Texans are melting snow because they don’t have water

It was Wednesday morning when Renee Rice realized that the water was barely running from her tap. On Thursday afternoon, she and her husband were in their Austin backyard, throwing snow into plastic buckets to boil water.

“They said we won’t have water for three to five days,” she told BuzzFeed News. “I am one of the lucky ones. At least I have power.”

First, it was snow and freezing temperatures, but people across Texas soon found themselves in the midst of huge power outages, struggling to keep warm as a violent winter storm hit the state this week. But without power or heating, the pipes started to freeze, sometimes bursting, and on Thursday, people across the state started harvesting snow and ice to get water.

“We are not prepared for something like that,” said Rice.

In Austin, on Friday, most of its nearly 1 million residents found themselves without water and with no indication of when they would find a safe drink again, prompting many to start harvesting the same snow that had paralyzed the state.

According to Austin Water, most of the city remained without water until Friday afternoon. And the central region of the city, the only one with access to water, continued to register low water pressure. The agency said it was pouring 32 million gallons of water a day on Friday, significantly below the minimum 100 million gallons needed for a healthy system.

For Rice, the sudden shutdown of the water supply was an indication of how unprepared the entire state was for a winter storm like the one currently hitting the state, she said.

“I don’t even have the proper clothes,” she said, pointing out that she and her husband have layered hoods and used several layers of pants to keep warm. “We are simply not prepared.”

His family has so far stored five buckets and snow coolers ready to use if needed. She had some stored water to drink, but between her, her husband and her parents, she is not sure how long they can last.

This week, she went to the supermarket several times, searching the empty shelves for food and water. Instead, she was only able to stock up on about $ 200 of junk food she managed to buy at a gas station – the only place she found food. But even there, she couldn’t find any water, just a few bottles of chocolate milk.

For Josh Jakob and his wife, the water pressure was noticeably lower on Tuesday. Originally from New York and having seen winter storms that paralyzed the entire city, they had a sense of what was to come.

The two filled the bathtub with water to flush toilets and wash their hands and dishes. They had some water in store to brush their teeth and also to drink.

But despite living his entire lives in New York and facing Hurricane Sandy, Jakob said he never had to use the water in the backup tub – until this week.

“We came here to escape the snow and apparently it is following us,” said Jakob.

To drink water, Jakob said he took a pile of pristine snow that was on the patio table to boil. He scraped the ice from a large freezer in their garage to bring water to wash his hands and dishes.

When temperatures rose slightly on Friday, Jakob picked up a bucket and placed it near his roof to grab the melting snow that dripped from the roof.

“It’s getting easier to harvest that sweet fresh water from the bathroom,” he tweeted.

He and his wife are trying to save water, not knowing how long it will take before the tap starts running again.

“Our plates are piling up,” he said. “It’s not pretty, either.”

Although power on Friday appears to have been restored to many Texans who lost electricity this week, residents feared that a lack of water and damage to the water and plumbing system could spell a prolonged disaster.

Not only have houses and apartments seen broken pipes, but the damage to water systems across the city remains unclear, he said.

“It looks like it will be a bigger disaster,” said Jakob.

For now, Jakob is preparing for the long term, he said. The dishes accumulate and the baths are scarce.

“I want to take a shower,” he said. “My son says I smell tacos.”