A winter storm that dropped snow and ice also caused temperatures to drop on the southern plains, generating an energy emergency in Texas a day after conditions canceled flights and affected traffic in large areas at the US One concessionaire said that power cuts for hundreds of thousands of people originally expected to last for short periods could, instead, last for hours, as temperatures dropped to the maximum temperature near Dallas and 20 degrees in Houston.
The rotating power outages were initiated on Monday morning by the Texas Electric Reliability Council, which manages the flow of energy in the state.
The council described rotating outages as a “last resort to preserve the reliability of the electrical system as a whole”, adding that utility companies are tasked with determining how to reduce demand on the system.
Oncor, a utility that serves the Dallas-Fort Worth area and other parts of the state, said on Twitter Monday morning that the outages can last for hours.
“These are not continuous blackouts,” Mayor Sylvester Turner of Houston said on Twitter. “We are dealing with power outages across the state.”
Oncor advised customers to close blinds or curtains, close rooms and place towels or rags in the cracks under the doors to prevent heat loss.
“Every network operator and every electricity company is struggling to restore power now,” chairman and CEO Bill Magness said in a statement.
More than 2.7 million customers in Texas were in the dark at 11:20 am, according to poweroutage.us, a utility tracking website.
CBS Dallas-Fort Worth reported that strong winds were creating chills below zero. For the first time, a thermal sensation warning was in effect in northern Texas. Dangerously cold temperatures were expected for Monday night and Tuesday.
CBS Houston affiliate KHOU-TV said the entire southeastern Texas region was also under cold wind alert on Tuesday morning.
Up to 400 record cold temperatures were possible across the country by mid-week, said CBS News meteorologist and climate expert Jeff Berardelli.
Matt Varble, in the Dallas suburb of Las Colinas, told The Dallas Morning News that his energy dropped a few times on Monday morning. The second time, he left around 3:30 and did not return at 7 am
“It’s starting to get really cold inside my house,” Varble told the newspaper. “I lived in the north for a long time and nothing like this happened when I lived in New York, Ohio and Illinois.”
About 5,000 Oklahoma Gas & Electric customers were out of power overnight, and Entergy Arkansas reported about 3,000 outages. Both states have much smaller populations compared to Texas.
Authorities in Houston have warned people to prepare for dangerous disruptions and roads – conditions similar to what residents may see in the wake of a Category 5 hurricane.
“There have been several reports of ice accidents recently,” said Bob Oravec, head of the National Weather Service’s forecast, on Monday. “I think there will be a big threat today, as the system pushes to the northeast.”
By mid-morning, 3,000 flights were canceled across the country, about 1,600 of them at Dallas / Fort Worth International and Bush Intercontinental airports in Texas. In DFW, the temperature was 4 degrees Fahrenheit – 3 degrees cooler than Moscow.
The accumulation of ice between a tenth and a quarter of an inch was possible in eastern Louisiana, Mississippi, central Tennessee, Kentucky and in the West Virginia and Ohio border region, Oravec said.
Up to 30 centimeters of snow were expected to cross parts of the southern plains by Monday, said Marc Chenard, a meteorologist at the National Weather Service’s Weather Forecast Center.
The region had been preparing for winter for much of the weekend. Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for all 254 counties in the state. Abbott, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt and Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson each National Guard units activated to assist state agencies with tasks, including rescuing imprisoned drivers.
Sue Ogrocki / AP
President Biden also declared a Texas emergency in a statement late on Sunday. The statement aims to add federal aid to state and local response efforts.
The National Weather Service said on Sunday that the forecast by early Tuesday is 20 to 30 centimeters of snow in central Oklahoma and 10 to 20 centimeters in an area that stretches from eastern Texas to Ohio Valley, in the North East.
In Louisiana, police closed several bridges and parts of some highways because of the icy conditions around Baton Rouge. Notably, Interstate 10 between Baton Rouge and Lafayette was closed in both directions on Monday morning because of the ice buildup that caused several accidents.
In Memphis, Tennessee, snow began to fall on Sunday afternoon, and in Mississippi, hail in Jackson and other central parts of the state left roads and bridges slippery.
Parts of Kentucky and West Virginia that are still recovering from an ice storm last week are expected to reach a quarter of an inch of ice or up to 20 inches of snow on Tuesday.