Half of Texas faces water shortages in the aftermath of the recent winter weather which crippled infrastructure, caught officials unprepared, and has led to political fallout for both state leaders and Senator Ted “Cancun” Cruz.
The winter storms that wreaked havoc across the country this week are over, but their consequences continue to play out, particularly in Texas, where water outages have replaced power outages as the primary threat, and the death toll is continuing to rise. In addition, as the scale of the disaster grows, so too do the calls for accountability from public officials, utility companies, and others over the widespread infrastructure failures and often inadequate response to address the myriad emergencies. Below are updates on the crisis and aftermath as it unfolds. As of Saturday, power had been restored for all but 74,000 customers in Texas, and none of those outages were dude to energy-production problems. That’s the good news. The bad news? More than half of the population of the state — at least 15.1 million people across 189 counties — are under boil-water notices following the widespread collapse of the Texas’ water infrastructure thanks to burst water mains and residential water pipes due to the extreme cold. All told, more than 1,300 public water systems in the state were reporting disruptions as of Saturday. Many of the boil-water notices are expected to remain in effect until at least Monday, and while Texans may have the power to boil water, that’s only if the taps work. Reduced water pressure — due to pump failures and increased demand from burst pipes and millions of people dripping their faucets for days on end — is the root of the problem for many of these infrastructure problems. Reduced water pressure can lead to harmful bacteria growing in the water. Other times, power outages have prevented treatment centers from properly treating water. “When the pressure drops significantly you can’t maintain water quality standards,” Texas Water Foundation CEO Sarah Rountree Schlessinger said. “You got to have that energy come back online… then, allow for sufficient time for pressurization, and then for water quality testing to occur.” Temperatures finally rising above freezing both exposes and leads to more damage: As pipes thaw, existing bursts become apparent, and additional bursts occur when pipes which have expanded and been weakened by frozen water thaw and shrink, rupturing under the stress. The president’s declaration makes additional federal assistance available to 77 counties, comprising most of the state’s population, including the Houston, San Antonio, and Austin metropolitan areas. Governor Greg Abbott had requested the declaration for all of the state’s 254 counties impacted by the storm; the White House said Saturday that it was waiting for more damage assessments before making additional major disaster declarations for other parts of the state. The spike in energy demand amid the freezing temperatures led to a surge in energy costs in Texas, with the price of a megawatt of power in the state increasing from $50 to $9,000 at one point on Monday.
