AUSTIN, Texas (AP) – Southern cities hit by winter storms that have left millions of people without power a few days ago they traded one crisis for another: broken water pipes broken by record low temperatures created shortages of drinking water, closed Memphis airport on Friday and left hospitals struggling to maintain sanitary conditions.
In Texas, 7 million people – a quarter of the population in the country’s second largest state – were under orders to boil tap water before drinking it, because low water pressure could have allowed bacteria to infiltrate the system . A man died at an Abilene health center when the lack of water pressure made medical treatment impossible.
Some 260,000 homes and businesses in Tennessee County, which includes Memphis, have been instructed to boil water because of mains ruptures and pumping station problems. Restaurants that cannot do this or do not have bottled water have been forced to close. And water pressure problems prompted Memphis International Airport to cancel all Friday’s inbound and outbound flights.
In Jackson, Mississippi, most of the city of about 161,000 people lacked running water. The crews pumped water to refill the city’s tanks, but faced a shortage of chemicals for treatment because icy roads made it difficult for distributors to deliver, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said.
He said the city’s water mains are over 100 years old and were not built to withstand the freezing weather that hit the city when several storms poured record amounts of snow into the south.
“We are dealing with an extreme challenge of getting more water through our distribution system,” said Lumumba.
The city was providing water for flushing and drinking water, but residents had to fetch it, leaving the elderly and those living on icy roads vulnerable.
Lisa Thomas said her garage on a hill in Jackson was a layer of ice. Her husband, who is using a defibrillator and cardiac monitor, only has enough heart medication to survive on Sunday because she was unable to go to the pharmacy.
“People are in dire need here,” said Thomas.
Paul Lee Davis arrived at the front of the line at a water station set up by city officials, but the water ran out. He was still waiting for it to be refilled three and a half hours after his arrival.
“We need water, the reserves are all empty. I don’t see what choice we have, ”said Davis.
Water problems were the latest disgrace for people across the South who were left without heat or electricity for days after the ice and snow storms earlier in the week, forcing continuous blackouts from Minnesota to Texas.
Texas grid operators said electricity transmission had returned to normal for the first time since the historic snowfall and single-digit temperatures created an increase in the demand for electricity to heat homes – affecting the state’s grid and causing blackouts generalized.
Small interruptions remained, but Bill Magness, chairman of the Texas Electric Reliability Council, said the grid could now supply power to the entire system.
Governor Greg Abbott ordered an investigation into the failure to a state known as the energy capital of the U.S. ERCOT officials defended their preparations and the decision to initiate forced interruptions on Monday, when the network reached the breaking point.
The storms have also left more than 330,000 people from Virginia to Louisiana without power. About 60,000 in Oregon on Friday were still suffering a week-long shutdown after a huge ice and snow storm. The Oregon governor ordered the National Guard to go door to door in the hardest hit areas to ensure that residents had enough food and water.
The extreme weather was blamed for the deaths of at least 69 people, including many who died struggling to keep warm and a Tennessee farmer who tried to save two calves that apparently roamed a frozen lake.
The acting administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, Bob Fenton, said teams in Texas were distributing fuel, water, blankets and other supplies.
“What worries me most is making sure people stay warm,” said Fenton on “CBS This Morning.”
In many areas, water pressure dropped after the lines froze and because people left the taps dripping to prevent the pipes from freezing, officials said.
As of Friday afternoon, more than 1,300 public water systems in Texas and 159 counties reported climate-related operational disruptions affecting more than 14.9 million people, according to a Texas Environmental Quality Commission spokeswoman, Tiffany Young.
More than 1 million gallons (3.8 million liters) of water were being transported on Friday to the Texas capital. But Austin water director Greg Maszaros pleaded with residents to minimize the use of domestic taps because “there are still many unknowns as we pressurize the system.”
In Dallas, David Lopez said the plumbing company he works for received more than 600 service calls last week.
“It’s basically first come, first served,” said Lopez, as he and a colleague removed a new water heater from his van on Friday. “Everyone has emergencies.”
Houston residents will likely have to boil tap water in the fourth largest city in the United States by Sunday or Monday, said Mayor Sylvester Turner.
The water service was restored on Friday to two Methodist community hospitals in Houston, but authorities were still bringing in drinking water and some elective surgeries were canceled, said spokeswoman Gale Smith.
St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis said it was forced to switch to bottled water and bagged ice for all consumption and that staff and patients were washing themselves with hand sanitizer and bath towels without rinsing. All non-urgent surgeries were postponed.
Central Arkansas Water in the Little Rock area asked customers to save water to help protect their system when the soil started to warm up and the pipes thawed. The city of Hot Springs warned on Thursday night that its water supply was “critically low” and also asked customers to save money.
In Little Rock, the Discovery Museum reported that a broken pipe flooded his building – causing extensive damage to theaters, galleries and offices and killing a display animal, a blue-tongue skink lizard.
More than 192,000 Louisiana residents – some still struggling to recover from Hurricane Laura last August – had no water service on Friday, according to the state health department. Tens of thousands more remained under boiling water alerts.
Bulk and bottled water deliveries were planned for Friday in the most affected areas of Louisiana, with a focus on hospitals, nursing homes and dialysis centers, said Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards, adding that he hopes the climate hottest expected over the weekend to speed up repairs.
In the Hackberry community in Louisiana, Nicole Beard said her boyfriend crawled under her house to try to fix a broken water pipe, but she couldn’t because she didn’t have the right parts and it was too dark. She was using bottled water and sent her two daughters to stay in another home.
“People are still fighting around here,” she said.
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Acacia Coronado is a member of the Associated Press / Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a national nonprofit service program that puts journalists in local newsrooms to report on covert issues.
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Sainz reported from Memphis. Associated Press journalists, Andrew DeMillo, in Little Rock, Arkansas; Rebecca Santana in New Orleans; Gillian Flaccus in Portland; Jake Bleiberg in Dallas; Ken Miller in Oklahoma City; Leah Willingham in Jackson, Mississippi; Melinda Deslatte in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, Michael Warren in Atlanta; and Tammy Webber in Fenton, Michigan, contributed.
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The story was corrected to show that at least 69 people died, not at least 70.