**Why did this happen?** Texas leaders failed to heed warnings that left state's power grid vulnerable to winter extremes, experts say. An absolute must-read from @McGeeReports @erinmdouglas23 @jsmccullou https://t.co/Q9bPXJgiei #txlege
— Evan Smith (@evanasmith) February 18, 2021
President @JoeBiden's administration is providing generators to Texas and preparing to move diesel in to the state for generators at communications facilities, hospitals, and water.
FEMA is also supplying Texas with water and blankets at their request. #txwx
— Jason Whitely (@JasonWhitely) February 17, 2021
Last night, after we’d lost power & my pipes burst, my toddler choked on a peanut in our dark house. We rushed him across town on icy roads for emergency surgery at a hospital that does not have enough water pressure to flush toilets.
Texas is a disaster. https://t.co/LPFsmiKnTl
— Mike Hixenbaugh (@Mike_Hixenbaugh) February 17, 2021
One clarification: The hospital does not have *any* water. They’re trucking it in. Nurses and staff are exhausted — many of them away from families stuck in frozen houses — but doing a great job caring for my little guy.
— Mike Hixenbaugh (@Mike_Hixenbaugh) February 17, 2021
I worried about school vacation week leading to further Covid-19 superspreader events, but I didn’t have a sufficiently evil imagination when it came to Ted Cruz:
Just confirmed @SenTedCruz and his family flew to Cancun tonight for a few days at a resort they've visited before. Cruz seems to believe there isn't much for him to do in Texas for the millions of fellow Texans who remain without electricity/water and are literally freezing. pic.twitter.com/6nPiVWtdxe
— David Shuster (@DavidShuster) February 18, 2021
Look, out of fairness to Ted Cruz, traveling to Cancun while millions in your state are freezing and without water is somehow less worse than enabling an attack on the U.S. Capitol, so this is technically a month-to-month improvement. ??
— Charlotte Clymer ?????? (@cmclymer) February 18, 2021
It’s easy to have schadenfreude for Texas. Until you realize it’s largely a state of BIPOC folks, gerrymandered out of representation, enduring a Republican regime.
— Daniel Peña (@danimalpena) February 17, 2021
Millions of Texans already out of power, and here’s what @GregAbbott_TX was tweeting.
More worried about a primary challenge than the biggest storm the state has faced in decades. pic.twitter.com/tnR1pR10p2
— Sawyer Hackett (@SawyerHackett) February 16, 2021
It's looking like power plants in Texas unplugged to avoid skyrocketing natural gas spot market rates that went to hundreds of $$ to avoid losses. @ERCOT_ISO has now passed an emergency order allowing them to charge consumers those spot market prices. Capitalism at its finest. pic.twitter.com/xxaHsSbgCX
— Joel Montfort ?? (@jmontforttx) February 16, 2021
NO THE FUCK WE ARE NOT. https://t.co/5yi0AOMcwE
— Keri Blakinger (@keribla) February 17, 2021
seriously these guys will tell you to be prepared and keep a spare gun stashed in the toaster “just in case of toast bandits” but dudes couldn’t be bothered to insist their natural gas pressure gauges can survive a bad winter
— kilgore trout, back in some form (@KT_So_It_Goes) February 17, 2021
It was the ‘failures in coal and natural gas,’ and not renewables, that added to the Texas energy shortage, leaving millions of people without heat during a punishing winter storm, White House press secretary Jen Psaki said https://t.co/hkcSbezYJM #TexasBlackout pic.twitter.com/gNgADKmpHR
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 18, 2021
One small (relatively) bright spot…
Thousands of 'cold stunned' sea turtles were rescued off the southern coast of Texas as temperatures plunged amid a winter storm in the state https://t.co/mvm51tmiDe pic.twitter.com/9DxrWiN30w
— Reuters (@Reuters) February 18, 2021