A Brief Timeline of the Texas Winter Storm
February 11, 2021: Black ice caused a 100-car pile-up in Fort Worth, Texas, claiming the lives of six people. This was a scary occurrence, but many, including me, thought it was a freak black ice accident.
February 13, 2021: We got snow! Texans, who had hoped for snow were excited that our wish was finally coming true. My four-year-old son was the most excited.
February 14, 2021: Valentine’s Day was the sweetest because we spent so much time outside as a family, enjoying what we thought would be the only snow we’d get in Texas.
February 15, 2021: The snow didn’t stop. It was colder in North Texas cities than it was in Anchorage, Alaska. What we thought was a miracle dusting of snow turned out to be Winter Storm Uri, a lethal storm that left more than 4.5 million Texans without electricity, and many with unsafe drinking water. Texas is the only state with an independent power grid. Currently, more than 70 deaths have been attributed to the low temperatures and power outages of the storm, and the underprepared, deregulated, stand-alone power grid and power companies of Texas. The damages from the storm could cost in the billions to repair.
My Family’s Experience During Winter Storm Uri
I’m so grateful that my family did not experience any outages or lack of resources. However, it wasn’t because we were warned or told to plan for a winter storm and a power grid that isn’t prepared to handle extreme weather. Since we are still in the midst of a global health pandemic, I just so happened to have stocked up on groceries the week before to avoid going shopping several times. While I do not live in an affluent neighborhood or own a generator, I do live near a fire department. Many of us who live in the vicinity of public service buildings assumed we were fortunate to not lose power because of that proximity.
Yet, just one town over, friends with newborn babies experienced both power and water outages. Those outages left them helpless in the midst of freezing temperatures. They were boiling snow, warming up in their cars, driving on unsafe roads in search of resources such as bottled water. Thankfully, their utilities have since been safely restored. But three weeks after the storm, there are still people in Texas who remain without utility services.
Climate Change is Already Here
The planet is heating up, but that doesn’t translate to weather by simply being hot all of the time. It also means that polar ice caps are melting, sea levels are rising, and weather patterns are changing drastically and unpredictably. The citizens of Texas did not expect Winter Storm Uri, but there are many who were not surprised. Harmful winter storms in Texas have resulted in power outages in the past. It still has not been definitively decided if Uri was a result of climate change or not. But there’s no denying the rise of extreme, uncharacteristic weather events in Texas and other states. We no longer have to see news from thousands of miles away to see what a climate disaster looks like. It is here now, and it is impacting us now.
Vulnerable Communities are Hurt the Most
Vulnerable communities throughout Texas have been, and will continue to be impacted the most. Our Texas Senator Ted Cruz showed us what we already know: those with financial resources will flee a climate crisis, leaving those of us behind to endure human suffering and even death. While government officials scrambled to point fingers about who was to blame for this issue, they have not stated how they plan to use their power of the elected office to make a change that will actually help Texans.
Even though Texas power companies on this deregulated grid were advised to properly weatherize their systems, which would have prepared us for extreme weather, they did not do so. That’s why the outages were so widespread. Under this dysfunctional system, the CEO’s of fossil fuel companies benefit while everyday people bear the brunt of the catastrophe.
What helped save many people during the storm? Mutual aid – when community members work together to take care of each other. Texans helping Texans kept vulnerable communities afloat when our government and institutions continued to fail us. I shared many mutual aid posts on Instagram over these past few weeks because I saw that this effort actively and immediately helped vulnerable communities.
My Final Thoughts on the Impact of Winter Storm Uri
Texans and other Americans showed up for those in need, and I’m forever grateful for the impact of mutual aid efforts and how community members took care of each other. But I’ll be even more excited to one day see community members become government officials and help others by using their offices to work for the people in an official capacity. When the government reflects the people, vulnerable communities won’t be an afterthought, and broken systems can be sustainably repaired and ready for the future.