Millions are without power or water in Texas after a historic storm caused massive power outages amid subfreezing temperatures.
At least 5 people are reported dead in their homes as 150 million people in 25 states are under winter advisories.
Rolling power outages began Monday to prevent the total collapse of the power grid in Texas. 1.2 million homes were without electricity as of Monday evening.
Residents took to social media for information amid rolling outages that lasted longer than 45 minutes.
4.3 million residents are without power in Texas alone after a blast of arctic air arriving from Canada froze wind turbines that generates electricity in West Texas. The frozen turbines knocked the power grid offline, causing massive power outages in homes and businesses.
Wind farms across the state generate up to a combined 25,100 megawatts of energy. The power grid in Texas was still struggling to go back online as demand for electricity to heat homes surged early Tuesday.
Some power — enough to serve about 500,000 homes — was being restored to the state’s power grid Monday evening, said a spokesman for the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT).
In Houston, a woman and a girl died from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning from a car running in an attached garage, police said.
The rolling blackouts in Texas affected neighboring states such as Arkansas and Missouri.
The deadly winter storm spawned a tornado that killed three in North Carolina.
There are reports of people trapped in their homes in Brunswick County, as emergency services mobilized to rescue people whose homes were ripped from their foundations by a possible tornado.
“It’s something like I have never seen before. A lot of destruction,” said Brunswick County Sheriff John Ingram during a press conference early Tuesday. “It’s going to be a long recovery process.”
