WASHINGTON – About three million people are without electricity this Monday in Texas due to a winter storm, which affects about 40 states, and which has caused the closure of several airports and the largest oil refinery in the country.
According to the website poweroutage.us, which documents power outages, nearly 2.8 million people are without power in Texas; more than 325,000 in Oregon; nearly 117,000 in Louisiana; and 106,631 in Mississippi.
The CNN television network indicated that the Federal Aviation Administration has closed the Baton Rouge Metro and Lafayette airports in Louisiana on Monday due to ice and snow.
To these facilities are added the airports of Houston (Texas) and Jackson-Medgar Wiley Evers, in Mississippi.
For its part, Motiva Enterprises has announced the temporary closure of Port Arthur Manufacturing Complex, the largest crude oil refinery in the US, located in Port Arthur, Texas, due to “unprecedented freezing temperatures.”
The company added that it will resume operations as soon as it is safe.
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) said in a statement that about 150 million Americans – half the nation’s population – are currently affected by winter storm warnings.
According to their forecast, heavy snow and freezing rain are expected in the Mississippi and Ohio valleys, and they will move towards the northeast.
Low temperatures and low rainfall are also possible in eastern Texas and other parts of the central US, as well as the southeast, while in the west the forecast is for heavy rains in Oregon and California.
The storm has caused unprecedented scenes in Texas, where it has snowed as far south as Brownsville, on the border with Mexico and where snow has only been recorded twice in history since the records began in 1898.
The phenomenon has also caused a drop in temperatures that had not been seen in decades in some parts of the country, such as Dallas, which has registered 5 degrees Fahrenheit (-15 degrees Celsius) and Oklahoma City -6 degrees Fahrenheit (-21 degrees Celsius). ). The two cities had not experienced a similar cold since 1989.
Rapid City in South Dakota has experienced five consecutive nights below -12 degrees Fahrenheit (-24 degrees Celsius), which has not happened since 1943.
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