Winter Storm Uri Damages Texas

Winter Storm Uri

Hundreds of thousands of those in Texas were requested to refrain from using grills, generators, and other heating devices to stay warm.

"This is a public health tragedy and a public health emergency," said Dr. Samuel Prater, an emergency room physician at Memorial Hermann Texas Medical Center. "Many people who have been affected are unaware their symptoms are linked to carbon monoxide poisoning."

At least two people have died in this case.

Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo confirmed that at least 300 people were treated for carbon monoxide poisoning in the city. Hidalgo named the storm a "catastrophe.".

To spread the word about carbon monoxide risk, Fire Marshall Linda Christensen urged people to text and call their neighbors and friends and post warnings on social media.

"We wish to express the message. People are dying, "Christiansen said that. "Every year, hundreds of thousands die from carbon monoxide poisoning.".

Secure use of the grill, generator, and other products involves never using them indoors, in garages, and close to houses.

In northwest Harris County, the Cy-Fair Fire Department reported that many people were using charcoal grills inside their homes for fuel. The department brought seven children into the hospital after carbon monoxide exposure.

In Fort Worth, a pediatric hospital treated 13 patients for carbon monoxide poisoning.

More than 17 people have died as a result of the storm.

In southern and mid-Atlantic states, millions of households and businesses were in the dark Tuesday morning. In Texas alone, almost 4 million consumers have no electric power right now. Some residents had endured longer than 24-hour power outages following generating stations going offline early Monday morning.

One Texas utility advised that they were "unable to forecast the possible loss of electric power. Customers are advised to intend on an extended service interruption."

The outages also knocked down water treatment facilities, which knocked off water sources for millions of people.

Here is a look at more examples of how the cold and Winter Storm Uri affect our lives.

Texas Electricity Outages.

There are more than 3.1 million homes and businesses without electricity in Texas at this time.

A record-breaking volume of arctic air flooded into Texas, causing the state's electric grid to collapse. The only thing that succeeded was rolling blackouts, but they couldn't keep it up.

Outages accounted for nearly 75 percent of the power capacity in Texas, according to KTRK.

"The amount of outages we have to do to restore our network remains high. We are sure we will be able to reduce the average number of false alarms during the day, "Dan Woodfin, the senior director of device operations for what is in Texas is the electricity grid, tweeted.

Bill Magness, ERCOT's president, and CEO clarified that 45,000 megawatts of electricity were offline due to the storm. In Texas, there are roughly 680 power plants, and 70 to 80 of those were offline.

Magness claimed that ERCOT couldn't purchase power from utilities in the eastern U.S., because at the same time, they are suffering their own outages.

The Speaker of the Texas House of Representatives requested an investigation into ERCOT to determine what caused the lights to go out across the state.

Officials with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Company in the same week confirmed they are conducting an investigation.

Officials in Texas asked FEMA to send 60 generators to use first for hospitals and nursing homes. Also, the state opened 35 shelters.

At at least 17 deaths.

According to KHOU, a grandmother and three grandchildren died in a fire in a home in Sugar Land, Texas, early yesterday morning. Two persons were injured. The cause of the fire has yet to be identified. The neighborhood lost electricity for a few hours, according to KHOU.

A woman and a child died in Houston Monday as a result of carbon monoxide poisoning. It appeared that the house was deliberately left unoccupied to use as a source of heat and electricity, police said.

A man was found dead in Houston on Monday, believed to have died after being exposed to cold temperatures. An autopsy is being performed.

• The death of a 60-year-old man found in a van outside Houston, Texas, may have been caused by exposure to the cold temperatures.
• An individual involved in a multi-vehicle crash on Interstate 10 was hit and killed shortly after 9.
• -The cold is believed to be the cause of the death of a 78-year-old found Monday morning in San Antonio, Texas.
• In Missouri, a 59-year-old man was killed around 4:20 minutes Monday near Sturgeon in Boone County after his pickup truck collided with a snowplow.
• A 50-year-old Lafayette man died over the weekend after falling on ice and striking his head.
• In Tennessee, a 10-year-old boy died, and his 6-year-old sister was in critical condition after they fell through an iced-over pond this morning near Millington.
• There was one storm-related death confirmed in Maury County, TN, but no other specifics were available.
• In North Carolina, Uri spawned a tornado that killed 3 people and injured 10 in Ocean Isle Beach.

Texas water issues.

Power outages weakened the water treatment plants, causing them to close.

Abilene, a city of around 120,000 residents, switched off the water supply at 7 pm Monday after the main water treatment plant tripped out of service. The warning not to boil water after service was restored.

In Fort Worth and nine other cities, nearly 212,000 people were ordered to boil water before they could drink it after their treatment plants lost electricity. Customers should be notified that a boil water alert is expected to stay in place until Thursday, the city said in a news release.

The cities of Pflugerville and Taylor and the Manville Water Supply Company received boil water warnings due to the water supply pollution.

In Hays County and the Elm Creek area of Elgin, customers were warned to boil their water before using it.

Residents of Kyle were asked to refrain from using water for at least 72 hours. Due to a lack of fuel, the water source in Kyle, Texas, is close to being drained.

Other power outages.

The Southwest Power Pool, which operates the energy grid across parts of 14 states, has warned that demand has surpassed its electricity supply for the second consecutive day. Additionally, they have been instructed to enforce managed outages.

Blackouts occurred in Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. They influenced a large number of people at once.

Beyond expected outages, there was widespread damage to infrastructure following the impact of winter storm Uri.

There are more than 84,000 homes and businesses that do not have electricity right now. Most of the power outages resulted from ice that dropped on power lines. Roads that were frozen made it impossible for utility crews to enter cells that had stopped functioning.

Kentucky also suffered over 125,000 power outages. Some people will get their control back after the weekend, according to the Lexington Herald-Leader. We have more than 81,000 electrical outages in West Virginia and more than 61,000 in Virginia. Many thousands of homes and businesses in several states like Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, Tennessee, Indiana, and Ohio experienced power outages.

Uri Also Crossing Difficulties.

The roadways were also coated with ice and snowmaking for dangerous driving conditions.

Power lines and downed trees caused many roads to be impassable in a wide area of eastern Kentucky. "Travel is a risky activity and not recommended," according to the news release. Recent low temperatures were making roadways in central Kentucky harder to plow. Crashes and jackknifed semi-tractor trailers flooding roads in several areas were confirmed.

Due to flooding in southeast Kentucky, crews were forced to cease treating secondary roads on Monday.

"Our trucks were crashing into guardrails, falling into ditch lines, unable to stay on the pavement," Darold Slone, snow and ice coordinator for the district that covers that corner of the state, said in a news release. "Our drivers are highly qualified and seasoned motorists, and they bear chains on their tires in all weather." Those that can't access the roads safely should not be out.

There were several crashes recorded on Interstate 65 near Horse Cave earlier in the morning. The lanes stayed blocked for over 90 minutes. Two troopers were wounded while they were on foot, and their squad cars were hit by a semi when they were at crash scenes.

State troopers said they were working five different crashes on Interstate 40 east of Lebanon.