Jasmine Williams struggled with freezing temperatures and constant power outages for three days amid the intense Texas winter storm, so when she woke up on Wednesday to the sound of a distant hum, she thought she finally had her electricity restored.
Instead, the Dallas resident realized that his entire apartment was under an inch of water and more was leaking uncontrollably through the walls.
“I realized it wasn’t a leak,” the 22-year-old dancer told BuzzFeed News. “The pipe has burst.”
Williams recorded his shocking discovery in a TikTok that has been watched more than 1.3 million times. In the video, she hits the water in her apartment, crying as she tries to assess the damage.
“What the hell is that?” she says in the video. “This shit is flooding for no damn reason.”
Like many Texans, Williams has been dealing with a devastating winter climate that has weakened entire communities, closed roads and left people struggling for basic supplies. At least 10 people died in connection with the storm, and vulnerabilities within the state’s grid also left millions without electricity. Cold conditions are now causing water pipes to freeze and burst.
Residents were told to stay off the road. Williams’ car failed to climb a small hill and got stuck in the snow outside his condo. Because of this, she has been unable to work for almost a week.
On Wednesday, Williams, who slept under a mountain of blankets to keep warm, woke up around noon – only to find that his apartment was flooded.
“I thought maybe I left the sink on or something,” she said.
Instead, she said, she found that most of the water was coming out of a hole in the kitchen wall. Workers at the apartment complex did some repairs to the wall weeks ago, leaving a hole behind. When the pipe burst, cold water started pouring out of his apartment.
The water also entered a neighbor’s apartment, she said, and it took two hours before it was closed.
He soaked everything on the floor: his furniture, a pile of dirty clothes, the boxes for his saxophone and trumpet.
“I haven’t even opened it yet. I’m scared,” she said in another TikTok video showing the scene.
She said she is not sure when she will be able to return to work, as many businesses and roads remain closed during the storm. She started a GoFundMe page to try to deal with the damage costs.
Williams, who grew up in Dallas, said he had seen the city covered in snow before, but this storm was something else entirely.
“It wasn’t like that,” she said. “I feel like I’m in another state. My family is also from Iowa, and I feel like I’m there, really.”
After Wednesday’s flood, she left the apartment – which still had no light – to stay with her grandparents, who maintained their energy during the storm. She doesn’t know what state her home will be in when she returns.
“It’s just something we weren’t prepared for as Texans,” said Williams.