Authorities said Mrs. Dearing, who suffered from dementia, entered her backyard and collapsed when temperatures dropped to freezing levels. The paramedics who found her told county officials that it looked like she had broken a leg and was unable to go back inside. His body was found almost two meters from a rear door, officials said.
“We don’t know if she screamed for help or if someone heard her,” said Mike McAuliffe, a Taylor County peace judge.
The devastation of the storm, said Dearing, cannot be underestimated, adding, “I am surprised that the number is not greater, considering how bad it was.”
The storm disrupted the power infrastructure, which, officials said, was unprepared for the harsh winter conditions. State officials, including Governor Greg Abbott, attributed the failures to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the agency that controls electricity for about 26 million residents. High-ranking officials on the board, known as ERCOT, and the state utility regulator resigned.
Authorities called for a review of the state’s energy system. Critics said widespread and lasting outages highlighted the flaws in Texas’ unique approach to electricity, which opted to have its own power grid and avoid regulation.
“We are horrified that this could happen in modern society,” said Celeste Peterson, campaign director in Houston for the Texas Organizing Project, a nonprofit organization that defends the black and Latin communities, about the new death toll in the state.
“Unfortunately, Texas paid the price for really bad planning and for the contempt, frankly, for human life,” she said.