At least eleven deaths have been linked to a dangerous system of winter storms that breaks records across the country. Some four million homes and businesses in Texas were without electricity Tuesday early Tuesday, as the electrical system struggled to meet demand, according to poweroutage.us.
Among the dead were a woman and a girl who were in an attached garage in Houston where a car was driving because the lack of energy meant there was no heat in the home, reports CBS affiliate KHOU-TV . Authorities said they suffered carbon monoxide poisoning. So did a man and a boy from the same family who were hospitalized. There was no word on his condition.
In Fort Worth, two people were in critical condition and one in serious condition for what was believed to be carbon monoxide poisoning, CBS Dallas reports. There was also a child who was defeated, but was said to be in good condition.
Also in Texas, a 78-year-old man died after falling on the front lawn and getting stuck in the cold for two hours.
A tornado generated by the same storm system tore southeastern North Carolina early Tuesday, killing at least three.
Two people were killed in Tennessee, two in Kentucky and one in Louisiana, authorities said.
Abilene, Texas, tweeted that it “turned off the water as a result of a power outage from the two energy sources at the three (water) treatment plants (in the city).” It was not known when the service would be restored.
The cold record turned Texas into a tundra. Showers fell in South Texas, covering Galveston’s sandy beaches with white. The Galveston city manager warned that infrastructure damage caused by extreme temperatures could rival the cost of a hurricane.
AP Photo / David J. Phillip
Frozen roads left out of control an 18-wheel fairing near Austin. A man nearly lost his life, jumping off the road a few seconds before a car lost control and crashed into a police cruiser.
“Extremely low temperatures will last for several days, which means that what is frozen will remain frozen for a long period of time,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said.
He tweeted that the National Guard was “deployed across the state to help move vulnerable jeans to warm shelters.”
The historic storm also caused problems across the country.
Vermont firefighters rescued a young man from icy water after falling through the ice. Tennessee roads became ice tracks after freezing rainfall. In Little Rock, Arkansas, cars were parked on a slippery road, trapping nurses who had just come down from their turn.
The temperature in some parts of Oklahoma fell below 20 degrees for five days in a row for the third time. With another storm approaching, the crews worked to clear the snow as quickly as possible.
In Louisiana, the cold caused a transformer to blow, which blew a ball of fire down the power lines.
The agency that oversees Texas ’power grid has declared its emergency level the highest in more than a decade.
Power outages also complicate the fight against the pandemic. After a medical center that stored vaccines in Houston lost power, medical officials struggled to use them before they were damaged.
Sue Ogrocki / AP
– additional reports from Brian Dakss