70,000 electric customers in Texas are without power once again after a winter storm hit the Lone Star state, despite Republican Governor Greg Abbott‘s promise after last year’s massive outage that reportedly killed about 700 people, that the lights would stay on this winter.
Certified Broadcast Meteorologist for Fox San Antonio and NBC San Antonio, Brad Sowder posted a photo of some of the damage from the storm:
Austin, Texas NPR affiliate KUT on Tuesday reported how Abbott was preemptively breaking his promise: “Gov. Abbott promised last fall that ‘the lights will stay on.’ Now he says there’s no guarantee.”
“I can guarantee the lights will stay on,” he said in an interview with Fox 7’s Rudy Koski in November.
Apparently not, Texans are learning today.
“It’s a little traumatic. It’s like last year. Déjà vu all over again,” Angelica Carlin told the Corpus Christi Caller-Times as she “stood in line at an Austin H-E-B on Wednesday night with bags of dog food and water bottles in her cart.”
Carlin lost power for three days during last year’s massive power outage. “She remembers lying in bed crying and seeing steam from her breath — inside her home.”
Many Texans believe state lawmakers did not require all the necessary infrastructure improvements to guard against a repeat of the widespread blackouts, when millions went without power and at least 246 people died.
Also on Tuesday, Abbott was bragging that “Energy is the centerpiece of the Texas economy.”
This was Abbott on Wednesday:
The Dallas Morning News reports “All indications are that the Texas power grid is meeting demand so far as Gov. Greg Abbott and state officials managing Texas’s emergency response to the winter storm are updating residents on the impact from the ongoing winter storm Thursday.”
There is “plenty of power available,” Abbott said in a briefing.
This was the response from one Texan: