Power cuts in Texas as temperatures fall below freezing

Electric Reliability Council of Texas says cuts were ‘last resort’

Pump jacks operate in the Permian Basin in Midland, Texas. The Arctic freeze gripping the central US is raising the spectre of power cuts in the state and placing pressure on energy already trading at record prices. Bloomberg

Brett Archibad entertains his family as they try to stay warm in their home the Blackhawk district in Pflugerville, Texas. Anger about the state’s power grid failure mounted on Tuesday. AP

Howard and Nena Mamu eat dinner at their home in the Glenwood district in Hutto, Texas. AP

People queue to buy food at a petrol station in Pflugerville, Texas. Most homes in the area had been without electricity for nearly eight hours. Power companies performed rotating cuts to protect the grid. AP

People queue to fill their empty propane tanks in Houston. The temperature stayed below freezing on Tuesday. AP

Christopher Harris, left, his wife Novi and their daughter Keeva occupy an office suite at a pop-up warming centre in Richardson, Texas. It is one of seven such places in the city, offering a place to keep warm and charge devices. AP

Freezer sections are closed off at Fiesta supermarket on February 16, 2021, in Houston, Texas. Winter storm Uri brought historic cold weather, power cuts and traffic accidents to Texas as storms swept through 26 states. AFP

Shell Timewise service station in Pflugerville, Texas, turned away people who needed petrol. Most homes in the area were without power for nearly eight hours. AP

The grounds of the Capitol in Austin, Texas, are covered in snow. AP

A car park is covered in snow at DIY store Home Depot in the Westbury district in Houston. A winter storm that is making its way from America’s southern plains to the northeast is affecting air travel. AP

The Trinity River is mostly frozen after a snow storm in Fort Worth. A frigid blast of winter weather across the US has left more than two million people in Texas without power. AP

Annie Boon, 5, creates a snow angel while sledging with her family in Austin. AP

People play in the snow in Butler Park in Austin. AP

A worker clears snow from a car park in Midland, Texas. Blackouts triggered by frigid weather have spread to more than four million homes and businesses across the central US and parts of Mexico. Bloomberg

Francisco Sanchez wipes snow off his car with a boogie board before going out sledging with his kids at Memorial Park in El Paso, Texas. Reuters

Horses wait for the ice in their trough to be broken in Bastrop county, near Austin, Texas. Reuters

Mia Donjuan, 4, falls off her sledge as she slides down a hill in the Elmwood district of Dallas. AP

Baylor University students enjoy their snow day without classes while posing near a fountain on campus in Waco, Texas. AP

Pedestrians walk on along a snow-covered street in Austin. Winter storm Uri has brought unusual cold to Texas, causing traffic delays and power cuts. Storms have swept across 26 states. AFP

Honey Russell clears the pavement outside her home after heavy snowfall in Fort Worth, Texas. Winter storm Uri has brought freezing weather to Texas. AFP

People push a car free after spinning out in the snow in Waco, Texas. A winter storm that brought snow and ice across the southern Plains stretched its frigid fingers down to the Gulf Coast. AP

A woman walks through falling snow in San Antonio. AP

Two people play in the snow in San Antonio. AP

Snow ploughs clear a lane of the I-30 motorway in Dallas. The Nashville Predators and the Dallas Stars NHL hockey game on Monday was postponed at the request of Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson owing to a power shortage. AP

The sun sets as a lone vehicle sits in a snow-covered parking garage at American Airlines Centre. AP

A winter storm sent mercury plunging across the Southern Plains, prompting a power emergency in Texas a day after flights were cancelled and traffic affected across large parts of the US.

Rotating power cuts were initiated by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or Ercot, early on Monday morning.

Thousands went without electricity for short periods as the temperature fell below 0°C near Dallas and Houston.

“We urge Texans to put safety first,” Ercot, which manages the flow of electricity in the state, said on Twitter as it urged residents to use less energy.

“Traffic lights and other infrastructure may be temporarily without power,” it said.

The council described the rotating cuts as a “last resort to preserve the reliability of the electric system as a whole”.

It said utility companies would determine how to reduce demand on the system.

“Every grid operator and every electric company is fighting to restore power right now,” said Ercot president and chief executive Bill Magness.

The rotating cuts were expected to last throughout Monday morning.

More than 1.6 million customers were in the dark as of 5am local time, said poweroutage.us, a utility tracking site.

About 5,000 Oklahoma Gas and Electric customers were without power overnight, and Entergy Arkansas logged about 3,000 cuts. Both states have much smaller populations than Texas.

Officials in Houston warned people to prepare for cuts and dangerous roads in conditions similar to what residents might experience after a Category-5 hurricane.

“There have been numerous reports of accidents from icing recently,” National Weather Service lead forecaster Bob Oravec said on Monday.

“I think there’s going to be a big threat today as the system pushes north-eastward.”

Up to 30 centimetres of snow was expected across parts of the Southern Plains into Monday, said Marc Chenard, a forecaster with the weather bureau.

The region was preparing for the winter weather for most of the weekend.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott issued a disaster declaration for all 254 of the state’s counties.

Mr Abbott, Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt and Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson activated National Guard units to assist state agencies with tasks including rescuing stranded drivers.

US President Joe Biden also declared an emergency in Texas in a statement on Sunday night.

The declaration is intended to add federal aid to state and local responses.

More than 760 flights were cancelled at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, and at Dallas Love Field most of the nearly 200 flights for Southwest Airlines, the airport’s main carrier, were cancelled on Sunday.

American Airlines said about 345 of its flights through DFW Airport, its base,  were cancelled by early Sunday afternoon.

The airline said the storm was also affecting its flights across the region, with operations reduced and cancelled at airports in Texas, Oklahoma and Arkansas.