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More than 70,000 Texans are Without Power from Severe Weather says Abbott
Texans saw themselves without power on Thursday as the state is experiencing significant icing across mostly the northern parts of the state.
“We are dealing with one of the most significant icing events that we’ve had in the state of Texas in at least several decades,” Texas Gov. Greg Abbott revealed at a press conference at the State Operations Center.
Currently, a winter storm that spans almost 3,000 miles across the U.S. is churning out ice and snow from Texas all the way to the New England region. According to the forecast, bitter cold will follow suit.
However, the Texas governor once again expressed his confidence in the state’s power grid, claiming that the reported power outages are mainly being caused by ice-covered power lines or fallen trees. According to Abbott, around 10,000 power line crews are on the move, working to restore power. Meanwhile, 2,000 more crows are being brought from outside Texas to help.
This serves as the first real cold-weather test for Texas’ state grid since the snowstorm that took place on February 2021, which left hundreds of thousands of residents in the state with no power and water for several days. Over 200 people died at that time. According to investigations, frozen natural gas lines and power generation equipment caused the blackouts.
According to Abbott, unlike in 2021, several power plants that mainly rely on natural gas to create energy now have a reserve of alternatives that they can use if the gas supply is lost.
“If weather limits the flow of natural gas, we have several days of natural gas in storage that can be used,” the governor said.
He also signed a disaster proclamation for 17 of the state’s counties. The governor said that more counties will probably be added as the storm continues to blow through its course.
Abbott also revealed that 127 National Guard personnel have been deployed across Texas.
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