Deadly Winter Storms leave the Lone Star state fending for itself.
Tim Boyd, a now ex-major of Colorado City, told his residents to “fend for themselves” before resigning duty on Tuesday. Leaving your people in the dark would be bad enough on any given day, but Mr. Tim Boyd decided to go a step further adding that, “only the strong will survive and the weak will perish,” and “sink or swim it’s your choice!”
He finally signed his public statement with, “I would never want to hurt the elderly or anyone that is in true need of help to be left to fend for themselves.”
Colorado City is a place with less than 3,000 residents, officially. The city has not been seen this much commotion since its inception in 1913. First, an arctic storm wiped out the power grid and left the Colorado City residents to “fend for themselves,” then, a major publically blamed the whole thing on “lazy people.”
Colorado City is not the only place in Texas that’s been heavily hit this week.
“It’s been unusual for a few weeks now — very, very crazy. Totally topsy-turvy,” said Jennifer Francis, a climate scientist at the Woodwell Climate Research Center.
Half the Lone Star state is wrapped in a thick blanket of ice, with people cueing for food and burning wood in their back yards to warm up their hands and necks. The temperature plunged to 0F (-18C) on Sunday, with extreme weather warnings to say through the week.
“I’m in Houston, Texas, freezing to death,” Chris Prince shared on Twitter. “No power, no heat, no water. I have four young children. How is this happening right now?”
Nearly 700,000 Texans are still out of power as of February 18th, 2020, according to Poweroutage.us.
What the heck happened in Texas — timeline
Sunday: The icy storm gathers momentum and covers south Texas in snow. In Dallas, police respond to 234 car accidents due to icy conditions.
Monday: Texas’ power grid faces severe outages. More than 4 million people don’t have electricity, according to Poweroutage.us. Gov. Greg Abbot deploys National Guard to help people stay warm across the country. Power suppliers impose rotating blackouts on homes and businesses to avoid a total collapse in the power grid.
Tuesday: Temperature in Houston is lower than that in Houston, Alaska. People are cueing for food and shelter. Some are reportedly burning furniture to keep warm.
Wednesday morning: Seven million Texans are under a boil water advisory, and about 263,000 people don’t have running water, says Toby Baker, executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Water is freezing in faucets in many households across the south.
Wednesday afternoon: Gov. Greg Abbot urges Texans to brace for another round of extreme misery. “Every source of power Texas has been compromised,” says Mr. Abbott, “from coal and renewable energy to nuclear power.”
Thursday morning: The weather is slightly improving, with current temperatures lingering around 30F. Almost 700,000 households are without power, and 37 people are reportedly dead due to weather conditions.
Meteorologists predict freezing temperatures to stay until Friday, with occasional snow and sleet.
The past week has seen many families across the southern parts of the US and all the way to Mexico. Texas records one of the most extreme weather conditions in history.
“I know people are angry and frustrated,” says Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner to 1 million people still without power in his city. However, no clear timelines for restoring the power grid and public yet. The fiasco has made California’s power outages seem like regular fire drills.
My thoughts and prayers are with the people of Texas. You're strong and resilient and this mess will be over in no time!
Photo by Emilio Garcia on Unsplash