Over the last week, the majority of the United States, basically everyone except Florida of course, experienced a severe cold front that shocked everyone. States that are not used to having cold weather or even snow had no way to prepare for this tragedy and therefore had to suffer the consequences. One state in particular is Texas. As you would probably know, they NEVER get snow. But now they got a lot of snow and below freezing temperatures. As Floridians, you might not know what that means. That means that EVERYTHING freezes. This left the Texans without power, and their pipes froze, meaning they didn’t have any water. Some people even experienced their house flooding because their pipes broke.
As of Monday February 22, ⅓ of the population of Texas was still having issues with water. And the ones that did get their water working again had to take extra precautions to make sure that it was clean. For example, they had to flush the water system out with cold water for a minute and empty the ice machines twice before using.
Now that things are starting to get back to relatively normal, there are still some major setbacks that Texas must face. They expected that the power bill that is usually around $80 a month will increase to 5x that at $400. However it was much worse than that. One man said that he was charged $6,700. Others with automatic payment in their account have been wiped out of money and can non longer afford to pay their rent. Now they have to deal with water issues and the lack of ability to live. The Texas state government is looking to do something about this and is not allowing the power companies to send the bill until they can figure it out. The people of Texas suffered enough through this cold front, and do not deserve to add a huge bill on top of that.
Here is the link to the full article: https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/22/us/texas-storm-recovery-monday/index.html
Wow Olivia, this is so terrible to hear. I think what makes it so sad is that there really was no way of preparing for this, especially in Texas. Their infrastructure and buildings and communities just aren't built to sustain extremely cold temperatures. I guess if there's a positive way to look at this is that it didn't last extremely long, and the worst part is already gone.
ReplyDeleteHey Olivia,
ReplyDeleteI have heard what has been going on in Texas. That is crazy! It is so surprising because you generally think of Texas as super hot, snow never comes to mind. It is insane what is happening there and I feel so bad for the people who have lost power. I have a close friend that lives in Texas and he said that he was without power for 5 days. Do you know anyone that lives there?
Hi Olivia,
ReplyDeleteIt really seems like Texas is having a difficult time between all the crazy weather and the major car accident. In Texas nobody was ready for this episode of inclimate weather which really devastated them.