AUSTIN, Texas (CBSDFW.COM/AP) – An icy winter weather blast in the United States swept Texas away on Monday, Feb. 15 in an unusually icy emergency that sparked the power of more than 2 million people and closed grocery stores and dangerously snow-covered roads.
Slow thawing and colder lows ahead were also affecting the Texas distribution of COVID-19 vaccines.
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Worsening conditions halted the delivery of COVID-19 vaccine shipments and left some Texas suppliers faced with finding people taking doses that expired in a few hours.
State health officials said Texas, which was due to receive more than 400,000 additional doses of vaccine this week, now does not expect deliveries to take place until at least Wednesday.
But with the doses already in hand, Rice University began abruptly offering vaccines on its closed Houston campus Monday.
Harris Health System told the school it had about 1,000 vaccines that would “go to waste” and asked if the school could find people who took them, said Doug Miller, a university spokesman.
“The window was only a couple of hours. They have to take care of it quickly, ”Miller said.
Temperatures reached single digits as far south as San Antonio, and homes that had been without electricity for hours were unsure when the lights and heat would turn on again as the state’s overflowing power grid narrowed. in rotary shutdowns. it is usually only seen in summers at 100 degrees Fahrenheit (38 degrees Celsius).
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The storm was part of a massive system that brought snow, sleet and freezing rain to the southern plains and spread across the Ohio Valley and northeast. The Southwest Power Pool, a utility group spread across 14 states, called for continued cuts because the reserve power supply had run out. Some utility companies said they were starting to shut down, while others urged customers to reduce power consumption.
“We’re experiencing a really historic event that’s happening right now,” said Jason Furtado, a meteorology professor at the University of Oklahoma, pointing to all of Texas under a warning of winter storm and the spread of freezing temperatures.
In Houston, where county leaders had warned that freezing could create problems on the scale of massive hurricanes affecting the Gulf Coast, an electricity supplier said power may not be restored to some homes until Tuesday.
“This weather event is unprecedented. Everyone who lives here knows this, “said Dan Woodfin, senior director of system operations at Texas Electric Reliability Council. He defended network operators’ preparations and described the system’s demand as a record.
“This event went far beyond the design parameters for a typical, or even extreme, Texas winter for which I would normally plan. And so that’s really the result we’re seeing, ”Woodfin said.
President Joe Biden also declared an emergency in Texas in a statement Sunday night. The statement seeks to add federal aid to state and local response efforts.
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(© Copyright 2021 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All rights reserved. Associated Press contributed to this report).