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Texas Weather: Texans Struggle As Death Toll Mounts Due to Winter Storm

February 18, 2021
4 Min Read
Texas Weather: Texans Struggle As Death Toll Mounts Due to Winter Storm
US News

Usually, the weather in Texas is much warmer than in the rest of the states in the US. However, the winter storm the South Central state is experiencing currently is something the people of Texas have never seen. On top of the weather issues, there is a widespread power shortage across Texas. And Texans are struggling as the temperature drops and the death toll rises.

The rising winter storm and degrading weather have killed at least 21 people in Texas. But the weather forecast says that the extreme condition will continue, at least until the weekend.

The Weather Condition in Texas.

President Joe Biden announced a state of emergency in Texas as it experienced some of its most extreme weather conditions. The temperature hit 0F (-18C) in more than 30 years.

Apart from that, millions of people are going through a massive power outage in different parts of the state. Along with it, Texans are also facing issues like icy roads, frozen pipes, no heat, and water, etc. Several houses are leaking due to the frozen pipe bursting. And people are freezing inside their houses due to lack of heat.

A Political Blunder.

However, as the tension rises, several Texan government officials are facing a lot of backlashes. Especially due to their lack of accountability. Texas, a Republican-run state, mostly operates on natural gas-fired plants. And only 23 percent of the power comes from wind turbines.

However, Texas’ governor Greg Abbott blamed the power grid on Green New Deal.

Despite calling the climate change proposal a “deadly deal for the United States of America,” he later took back his statement.

Another politician facing criticism is Senator Ted Cruz. Out of several controversial things he’s said in the past, people are dragging him for the time when he voted against Hurricane Sandy aid. Now, he admits that he has “no defense” for Texas’ weather disaster.

Mayor of Colorado City, Texas, Tim Boyd on Tuesday shared a lengthy post about the ongoing weather crisis. In the controversial post, the mayor told the citizens that it’s not the government’s responsibility to support them during these trying times. “I’ll be damned if I’m going to provide for anyone that is capable of doing it themselves,” Boyd wrote on the post.

However, people weren’t having his “only the strong will survive and the weak will perish,” statement. And after calling people that are “complaining” about the situation “lazy and products of bad parenting,” Boyd stepped down from his position.

Here are tweets summing up the extreme weather condition in Texas.

Also Read: Brandon Sorbom: How an MIT Reject is Making Clean Energy Accessible

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