In the past two weeks, Texas was hit with the biggest winter storms ever faced in the state, leaving millions of people without power. Fear and apprehension spread around the state as to what will happen in the future, as many do not have access to clean water due to the frozen pipelines. 

Sophomore Becca Sclove, who has relatives residing in Texas, explains that the snowstorms were “completely unexpected,” thus people were “not prepared” and were left not knowing what to do. Given the warm Texan climate, a snowstorm came out of the blue, leaving people lost in direction. Furthermore, the mapping of the power outages is irregular: Sclove says that “many of them [her relatives] have experienced outages, but some of them [her relatives] haven’t really had too many problems.” 

While the power outages are disorderly, many complain that the government is taking insufficient measures to address the issue that has already killed 58 people, according to NPR. In the midst of the ongoing crisis, Senator Ted Cruz reportedly fled to Cancun for an alleged “family vacation,” as millions in his home state struggled, in desperate need of help. As government officials fail to provide direction for residents, Texans are left with “enormous energy bills,” according to Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, who goes forth to demand that the State of Texas pay for these bills. Along with large bills, hundreds have suffered from carbon monoxide poisoning, and thousands have been affected by food shortages and damaged infrastructure, making it extremely difficult to carry out necessary actions to support families.

In the absence of help from the state government, millions of Texans are still confused and apprehensive. We are hoping that the Texas power outages are resolved in the coming weeks and that the state has a speedy recovery back to normalcy.