By Elyse Cram

In an article published by Time, it is estimated that at least 15 million Texas residents lost power during the statewide blackouts in February.

Consumers nationwide rely on their respective power grids to deliver electricity to their homes and workplaces. The United States has three grids: the Eastern Interconnection, the Western Interconnection, and the Texas Interconnection. 

Texas Guardsmen assist a motorist stuck on snow and ice in Abilene, Texas. Photo credit: The National Guard via Wikimedia Commons.

In February, unprecedented ice storms and temperatures across the state of Texas caused a power failure across the Texas Grid, which is operated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) instead of federal regulators. Unequipped to handle the harsh weather conditions, the Texas Interconnection experienced over 185 generating units falling offline, including gas plants, coal plants, and wind turbines.

My cousin Renee Sankey, a preschool teacher and resident of San Antonio, lost power for the first time at 1:43 a.m. on Monday, February 15–waking up her 18-month-old son, Ellis. Throughout the day, the power continued to struggle, coming on for five minutes every 30-40 minutes. Sankey observed that the outages “seemed like they were scheduled, because they were pretty consistent.” During these intervals, Sankey and her husband Jason, who works for a family-owned business, rushed to heat up food, make coffee, and carry out other electricity-dependent activities. 

When night fell, the Sankeys’ house was only around 57 degrees Fahrenheit. After directing the heat into her son’s room, Sankey ended up holding him for most of the time while she and her family relied on blankets for warmth, as the power remained off throughout the night.

Fortunately for Sankey, she had been able to fill up her car with gas on Monday, February 15, so when their house was around 45 degrees the following Tuesday morning, she was able to charge her phone and warm up in the car for a few hours. Although power did come on for around four hours, Sankey decided to take Ellis to stay with a friend who had power. The following day, Wednesday, February 17, Sankey and Ellis returned home during the late afternoon, and their power returned for good at approximately 9:00 p.m..

Aside from the obvious issues due to the lack of power, other side effects impacted their daily lives. Sankey noted that “even when most of the snow [had] melted, the power and water issues persisted.” For example, a citywide boiled water notice was put in place in San Antonio due to frozen pipes and low water pressure, putting the water quality within homes at risk. Additionally, Ellis’ school, where Sankey works, was cancelled for the week.

A little over an hour away, Sankey’s sister, Austin Hamlin, experienced the effects of the grid failure in Johnson City. For Hamlin, power fluctuated for approximately five days, with six hours being the longest period with no power. Unlike Sankey, there was no pattern to the power outages at Hamlin’s home. When the power came on, Hamlin and her boyfriend’s family would hurry to prepare food. When the power was off for longer periods of time, they got creative with their meals–including cooking pizza on the grill. 

Hamlin admitted that “water was hard to come by.” Because she relies on well water with an electric pump, access to water shut off when the power went out. As a result, when the power came on, they rushed to fill up bathtubs and coolers with drinking water, as well as take quick showers. Then, when the power went off, they still had water for drinking, and water to scoop into the toilets in order to flush them.

Frozen pipes. Photo credit: JJ_RICHARDS via Flickr.

Fortunately, they planned ahead in order to avoid damage to their pipes. When the power went off, they turned off the power to the well and emptied the sink faucets to avoid water issues resulting from frozen pipes. After originally waking up in the middle of the night to complete these tasks, they began to carry them out before going to bed under the assumption that the power would go out at some point over the night.

Just as Sankey did not go to work for the week, neither Hamlin nor anyone in the household were able to go to work for the week. Hamlin described how “living on a mile-and-a-half dirt road with a large hill made it nearly impossible to leave the house due to the weather conditions.” 

At the outpatient procedure unit where Hamlin works, all of the scheduled procedures for the week were cancelled. Although she never went into the hospital, she learned from coworkers that it was severely affected by the power outages. Doctors and nurses had a difficult time getting into work, so many had to stay overnight or in hotels close by. Additionally, due to water issues, patients and employees had to fill up the toilets to flush them.

The power failure resulting from the Texas freeze has had an immense impact on the citizens as well as a state, whose losses have been estimated at $90 billion. 

Featured image credit: Jonathan Cutrer via Flickr.

MORE TEXAS FREEZE COVERAGE from The Match: Sheehan Bradshaw explains the science behind the Texas ice storms.