Texas town forced to shut off water due to winter storm

Officials in the city of Abilene, Texas, announced Monday evening that all of the city’s water services were closed due to the historic winter storm and cold.

The city’s water services were shut down at 7 p.m. local time “due to blackouts from the two sources of electricity in the three [the] water treatment plants, ”the city said in a statement.

Officials said they did not know when power and water would be restored.

When the water is restored, the city said residents would be required to boil the water before using it.

Abilene, which is located about three hours west of Dallas, has a population of over 123,000 people, according to the US Census Bureau.

Hours before the water was cut off, officials pleaded with residents to use only “essential” water as the city’s supply was dangerously low.

“Your efforts to conserve water will help the city ensure continuous water service. Failure to reduce use will result in the loss of water service,” the city said in a statement Monday. “Please refrain from baths, showers and other non-vital uses. Use water only for drinking and cooking.”

Abilene and much of Texas remain powerless as the state faces record cold weather.

“If you are currently experiencing an outage, you will likely be without power for an extended period of time as the state of emergency continues,” AEP Texas, a utility company, said Monday.

As of 10 p.m. ET, more than 4.4 million customers are without power in Texas.