Southern US warms up
Water repairs underway; rising temps offer relief
Warmer weather spread Saturday across the South as the region began to clean up after days of extreme cold and power outages. President Joe Biden directed federal agencies to help with recovery efforts.
AUSTIN, Texas – Warmer weather spread across the southern United States on Saturday, bringing some relief to a winter-weary region that faces a challenging cleanup and expensive repairs from days of extreme cold and widespread power outages.
In hard-hit Texas, where millions were warned to boil tap water before drinking it, the warm-up was expected to last for several days. By Saturday afternoon, the sun had come out in Dallas and temperatures were nearing the 50s.
President Joe Biden declared a major disaster in Texas on Friday, directing federal agencies to help in the recovery. He also has approved states of emergency for Louisiana and Oklahoma. Texas Gov. Greg Abbott extended his thanks to Biden for a “partial” approval of his request; Biden approved public assistance for all 254 counties in the state, but provided individual assistance for only 77.
Abbott met Saturday with legislators to discuss energy prices, Nim Kidd, head of the Texas Division of Emergency Management, said. Some Texans could be facing huge spikes in electric bills after wholesale energy prices skyrocketed.
The fallout included busted water pipes and shortages of clean drinking water, the closure of the Memphis airport and hospitals struggling to mainbecause tain sanitary conditions.
More than 70 deaths have been blamed on the weather, including that of a man at an Abilene, Texas, health care facility where the lack of water pressure made medical treatment impossible. Many people who perished were struggling to get warm. A Tennessee farmer died trying to save two calves that apparently wandered onto a frozen pond.
U.S. Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, a New York Democrat, tweeted Saturday that she helped raise more than $3 million toward relief. She was soliciting help for a Houston food bank, one of 12 Texas organizations she said would benefit from the donations.
About 260,000 homes and businesses in the Tennessee county that includes Memphis were told to boil water of water main ruptures and pumping station problems. Restaurants that could not do so or did not have bottled water were ordered to close.
More than 192,000 Louisiana residents – some still struggling to recover from last August’s Hurricane Laura – had no water service Friday, according to the state health department. Tens of thousands more remained under boilwater advisories.
The storms left more than 300,000 still without power across the country by Saturday morning. About 60,000 in Oregon on Friday were enduring a weeklong outage, and the governor ordered the National Guard to go doorto-door in the hardest-hit areas to ensure residents have food and water.