[ad_1]
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Texas grid managers said on Friday the power system returned to normal for the first time since a winter storm cut power to more than 4 million customers.
Smaller outages still remained on Friday. But Bill Magness, president of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, says the grid again has enough capacity to deliver power to the entire grid.
As electricity and heat returned to homes in Texas, water problems persisted as cities continued to boil water and fix broken pipes and water pipes.
Victor Hernandez, left, and Luis Martinez fill their water tanks with a hose from a tap in Haden Park on Thursday, February 18, 2021 in Houston. Texas officials have ordered 7 million people to boil tap water before drinking it after days of record high temperatures damaged infrastructure and frozen pipes. (Brett Coomer / Houston Chronicle via AP)
TEXAS POWER GRID IS STABILIZING, AS HOUSTON OPENS WATER SITE TO “ HIGHER DEMAND ”
More than 190,000 homes and businesses in Texas have gone without power, according to poweroutage.us, up from about 3 million two days earlier.
Winter storms also left more than 330,000 from Virginia to Louisiana without power, and about 71,000 in Oregon were still experiencing a week-long outage following a massive ice and snow storm.
Snow and ice moved to the Appalachians, northern Maryland and southern Pennsylvania, and later the northeast, as extreme weather conditions were responsible for the deaths of at least 58 people, including a Tennessee farmer trying to save two calves that apparently wandered into a frozen pond. and a 17-year-old Oklahoma girl who fell into a frozen pond.
TENNESSEE BOY, 10, dies after trying to save sister from frozen pond, reports show
An increasing number of people have died trying to warm up. In and around the town of Abilene, West Texas, authorities said six people had died from the cold – including a 60-year-old man who was found dead in bed in his freezing cold home. In the Houston area, a family died of carbon monoxide as their car idled in their garage.
Acting Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Bob Fenton said on Friday that teams were in Texas with fuel, water, blankets and other supplies.
“What worries me the most is making sure people stay warm,” Fenton said on “CBS This Morning,” while urging people without heat to go to a shelter or center. warming.
Allan Woodson rests in a heated shelter at St. Martin’s Lutheran Church on West 15th Street in downtown Austin, Texas on Thursday, February 18, 2021. Church members opened the shelter Sunday and took to hosted and fed over 20 homeless people during the winter storm. (Jay Janner / Austin American-Statesman via AP)
LIVE UPDATES: TEXAS REELING EXTREME WINTER WEATHER LIKE OTHER BIG STORMS IN THE EAST
Rotary blackouts for Texas could return if demand for electricity increases as people recoup power and heat, said Dan Woodfin, senior director of system operations for the council.
Adding to the misery: the weather conditions put the drinking water systems at risk. Authorities have ordered 7 million people – a quarter of the population of the country’s second largest state – to boil tap water before drinking it, following record temperatures that damaged infrastructure and pipes . In Abilene, a man died in a healthcare facility when a lack of water pressure made medical treatment impossible.
CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP
The water pressure dropped after the pipes froze and because many people let the faucets drip to prevent the pipes from freezing, said Toby Baker, executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Abbott urged residents to shut off the water to prevent more broken pipes and keep the pressure on the municipal system.
[ad_2]
Source link