I'm sure that by now most of you have heard about the crisis that Texas has gone through recently. I have been incredibly blessed during this terrible time. My power was only out for a few hours and I was without internet for a couple of days. But overall, I have been safe and warm. I have plenty of clean drinking water. This has not been the case for millions of people within the state. First, we were hit with snow and temperatures unlike anything we are normally used to. The state got between 2 and 11 inches of snow. With snow on the ground, temperatures plunged to well below freezing. This terrible cold then started a domino effect of disastrous events. The Texas power grid, unprepared for the extreme temperatures, had 40% of their operation go down. This caused power outages statewide. No power meant no heat. No heat, meant freezing pipes. For those heating with natural gas, some of the gas lines froze making this no longer an option for heat. Without heat and water, for days in many cases, people started seeking shelter elsewhere to stay warm. With no power for an extended period of time, the water treatment plants froze up. Clean drinking water became unavailable in many areas. People were told to boil their water before consuming it. For those trying to tough it out in their homes without power, this was impossible to do. If their pipes were not already frozen,then they had no electricity to boil water if they had any. The water situation became more and more dire. With water treatment plants trying to maintain the flow, service was interrupted at irregular intervals. This disruption caused low water pressure in places that did have water. Places like nursing homes, didn't have enough water pressure to function. People went to extreme lengths to try to stay warm. Using these unsafe methods caused deaths and house fires. In one instance, due to the extreme low temperatures the indoor sprinkler system didn't work and the house burned down. In many cases, the water pressure was too low for the firemen to use existing fire hydrants. They had to have the water trucked in to fight the blaze.Once the temperatures finally started to rise, the anticipated blessing of pipes thawing out, turned into yet another tragedy. Pipes burst, flooding peoples homes.
And the hits just keep on coming. The COVID vaccine centers were shut down, bringing the planned vaccinations to a halt. The freezing, thawing and refreezing of the roads made driving too dangerous to drive. The supply trucks for grocery stores and gas stations couldn't make deliveries. People that ventured out to find supplies were met with empty store shelves and closed gas stations. The storm hit Texas on February 13th. The last I knew, there are still more than 100,000 people without power and 46 deaths. Hundreds of thousands of people have been displaced from their homes. Many people are still without water. If you would like to help the needy in Texas, please give to The Salvation Army or the Texas food banks and contribute to them. The homeless and low income people have suffered the most. Please keep these people in your prayers. Again, I have been incredibly blessed. I have had no real hardships. The above is just a summary of the events here. There are countless tragic stories from individuals here. Count your blessings, my friends. Copyright (C) 2021 Penny Wilson
