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HOUSTON – As Henry Nguyen reopened his hair salon in southwest Houston, half a dozen neighbors rushed in – not to cut their hair, but to wash their hair. They had spent days without running water at home.
Winter frost that cut power and water to much of America’s fourth largest city forced Nguyen to close his living room for four days as he scrambled to protect water pipes from his house, wrestled with a lifeless generator, and sent his three children to a friend’s house to escape the relentless cold. In the three decades since arriving from Vietnam, Mr. Nguyen had only worried about the heat and hurricanes in Houston.
“I was not afraid of winter, but now I know,” Nguyen said. “The ice storm destroyed the whole state.”
The barber was among many residents and business owners who emerged on Saturday to investigate the damage and start resuming normal activities after the fiercest winter storm that has hit the city in decades. About 4 million customers were out of power across Texas during the worst of the storm last week. As of Saturday, that number had fallen to less than 50,000, according to data from PowerOutage.US. Access to clean water remained a critical issue for millions of people in the state, after freezing temperatures burst pipes and cities, including Houston, were subject to water advisories. boiling water.
Mr. Nguyen was cutting his hair again as cars sped along cleared roads. The weather had grown hotter. Foot traffic has resurfaced along the main thoroughfare of Sharpstown, the diverse neighborhood where Hair By Henry opened 19 years ago.
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