Texas residents dealing with water, food shortages amid severe winter storm

2021-02-21 06:35:27 GMT2021-02-21 14:35:27(Beijing Time) Xinhua English

HOUSTON, Feb. 20 (Xinhua) -- After an extended winter storm brought low temperatures, snow and rolling blackouts to the southern U.S. state of Texas, local residents are tackling food and water shortages and price spikes, as temperatures are rising and road conditions improving.

According to PowerOutage.US, a website that tracks, records and aggregates power outage across the United States, as of Saturday afternoon, over 54,000 customers in Texas remained out of power due to the severe winter weather.

While half of the Texas population is impacted by water issues, including over 150,000 with no water or with nonoperational systems, Texas Commission in Environmental Quality officials said the situation is improving.

"I understand the public is extremely frustrated right now, and I understand your frustration. My family, my dog, my eight chickens are on day four without water at my house," said Toby Baker, executive director for the Texas Commission in Environmental Quality. "We are Texans, too, and suffering through the same things that you are."

During a news conference on Saturday, state officials said that Texas has ordered nearly 10 million bottles of water and more than 5 million ready-to-eat meals to deliver to people in need. There are also 331 warming centers available in the state.

In Texas' big cities such as Houston and Dallas, multiple groups have organized free water or food distribution events.

As families are trying their best to find reliable water and food, some are worried about their abnormally high electricity rates.

Customers of the electric company Griddy found their bills unbelievably high.

A customer from northern Texas told Fox News that he got an electric bill of 17,000 U.S. dollars over five days of use, even though his family did what they could to conserve. In Houston, a Griddy customer told KTRK TV station that her bill this week totaled 5,500 dollars.

Griddy urged their customers last week to switch companies before the winter storm because of a high price forecast, but customers found they were unable to change, either because they couldn't find a provider that took new customers, or because the switch time would take at least a week.

In a statement to KTRK on Friday afternoon, Griddy said it is asking the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and the Public Utility Commission, which oversees ERCOT, for relief for its customers.

Besides electricity, many Texas residents found that prices for hotels, gasoline and even bottled water have increased.

The extreme winter storm that brought a massive blackout to millions of residents is providing an opportunity for some unscrupulous merchants to take advantage by charging exorbitant prices for essential supplies, Texas officials said.

On Wednesday, Houston set up a system for people to report incidents of price gouging. Over 450 complaints were received in less than 20 hours, said Harris County Attorney Christian Menefee.

"The main types of things we're seeing is hotels setting prices at ridiculous rates," local media quoted Menefee as saying. "We've seen allegations of packs of water being sold for two to three times the normal price, or packs of water being divvied up and the individual bottles being sold at excessive prices."

According to Texas law, price spikes for fuel, food, medicine, lodging, building materials or other necessities during a state or federal disaster declaration are illegal. The Texas Attorney General's Office urged residents to report such price gouging.

Across Texas, deaths related to the winter storm continued to increase. While dozens of deaths have been reported, experts believed the death toll is likely far larger. And it could be weeks or months before the true magnitude is known.

"It's a slow process. We may have preliminary information in weeks, not days," Chris Van Deusen, spokesperson for the Texas Department of State Health Services, told The Texas Tribune.

A statewide survey of deaths caused by the storm is underway, he said. But the state won't have a good indication until death certificates are filed.

The winter storm also delayed the delivery and injection of hundreds of thousands of COVID-19 vaccines. Public health officials in Dallas, Houston, Austin and other cities postponed planned vaccination events or individual appointments, saying injections would restart once travel conditions were improved.

U.S. President Joe Biden has declared a major disaster in Texas so as to allow the federal government to provide more resources and assistance to the state, the White House said on Saturday. Enditem

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