Record cold temperatures arrive in Texas, leaving over 2 million people without power
A frigid record low hit North Texas on Monday and ERCOT began rotating power outages — some lasting several hours or more — to reduce the state’s demand on energy as Texans tried to keep warm.
Weather forecasters say it may not get above freezing until Friday.
Early Monday, The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) declared Texas at its highest energy emergency level and started rotating outages, but many residents were without power for much longer than expected. Authorities said some outages have been caused by damage to equipment from the extreme cold.
ERCOT officials advised Texans who have electrical service to conserve energy by keeping thermostats at 68 degrees, turning off and unplug non-essential lights and appliances, and avoiding the use of large appliances such as washers, dryers and dishwashers.
As of 5 p.m., more than 1 million Oncor customers, including over 600,000 in Tarrant and Dallas counties, were without power, according to Oncor. Across the state, more than 2 million Texans had no electricity Monday afternoon.
Initially, Oncor officials said the rolling outages would last 15 to 45 minutes, but they later said restoration times were not yet known and outages could last for hours and continue into Tuesday. That’s something borne out by North Texas social media posts, indicating some residents were without power for several hours.
McKenna Carey of Aubrey lost power at 2 a.m. Monday.
“When I called the Texas-New Mexico Power outage number it said the expected time for it to be fixed was 4:15 a.m.,” Carey said. The power remained off until 9:30 a.m.
“We are snuggled up with lots of blankets right now,” Carey said earlier in the morning. “Our thermostat is showing 53.”
Carey said her family does not have a fireplace.
Her electricity came back on, “but it has been cycling on and off every 15 minutes,” Carey said. “Definitely better than nothing.”
Dwayne Pickney of Garland went without power for more than eight hours Monday. Pickney lives at the Montclaire Estates Senior Living Apartment Homes in Garland.
Power at Pickney’s home went out at 3 a.m. Monday and didn’t return until 11:39 a.m.
“I had three layers of clothes on me,” Pickney said. “I warmed up a little when I charged my phone in my car, but it was very cold.”
Shortly after 8 a.m., the temperature was 4 degrees at the Dallas/Fort Worth Airport, breaking the previous record low for Feb. 15 of 15 degrees set in 1909, according to the National Weather Service in Fort Worth.
Another record low will probably be broken on Tuesday morning. The record for the day is 12 degrees established in 1903, and the NWS is calling for a low of 3 on Tuesday morning.
Snow and sleet covered North Texas Monday morning after a winter blast hit the area over the weekend.
MedStar responded to 431 calls on Sunday, 21 involving crashes. Two children suffered minor injuries Sunday afternoon when they were hit by a car as they were riding a sled near the TCU area in Fort Worth, according to MedStar reports.
In addition, MedStar responded to 22 hypothermia cases in the area.
On Monday as of 1:30 p.m., MedStar had responded to 269 calls, 26% higher volume than the same timeframe last Monday. Of those 57 calls were related to power outages and people cold or running out of oxygen. and 25 were hypothermia calls with nine patients transported to area hospitals.
Officials with local homeless groups estimated more than 100 homeless people had gone to Tarrant County cold weather shelters and area churches over the weekend.
Local church officials had placed about 70 homeless people in motels.
Tarrant County homeless shelters also would be open all day.
“The cold weather shelters will be active all week because of the weather,” said Lauren King, executive director of the Tarrant County Homeless Coalition, in a Monday telephone interview with the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.
King noted some homeless people continued camping outside, and they have declined to seek shelter indoors.
A hard freeze and wind child warnings will be in effect until noon Tuesday for most of North Texas, according to the National Weather Service in Fort Worth.
Warming centers opened Monday in Tarrant and Dallas counties to help residents with no power. Some of them included:
At noon Monday, Worth Heights Community Center, 3551 New York Ave. in Fort Worth, opened for residents seeking warm temperatures, and plans are for the center to be open at least two days. Residents will be tested for COVID-19
A Fort Worth official said a second location might be opened soon.
Grapevine and Colleyville also have opened warming centers. Residents can go to The Rec Center of Grapevine, 1175 Municipal Way, in Grapevine.
In Colleyville, City Hall, 1000 Main St., is the temporary warming center. At 4 p.m. Monday, the Colleyville Library, 1000 Main St., will open as the city’s warming center, and residents will be allowed to stay overnight. For more information on the Colleyville center, call 817-503-1111 or 817-312-2030.
Arlington has partnered with hotels to provide special rates for residents without power.
Dallas officials asked residents without power to call 2-1-1 or 877-541-7905 for warming center locations.
In North Richland Hills, residents should call the warming station hotline at 817-427-6001. A warming station at Mansfield can be reached at 817-728-3609.
The high Monday was about 15 with wind chill values as low as 16 below.
More snow and sleet will arrive late Tuesday into Wednesday in North Texas.
Maintenance crews for the Texas Department of Transportation will continue to treat the highways in North Texas for record low temperatures and significant precipitation in the form of snow and ice.
TxDOT officials offered these safety tips:
▪ Give yourself additional time to reach your destination.
▪ Be considerate and share the road with others.
▪ Wear your seatbelt at all times.
▪ Drive with your headlights on day and night to increase visibility.
▪ Drive to conditions, reduce speed and increase travel travel distance between your vehicle and others on the road.
“The D-FW area will be probably have some light icing from the storm,” said David Bonnette, a meteorologist with the NWS in Fort Worth, on Monday. “And there’s a chance of three to six inches of snow.”
This story was originally published February 15, 2021 at 5:54 AM.
