Texas is known for their warm weather that they have year-round. On February 13th, the state of Texas experienced a heavy snowstorm last week that left millions of people without water, power, and led to many deaths. It started out with people losing power and then once they got their power restored, their water pipes were frozen and they had no warm water or heat while it was cold in Texas. 

All of the chaos that went on in Texas led to no food in the local grocery stores and it was a true struggle to get food. 

According to The New York Times, ¨There were over 500 cars lined up at the headquarters of the San Antonio Food Bank. All of these struggles have led to at least 58 people that have died from storm-battered areas that stretch out to Ohio. Those who died experienced severe hypothermia, house fires, drownings and car crashes. Also people were found in homes or in cars after being poisoned by carbon monoxide, often emitted by vehicles or generators. 

Burst pipes, frozen wells and water treatments knocked offline by the winter storm and power failures have led to a water crisis across Texas, where millions of people were left with no running water. ¨

¨We never imagined a day where hospitals would not have water¨, says Greg Meszaros, the director of Austin Water.

Many people will ask, why are there so many power outages in Texas and in all of the other states? It is because the state’s power plants were not ready for the freezing conditions that the storm brought. The natural gas was hit the hardest, all of the production froze and when everyone wanted to turn the heat up in their house. The demand for gas and electricity was through the roof. 

Also, Texas is known for their warm weather year round and they never witness snowstorms in that area, let alone snow in general. It must have been a really hard time for the people that live in Texas. They probably did not know what to prepare for the snowstorm. 

According to The New York Times, ¨The Houston Food Bank is collecting donations from everyone around the country to help feed people that are in need. A $50 donation would send over 150 meals to Houston. ¨

The two largest public school districts in Texas were shut down for multiple days after the storm until the chaos is all taken care of. Texas is known for their warm weather and this winter storm just came in out of nowhere. The people in that area were not prepared and sadly many lives were lost due to the complications the winter storm gave the people. Hopefully Texas and the other states that were affected by the storm will be more prepared next time.