The south is being attacked by a rare winter storm, which leaves millions in Texas without electricity Monday, as officials struggle to respond to snow and low temperatures in states that normally don’t.
Much of the United States (more than 150 million people in 25 states) is facing a winter storm warning, a winter weather warning, or an ice storm warning, according to the National Weather Service and USA Today.
Storms and low temperatures extend further south than usual, with single-digit temperatures recorded south as far as San Antonio, according to The Associated Press.
Southern states faced widespread power outages, and Texas was the one that recorded the largest number of more than 2.8 million homes that lost electricity as temperatures dropped, according to poweroutage.us.
The Texas Electrical Reliability Council (ERCOT) went through rotating cuts Monday morning, cutting power to thousands of homes at once to handle high demand.
“All grid operators and all power companies are struggling to restore energy right now,” Bill Magness, president and CEO of ERCOT, said in a statement.
The weather disrupted 400,000 planned shipments of COVID-19 vaccines to the state this week, delaying their arrival until at least Wednesday, the Texas State Department of Health Services told the AP.
Travel was also affected, as officials warned drivers to stay off-road due to various weather-related crashes in at least Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and Kentucky. More than 3,000 flights were delayed, according to FlightAware, with more than 1,700 international airports in Dallas-Fort Worth and Bush Intercontinental.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott (R) issued a statewide disaster statement before the weekend in preparation for the weather test, and other states, including Oklahoma, had declared states of emergency. The National Guard was activated to respond to the weather in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.
President Biden
Joe Biden: the southern winter storm of the United States Biden believes that on Valentine’s Day he published his wife Biden to focus on the coronavirus at the first meeting of the G7 MORE on Sunday night it approved a disaster declaration for disaster for all 254 Texas counties, activating the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to respond.