Here are things to know for Friday, Feb. 19:
1. Texas was ‘seconds and minutes’ away from catastrophic monthslong blackouts, officials say
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Texas’ power grid was “seconds and minutes” away from a catastrophic failure that could have left Texans in the dark for months, officials with the entity that operates the grid said Thursday.
As millions of customers throughout the state begin to have power restored after days of massive blackouts, officials with the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, which operates the power grid that covers most of the state, said Texas was dangerously close to a worse-case scenario: uncontrolled blackouts across the state.
2. Cruz says he was being a ‘good dad’ when he flew to Cancun during the winter storm
Sen. Ted Cruz said his family vacation to Mexico was “obviously a mistake” as he returned stateside Thursday following an uproar over his disappearance during a deadly winter storm.
The Republican senator said he began second-guessing the trip since the moment he first got on the plane Wednesday. “In hindsight, I wouldn’t have done it,” he told reporters.
Other media outlets reported that he had traveled out of the country with his family as hundreds of thousands of Texans were still grappling with the fallout of a winter storm that crippled the state’s power grid. The trip drew criticism from leaders in both parties and was seen as potentially damaging to his future political ambitions.
Cruz said in an earlier statement Thursday that he accompanied his family to Cancun a day earlier after his daughters asked to go on a trip with friends, given that school was canceled for the week.
3. Potential criminal charges in weather-related deaths in Galveston County
The cold weather turned deadly in Galveston County, where the district attorney is now planning a criminal investigation.
“The reports of these deaths are deeply disturbing and they absolutely deserve to be investigated,” District Attorney Jack Roady said over the phone.
Roady said he would ask local law enforcement agencies to look into the circumstances around the weather-related deaths.
“Then we’re also going to be looking to an investigation at the state level as to who was responsible for making the decisions to cut power and why those decisions were made,” he said.
After that, he said criminal charges could be filed, depending on the evidence.
4. ‘Faulty construction’: Plumbers, contractors receiving flood of calls for pipes bursting
Unscheduled extreme makeovers are happening throughout the area as a result of the extreme weather week that has paralyzed the state of Texas.
Licensed plumber Mike Marsh is seeing a lot of exposed pipes in places homeowners can’t, inside their walls. After examining one pipe that burst inside the wall of a home in Sienna Marsh had this assessment, “They’re not insulated. They’re not even taken proper care of.”
This pipe burst could have been avoided, according to Marsh. Not in the days leading up to this week’s storm and freezing temperatures but rather when the home was going up.
“This is faulty construction. If things were done right here, we wouldn’t have to repair this,” Marsh said.
5. Texans running out of food as weather crisis cripples supply chain
The state’s week of weather hell started with a deadly 133-car pileup outside of Fort Worth. A winter storm unlike any Texas has ever seen quickly followed, and seven days later, millions are without power and reliable water.
And now Texans are running out of food. From farm to table, freezing temperatures and power outages are crippling the supply chain that people rely on for food every day.
Across the state, people are using up supplies they had stockpiled, and losing more as items start to spoil in dark refrigerators. Some are storing their remaining rations in coolers outside, and trips to the grocery store often do little to replenish pantries.