Water disruptions impact millions of Texas residents
Boil-water advisories starting to be lifted
Although temperatures warmed up across storm-battered Texas on Monday, millions still struggled with water shortages, boil-water advisories and flooding damage from burst pipes, and about 12,000 customers remained without power.
As of 10 a.m. Central Monday, more than 1,200 public water systems were reporting disruptions in service because of last week’s weather, many of them leading to boil-water notices, the Texas Council on Environmental Quality said.
“This is affecting more than 8.7 million people in 200 Texas counties,” Gary Rasp, a spokesman for the council, told USA TODAY. Most of those 8.7 million are under boil-water notices, he said.
Rasp said 147 public water systems serving a population of just under 120,000 people are nonoperational. Eight public water systems’ wastewater treatment facilities have reported as nonoperational, he said.
In Austin, however, a boil-water notice issued last week was lifted for parts of the city Monday morning, including downtown and areas of East Austin, Austin Water officials said.
“Customers in Austin Water’s central pressure zone no longer need to boil water used for drinking, cooking and making ice,” Austin Water said.
In San Antonio, authorities said Sunday that water had been restored to 98% of the city.
And in Houston, the boil-water advisory was lifted late Sunday. “The historic freezing temperatures in Houston last week caused water pressure to drop throughout the city,” according to a statement from Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner. “I appreciate everyone’s patience as Houston Water crews worked nonstop to restore the pressure and gain the TCEQ’s approval to lift the boil water notice.”
However, in a tweet, Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said “unfortunately, this doesn’t apply to the millions dealing with burst pipes. This is not a disaster we will recover from overnight but we will continue to overcome together as a community. Be sure to check in on your neighbors during this challenging time.”
The weather will cooperate for ongoing cleanup efforts across the central and southern U.S. this week. Although a rebound in temperatures began over the weekend, temperatures will moderate even further over the coming days, AccuWeather said. In fact, over the upcoming week, temperatures are forecast to surge to levels 30, 40 and 50 degrees Fahrenheit higher than during the depths of the frigid air from Feb. 13 through Feb. 16.
By Wednesday, highs are expected to range from near 40 in Chicago to the lower 70s in Houston, which will follow low temperatures from the middle of this past week ranging from 5 below zero in Chicago to 13 above zero in Houston.