Death Toll Rises as Winter Storm Kills Power, Heat Across Texas

Multiple people are dead in Texas as a massive winter storm continues to cut off power and heat to millions of Texans all across the state. Approximately four million Texans are without electricity as the state’s power grid continues to fail to keep up with demand.

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, ERCOT, reports power was restored to about 500,000 people. The Texas power grid is still suffering “uncontrolled, cascading outages.”

 

We should be able to restore some customers this afternoon due to additional wind & solar output, & additional thermal generation that has told us they expect to become available. But, the amount we restore will depend on how much generation is actually able to come online.

— ERCOT (@ERCOT_ISO) February 16, 2021

Multiple people have died from winter storm that is breaking temperature records across much of the Lone Star State on Tuesday, CBS News reports. One, a 78-year-old man, died after falling in his front yard and being stranded in the figid temperatures for at least two hours.

In Houston, a mother and eight-year-old daughter died from carbon monoxide poisoning after the mother attempted to use the car in a garage attached to their condo to stay warm.

The state’s electrical grid, which is overseen by ERCOT, continues to fail as approximately 75 percent of the grids power generation capacity has been diminished, KTRK ABC13 reported.

The Houston ABC affiliate reports there may be a “window Tuesday afternoon where ERCOT hopes to get more power generation. The additional power could bring an additional 10-15 percent of customers back online.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott called for ERCOT reform to be an “emergency item” for the  Texas Legislature which is now in session.

Texas Speaker of the House Dade Phelan called on two legislative committees to hold a joint hearing to look into the “factors that led to megawatts of electric generation being dropped off the ERCOT system.”

In the meantime, millions of Texans’ homes are without electricity and heat.