TEXANS ENDURE FRIGID STORM WITH NO POWER, HEAT
Thousands of frustrated Texans shivered in homes without power for a second day Thursday, most of them around booming Austin, and fading hopes of a quick fix stirred grim memories of a deadly 2021 blackout after an icy winter storm across the southern U.S.
The freeze has been blamed for at least 10 traffic deaths on slick roads this week in Texas, Arkansas and Oklahoma. And even as Texas finally began thawing Thursday, a new Arctic front from Canada was headed toward the northern Plains and Upper Midwest and threatening New England with potentially the coldest weather in decades. Wind chills could dive below minus 50 degrees today.
In Austin, city officials compared the damage from fallen trees and iced-over power lines to tornadoes as they came under mounting criticism for slow repairs and shifting timelines to restore power.
“We had hoped to make more progress today,” said Jackie Sargent, general manager of Austin Energy. “And that simply has not happened.”
Across Texas, more than 360,000 customers lacked power Thursday, according to PowerOutage.us. The failures were most widespread in Austin, where impatience was rising among 150,000 customers nearly two days after the electricity first went out, which for many also means no heat.
By Thursday night, Austin officials backtracked on early estimates that power would be fully restored by Friday evening, saying the extent of the damage was worse than originally calculated and that they could no longer predict when all the lights may come back on.
School systems in the Dallas and Austin areas, plus many in Oklahoma, Arkansas and Memphis, Tenn., closed Thursday as snow, sleet and freezing rain continued to push through. In Austin, schools will not open until next week at the earliest.
Hundreds more flights were canceled again in Texas, although not as many as in previous days.