Frozen Texans in struggle to survive
HOUSTON: A deadly winter weather system that brought record-breaking cold to the southern and central United States, knocking out power for millions in Texas, has forced people into desperate measures to survive it.
It also led to a desperate rescue mission to save some 4000 endangered turtles from freezing waters.
Across Texas, which has been hardest hit by the cold snap, utility companies were gradually restoring power on Friday, although more than 400,000 homes and businesses remained without electricity, according to PowerOutage.us.
Texas power companies had to implement rolling blackouts to avoid grids being overloaded as generating capacity dropped as a result of wind turbines freezing.
David Hernandez, 38, spent the night at a Houston church with others who fled their homes. “My car got stranded and I was trying to sleep in the car but it was just too cold,” he said.
“Liquids in my car were actually turning to ice so it was like sleeping in an ice box. I had to come here.”
Texas authorities opened about 300 emergency “warming centres” across the state. Compounding the misery, thousands of Houston residents were also suffering a loss of water pressure.
The problems have sparked outrage in the Lone Star State, the only one of the US’s 48 continental states to have its own independent power grid. Beto O’Rourke, a former Democratic presidential candidate from Texas, said it was at risk of becoming “a failed state”.
Anger soared after it emerged Texas senator Ted Cruz flew to the Mexican holiday resort of Cancun during the crisis.
Senator Cruz, a Republican, justified the flight by saying his one-night stay was to drop his children off before flying home, though he later said he was always going to fly back on Sunday.
Houston police said a woman and a girl died from carbon monoxide poisoning after sitting in a car in a garage with the engine running to keep warm. And emergency medical authorities around Texas said dozens of others had been treated for suspected carbon monoxide poisoning, while 77 were treated for hypothermia.
There was better news for 4000 green sea turtles who faced extinction as the water temperature dropped, threatening them with “cold stun”.
Sea Turtle Inc director Wendy Knight called it “the Armageddon of all cold stuns”.
Gina McLellan, 71, a retired professor, said locals had gone out along the shoreline to rescue the animals. Her daughter Lara posted a photograph on Twitter of the back of Professor McLellan’s car, its rear seats folded down, crowded with turtles.
State wildlife officials said they deployed a ship and loaded its deck with 141 turtles plucked from the frigid waters of the Brownsville Ship Channel.