South continues storm recovery

The icy blast ruptures water mains, knocks out power for millions and contributes to at least 76 deaths.

HOUSTON — Hospitals across the South grappled with water shortages Sunday as the region carried on with recovery efforts in the wake of a devastating winter storm, and the weather offered a balmy respite — temperatures in the mid-60s.

At the height of the storm, hospitals were left scrambling to care for patients amid record cold, snow and ice that battered parts of the country more accustomed to going through winter with light jackets and short sleeves. The icy blast ruptured water mains, knocked out power to millions of utility customers and contributed to at least 76 deaths — half of which occurred in Texas. At least seven people died in Tennessee and four in Portland, Oregon.

A hospital in Anahuac, Texas, about 50 miles east of Houston, lost both water and power.

William Kiefer, CEO of Chambers Health, which runs the hospital along with two clinics and a wellness center, said the facilities resorted to backup generators and water from a 275-gallon storage tank. They refilled it three times using water from a swimming pool in the wellness center.

Water was restored Thursday, and operations had returned to normal Sunday, he said. The health system plans to look into installing more sophisticated backup systems, he said.

After temperatures plunged as much as 40 degrees below normal last week, it was 70 degrees Sunday in the Houston area. The city lifted its boil-water advisory Sunday. Still, hundreds of cars lined up at NRG Stadium to receive food and water from the Houston Food Bank. The bank also delivered supplies to seniors and the disabled.

Memphis, Tennessee, saw 10 inches of snow last week.

Memphis Light, Gas & Water issued a boil-water advisory Thursday out of concern that low water pressure caused by problems at aging pumping stations and water main ruptures could lead to contamination. The advisory was still in place Sunday.

About 260,000 homes and businesses were under the advisory. Hospitals and nursing homes have been forced to switch to bottled water. The Tennessee National Guard was supplying St. Francis Hospital with water.

Nearby Baptist Memorial Hospital has taken on some of St. Francis’ patients, particularly those who need dialysis, said Dr. Jeff Wright, a pulmonary and critical care physician at Baptist. That hospital has a water purification system for dialysis and has water reserves for tasks such as cooking and bathing patients, he said.

“We have gallon jugs of water that were already stocked and ready to roll on Day One,” Wright said.

Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare also reported problems at some of its Memphis-area facilities due to water pressure problems and the boil advisory. The system is using tanker trucks to boost water pressure and relying on help from facilities that have not been affected.

City officials distributed water bottles at several locations Sunday. Grocery stores struggled to keep shelves stocked with bottled water. Many restaurants remained closed.

The White House said about a third of the COVID19 vaccine doses delayed by the storm were delivered over the weekend.

The weather created a backlog of about 6 million doses as power outages closed some vaccination centers and icy weather stranded vaccine in shipping hubs. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told ABC’s “This Week” that about 2 million of those doses have gone out.

In Nashville, Tennessee, local COVID-19 task force leader Dr. Alex Jahangir said more than 2,300 seniors and teachers got vaccinated Saturday as the city resumed offering shots.

Due to the wintry mess, local health officials last week vaccinated more than 500 people with doses that otherwise would have expired, including hundreds at homeless shelters and residents of a historically Black neighborhood who were mostly seniors with underlying health conditions.

About 30,000 Texans were still without power due to downed power lines and other equipment failures.

Gov. Greg Abbott said during a news conference that he expected all service to be restored by Monday.

Abbott also said he was concerned about the threat of massive electric bills after wholesale energy prices skyrocketed while power plants were offline. He said it would be the “top priority” for the Legislature, and he vowed not to end the legislative session until lawmakers ensure that the state’s power grid is retrofitted to handle extreme winter and summer weather.

Nearly 230,000 customers across the South were still without power as of Sunday, according to PowerOutage. us, a website that tracks power outages. The largest blackouts were in Kentucky, Mississippi, Oregon, Texas and West Virginia.

President Joe Biden is eager to visit Texas, which was hit especially hard by the weather, Psaki said. Biden hopes to travel to the state this week but “doesn’t want to take away resources” from the response, she said.

“He is . . . very mindful of the fact that it’s not a light footprint for a president to travel to a disaster area.”