Cristian Pavon was 11 years old and died of hypothermia inside the house when the outside temperature dropped to many degrees below zero. Born in Honduras, he saw snow for the first time in his life the day before his death, as the BBC says, and is one of (at least) 24 fatalities confirmed by authorities in Texas, where the cold spell continues to punish the population . The lack of a heating system was fatal for the child and these days in many other homes people are struggling to improvise solutions against the cold.
After the tremendous winter storm, power outages – which dragged on for four days – are starting to be resolved in the southern state of the United States, although this Friday around 180,000 homes and businesses remained without electricity. For about 13 million Texans, access to drinking water is now the most difficult. Hundreds of supply systems were damaged due to freezing and in almost half of the region, where people already resort to snow as an alternative, the warning is repeated: if it is to be consumed, it is necessary to boil the water, even if filtered.
Bloomberg
As Harris County sheriff Ed Gonzalez stressed, “the climate is not just cold, it is killing.” While recommending that people not take to the streets, the authorities admit that the official death toll will rise and are without hands to measure, namely to quickly distribute bottled water and power generators to people in need. Helping them have several breweries and other local companies, also providing drinking water.
The gravity of the situation led President Joe Biden to approve the state of emergency for Texas this Thursday. The storm warnings remained in effect this Friday in much of the state, although the National Meteorological Service (NWS) has announced that temperatures will rise in the coming days.
Joe Raedle
Bad weather didn’t just hit Texas. Several other southern states have suffered from snow and ice storms this week, with extreme weather cutting off the water in the city of Jackson, Mississippi – where some 150,000 people live – as well as in the largest county in Tennessee that includes the city of Memphis , with more than 651,000 inhabitants.
The situation became a political problem when, in the midst of a crisis due to bad weather, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz left Houston (on Wednesday) for a family vacation in Mexico. Cruz apologized and returned the next day, but did not escape criticism. Especially after the photographs in which he appeared in jeans, a short-sleeved shirt, sports shoes and a mask with the flag of his state at the airport and on the plane bound for Cancun went viral.
As for the deaths recorded in Texas, there are cases of people who died in traffic accidents, and others of deaths from carbon monoxide poisoning, due to the use of cars and internal generators for heating.
At least four people died after a fire broke out in a Houston home, which officials said could have been caused by burning candles.
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