harris County, which encompasses Houston. “The cascading effects are not going to go away.”

The historic cold snap is expected to plunge temperatures to below freezing in the state for several more days, meteorologists warned.