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The New Yorker
Dispatch

Texans in the Midst of Another Avoidable Catastrophe

By Bryan Washington

February 18, 2021

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An empty highway covered in snow.The state's independent power grid
was couched as a badge of individualism. Then a once-in-a-generation
storm hit--and, sure enough, the onus fell on the individual.
Photograph by Reginald Mathalone / NurPhoto / Shutterstock

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Out in Houston on Sunday morning, at the precipice of a statewide
freeze in Texas and blackouts throughout the city, I passed two
different women, each handling several cartfuls of groceries, who,
speaking into their phones, noted that they "may have gone
overboard." I'd popped into Lee's Sandwiches for a few gallons of
coffee, and then into H Mart for other odds and ends. As the morning
progressed, the traffic across Bellaire Boulevard worsened from a
slight crawl to an impasse. Folks were stocking up in a way that's
become commonplace over the past year in the city, although the
debacle to come had few precedents.

The storm that hit the state on Sunday left more than four million
Texas residents without electricity, and many without water. The city
of Galveston lost much of its power on Monday morning, and as of
Wednesday afternoon it had yet to be restored. The city of Abilene
lost both power and water and was given no sense of when either would
return. On Tuesday evening, Houston's Clear Lake area was issued a
boil-water notice. Photos of cul-de-sacs blanketed in snow
proliferated on social feeds, with residents "skiing" on highways and
folks sledding down hills of snow in baskets--somewhat pleasant at the
beginning of the week, until the power stayed out. Now parts of
Dallas are so cold that water bottles are freezing next to people's
bedsides and appliances are heavy with icicles. These are some of the
lowest temperatures that the state has seen in nearly thirty years.

Bryan Washington is the author of "Lot" and "Memorial."
More:TexasHoustonStormsWeatherClimate Change

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