On February 18, 2021, a central market in Fort Worth, Texas, was snapped up by people who had been short of water and Food for days after a snowstorm. The winter storm, Uri, brought historic cold temperatures and power outages to Texas. (Ron Jenkins/Getty Images)
After several days of storms, conditions have improved in Texas and other hard-hit swaths of the South. Temperatures appear to be rising, but residents are still facing food and water shortages; power has been restored to millions of people, however, sky-high electricity bills have ensued.
Photos taken at a Walmart outside San Antonio show what’s left of the store are rows of empty refrigerated and frozen shelves. Perishable foods are usually found on these shelves.
People stranded by days of extreme winter weather flock to Costco Wholesale to buy essentials in Austin, Texas, Feb. 20, 2021. Winter storm Uri disrupted store supply chains, leaving many stores short on food supplies. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
A Dallas Home was forced to connect a pipe from their car to the house for heat on Wednesday (Feb. 17) in order to cope with sub-freezing temperatures inside.
In Houston, photos show residents spending the night on a Simmons bed in a furniture store. The store’s owners earlier this week again turned their two locations into temporary shelters, as they have done in previous natural disasters, to welcome local people in need to shelter.
Michael Kirkland, 57, rests on a couch at Gallery Furniture on Feb. 18, 2021. The Houston furniture store opened its doors to provide warmth after extreme winter weather caused extended power outages in Texas.
Officials there are also handing out bottled water to people “in short supply.
Volunteers hand out bottled water to people at Delmar Stadium in Houston, Texas, Feb. 19, 2021. Winter storm Uri swept through 26 U.S. states, leaving countless people in Texas without power and water. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
Nearly half of Texas residents were instructed to boil their water before drinking as the extreme weather damaged water treatment facilities. Hundreds of thousands of residents in other storm-affected states received similar warnings.
Marie Maybou of Austin, Texas, melts snow on her kitchen stove and uses it to flush the toilet on Feb. 19, 2021. Winter storm Uri swept through 26 U.S. states, leaving countless people in Texas without power, broken pipes and water. (Joe Raedle/Getty Images)
The water shortage also caused low water pressure problems. Memphis International Airport (Memphis International Airport) therefore canceled all flights on Friday.
Sky-high electricity bills fly in after the storm
In this photo taken on Feb. 19, 2021, the electric grid in Texas, USA, is seen. According to forecasts, the winter storm that has been wreaking havoc on the U.S. South and Central for days began its retreat that day. Temperatures rose back above freezing in the Lone Star State, where countless people suffered power outages. (THOMAS SHEA/AFP via Getty Images)
As of Friday evening, about 137,000 homes across Texas were still without power, according to PowerOutage.us. However, that’s down significantly from a similar number of more than 4 million homes earlier in the week.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) is urging customers to continue to conserve energy once the lights are back on. However, some are already receiving the sky-high electricity bills that come with it.
Some customers are reportedly paying as much as $17,000 for their electricity.
Arlington resident Ty Williams told Dallas-Fort Worth’s Fox 4 that his Family was being asked to pay that amount for electricity while they had been trying to conserve during the storm.
“Who in the world can afford to pay that? I mean, from a couple hundred dollars a month (up to $17,000).” He told WFAA-TV in Dallas, “There’s absolutely no way around it, it doesn’t make sense.”
According to the report, some customers say they have received messages or bills from their power companies charging them for the Time when their power went out. And the companies have said they won’t charge customers when the power goes out.
Griddy, the wholesale electricity provider that sent the Williams family an astronomical bill, said in a statement on its website Thursday, “We know you are angry, and in fact, so are we.”
The company explained that the Public Utility Commission of Texas (PUCT) took control of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which operates the state’s power grid, on Monday, causing wholesale prices to spike to as low as $9 per kilowatt to allow the grid to meet the demand for electricity caused by the winter storm.
That’s about 300 times higher than the normal wholesale price, the company said. By Thursday night, 99 percent of homes had power restored, though the PUCT is still maintaining that pricing.
“It should be the market that sets the price, not the politicians.” The company said, “We intend to fight for fairness and accountability with our customers, revealing why prices were allowed to rise so much while millions of Texans were without power.”
Another customer in Dallas told WFAA-TV they kept their 700-square-foot apartment at 60°F (15.6°C) this week, yet their bill was more than $1,000; another Griddy customer told the station that their bill for their 1,300-square-foot home came to $3,800.
“I only paid $1,200 for the whole of 2020.” The client said.
The increase only affects customers on variable or indexed rate plans, while those on fixed rates are spared.Griddy told Fox 4 that bills can be paid in installments.
White House to declare state of emergency in Texas
Texas is hit by a historic winter storm. Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R) issued an emergency disaster declaration. Photo by Abbott. (Photo by Lynda M. Gonzalez-Pool/Getty Images)
In addition to Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi, Kentucky, Virginia and West Virginia have all experienced weather-related power outages this week.
As of Friday evening, the storm had killed at least 69 people across the South.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott sent a request for a major disaster declaration to the Federal Emergency Management Agenc on Friday, and President Joe Biden said he would approve the request.
Biden said he is declaring a state of emergency in Texas, Oklahoma and other areas affected by winter weather. And he ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to issue generators and other supplies. He is also considering activating other federal agencies to participate in the relief effort.
According to the White House, the extreme weather also caused the postponement of 6 million appointments for coronavirus (CCA virus) vaccinations nationwide, including hundreds of thousands in Texas alone.
According to the National Weather Service, lows are expected to climb above freezing on Saturday after temperatures dropped below freezing again Friday night.
A cardinal perches on an ice-clad branch at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge in Cambridge, Maryland, Feb. 19, 2021. A violent and deadly winter storm over the past few days has wreaked havoc in the southern and central United States and covered the East Coast. Temperatures in Texas, which left countless people without power, rose back above freezing that day. (JIM WATSON/AFP via Getty Images)
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