Donated water is distributed to residents, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, in Houston. Houston and several surrounding cities are under a boil water notice as many residents are still without running water in their homes. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip) A woman living on the streets uses blankets to keep warm, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, in downtown San Antonio. Snow, ice and sub-freezing weather continue to wreak havoc on the state's power grid and utilities. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) Children play with a sled as snow begins to accumulate, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, in San Antonio. Snow, ice and sub-freezing weather continue to wreak havoc on the state's power grid and utilities. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) A water bucket is filled as others wait in near freezing temperatures to use a hose from public park spigot Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, in Houston. Houston and several surrounding cities are under a boil water notice as many residents are still without running water in their homes. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip) A Park Policeman patrols along the River Walk as snow falls, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, in San Antonio. Snow, ice and sub-freezing weather continue to wreak havoc on the state's power grid and utilities. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) Michael Reynolds with the West Virginia Department of Highways works to clear tree limbs from utility lines along McCullough Road after an overnight snow piled on already ice-damaged areas on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, in Huntington, W.Va. (Sholten Singer/The Herald-Dispatch via AP) Allan Woodson rests in a warming shelter at St. Martin's Lutheran Church on West 15th Street in downtown Austin, Texas, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021. Church members opened the shelter Sunday and have been sheltering and feeding more than 20 homeless people during the winter storm. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP) Victor Hernandez, left, and Luis Martinez fill their water containers with a hose from a spigot in Haden Park, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021 in Houston. Texas officials have ordered 7 million people to boil tap water before drinking it following days of record low temperatures that damaged infrastructure and froze pipes. (Brett Coomer/Houston Chronicle via AP) Snow begins to accumulate as San Antonio police officers gather near the Alamo, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, in downtown San Antonio. Snow, ice and sub-freezing weather continue to wreak havoc on the state's power grid and utilities. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) Tom Keller walks across the gymnasium floor in a warming shelter at St. Martin's Lutheran Church on West 15th Street in downtown Austin, Texas, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021. Church members opened the shelter Sunday and have been sheltering and feeding more than 20 homeless people during the winter storm. (Jay Janner/Austin American-Statesman via AP) A volunteer loads donated water into the trunk of a car at a distribution site, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, in Houston. Houston and several surrounding cities are under a boil water notice as many residents are still without running water in their homes. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip) Dave Robison of Bolton, left, and his grandson Dillion Robison, 15, make sure a newly purchased generator sits properly in their vehicle as they prepare to refill a propane tank, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, in Madison, Miss. Sub-freezing temperatures, burst water pipes and lines and an accumulation of slow melting ice and snow have taxed many community utility companies' services, resulting in power failures statewide. (AP Photo/Rogelio V. Solis) A man is loaded onto a bus for a trip to a hotel on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021 in Charlotte, N.C. Residents of the homeless encampment "Tent City" are being required to vacate the area within 72 hours after health risks from rodent infestation was found in the area. (Jeff Siner/The Charlotte Observer via AP) Donated water is unloaded at a distribution site, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, in Houston. Houston and several surrounding cities are under a boil water notice as many residents are still without running water in their homes. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip) A man makes his way down a snowy street before it was cleared after after several inches of snow, sleet and freezing rain fell, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, in New York. (AP Photo/Kathy Willens) A couple walk through falling snow, Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, in downtown San Antonio. Snow, ice and sub-freezing weather continue to wreak havoc on the state's power grid and utilities. (AP Photo/Eric Gay) Burger's Lake put a hose on their natural spring and are suppling people with clean water Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021, in Fort Worth, Texas. The spring flows to the Trinity River in the winter and it was diverted to help people during the storm. (Yffy Yossifor/Star-Telegram via AP) West Virginia National Guardsmen and members of the Kanawha County Emergency Ambulance Authority use side-by-side vehicles to check on residents in hard to reach areas during a Health and Wellness check mission in rural Wayne County on Thursday, Feb. 18, 2021. (Sholten Singer/The Herald-Dispatch via AP) Sand is shown in The Woodlands, Texas, Friday, Feb. 12, 2021. Montgomery County Precinct 3's office will have several sand trucks adding traction for potentially icy roadways early next week. (Jason Fochtman/Houston Chronicle via AP)
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Many of the millions of Texans who lost power for days after a deadly winter blast overwhelmed the electric grid now have it back, but the crisis was far from over in parts of the South, with many people lacking safe drinking water.
More than 190,000 homes and businesses remained without power in Texas according to poweroutage.us Friday morning, down from about 3 million two days earlier, though utility officials said limited rolling blackouts were still possible.
The storms also left more than 330,000 from Virginia to Louisiana without power and about 71,000 in Oregon were still enduring a weeklong outage following a massive ice and snow storm.
The snow and ice moved into the Appalachians, northern Maryland and southern Pennsylvania, and later the Northeast as the extreme weather was blamed for the deaths of at least 58 people, including a Tennessee farmer trying to save two calves that apparently wandered into a frozen pond and 17-year-old Oklahoma girl who fell into a frozen pond.
A growing number of people have perished trying to keep warm. In and around the western Texas city of Abilene, authorities said six people died of the cold — including a 60-year-old man found dead in his bed in his frigid home. In the Houston area, a family died from carbon monoxide as their car idled in their garage.
Utilities from Minnesota to Texas used rolling blackouts to ease strained power grids. But the remaining Texas outages were mostly weather-related, according to the state's grid manager, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.
Federal Emergency Management Agency acting administrator Bob Fenton said Friday that teams were in Texas with fuel, water, blankets and other supplies.
“What has me most worried is making sure that people stay warm,” Fenton said on “CBS This Morning," while urging people without heat to go to a shelter or warming center.
Rotating outages for Texas could return if electricity demand rises as people get power and heating back, said Dan Woodfin, the council's senior director of system operations.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott warned that residents “are not out of the woods,” with temperatures still well below freezing statewide, south central Texas threatened by a winter storm and disruptions in food supply chains.
Adding to the misery: The weather jeopardized drinking water systems. Authorities ordered 7 million people — a quarter of the population of the nation’s second-largest state — to boil tap water before drinking it, following the record low temperatures that damaged infrastructure and pipes. In Abilene, a man who died at a health care facility when a lack of water pressure made medical treatment impossible.
Water pressure dropped after lines froze and because many people left faucets dripping to prevent pipes from icing, said Toby Baker, executive director of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. Abbott urged residents to shut off water to prevent more busted pipes and preserve municipal system pressure.
President Joe Biden said he called Abbott on Thursday evening and offered additional support from the federal government to state and local agencies.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said residents will probably have to boil tap water in the fourth-largest U.S. city until Sunday or Monday.
Federal emergency officials sent generators to support water treatment plants, hospitals and nursing homes in Texas, along with thousands of blankets and ready-to-eat meals, officials said. The Texas Restaurant Association was coordinating food donations to hospitals.
Two of Houston Methodist's community hospitals had no running water and still treated patients but canceled most non-emergency surgeries and procedures for Thursday and possibly Friday, said spokeswoman Gale Smith.
As of Thursday afternoon, more than 1,000 Texas public water systems and 177 of the state’s 254 counties had reported weather-related operational disruptions, affecting more than 14 million people, according to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality.
About 260,000 homes and businesses in Tennessee's largest county, which includes Memphis, were told to boil water after cold temperatures led to water main ruptures and problems at pumping stations. Memphis International Airport canceled all incoming and outgoing passenger flights Friday due to water pressure issues.
In Texas, more than 300 flights in and out of Dallas and Houston were canceled Friday, according to flightaware.com. Particularly affected was American Airlines, headquartered in Fort Worth.
In Jackson, Mississippi, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said most of the city of about 161,000 was without water Thursday night. Crews pumped water to refill city tanks but faced a shortage of chemicals to treat the water, she said.
“We are dealing with an extreme challenge with getting more water through our distribution system,” Lumumba said.
About 85 seniors in a Jackson apartment building lost water service Monday and were relying on deliveries from a building manager, said resident Linda Weathersby.
Weathersby went outside collecting buckets of ice to melt it so she could flush her toilet and said “my back's hurting now.”
Before the wintry weather moved from Texas, the city of Del Rio along the U.S.-Mexico border, got nearly 10 inches (25.4 cm) of snow on Thursday, surpassing the city’s one-day record for snowfall.
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Acacia Coronado is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues.
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Associated Press journalists Jake Bleiberg in Dallas, Ken Miller in Oklahoma City and Tammy Webber in Fenton, Michigan, contributed.
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