HOUSTON (AP) – Hospitals in the south faced water shortages on Sunday as a result of a devastating winter storm as the region continued recovery efforts and the weather offered a balmy calm – temperatures as high as the mid-1960s.
At the height of last week’s storm, hospitals rushed to care for patients amid record cold temperatures, snow and ice, making parts of the country more accustomed to getting through the winter with light coats and short sleeves. The icy explosion destroyed water pipes, cut power to millions of utility companies and contributed to at least 76 deaths, half of them in Texas. At least seven people died in Tennessee and four in Portland, Oregon.
A rural hospital in Anahuac, Texas, about 50 miles east of Houston, lost both water and power.
William Kiefer, CEO of Chambers Health, which runs the hospital, along with two clinics and a wellness center, said the facilities resorted to backup generators and water from a 275-gallon storage tank. They refilled it three times with water from a pool in the wellness center.
When the temperature reached her teens last Monday, a woman about to give birth walked into the hospital after being unable to get through the ice and snow to her hospital in suburban Houston. Emergency room staff delivered the baby safely, Kiefer said.
“It would have taken her another two hours to get to (the hospital in the Houston suburbs) if our facility wasn’t there,” he said. We can probably assume she had the baby in her car and in the snow. Not a good situation. “
Water was restored on Thursday and operations were back to normal on Sunday, he said. The health system plans to look into installing more sophisticated backup systems, he said.
Houston Methodist Hospital spokeswoman Gale Smith said water had been restored at two community hospitals in the system, which faced an influx of dialysis patients after their local centers closed, she added.
After temperatures dropped as much as 40 degrees below normal last week, the forecast for the Houston area called for a maximum temperature of 65 degrees (18 degrees Celsius) on Sunday. The city lifted its advice on boiling water on Sunday afternoon.
About 30,000 Texans were still without power due to downed power lines and other equipment failures. Gov. Greg Abbott said at a press conference that he expected all services to be restored Sunday evening or Monday.
Abbott also said he was concerned about the threat of huge electricity bills after wholesale energy prices skyrocketed while power plants were offline. He said this would be the “top priority” for the legislature, and he pledged not to end the legislative session until lawmakers ensure that the state’s power grid is retrofitted to cope with extreme winter and summer weather. .
According to PowerOutage.us, a website that tracks power outages, nearly 230,000 customers in the South were still without power as of Sunday. Other major blackouts were in Mississippi, West Virginia, Kentucky, and Oregon.
Memphis, Tennessee, saw 25 inches of snow last week. Memphis, Light, Gas & Water released a boiling water advisory on Thursday out of concern that low water pressure could lead to contamination due to problems at outdated pumping stations and water pipe ruptures. The advice was still in effect on Sunday; Utility company officials said they didn’t know when they could lift it.
About 260,000 homes and businesses were under the advice. Hospitals and nursing homes have been forced to switch to bottled water. The Tennessee National Guard supplied St. Francis Hospital with water.
The nearby Baptist Memorial Hospital admitted a number of St. Francis patients, especially those who needed dialysis, said Dr. Jeff Wright, a lung and intensive care physician at Baptist. That hospital has a water purification system for dialysis and has water reserves for tasks such as cooking and bathing patients, he said.
“We have gallons of jugs of water already filled and ready to roll on day one,” Wright said.
Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare also reported problems at some of its Memphis-area facilities due to water pressure issues and cooking advice. The system uses tankers to increase water pressure and relies on help from facilities that have not been compromised.
City officials planned to hand out water bottles at various locations on Sunday. Supermarkets struggled to keep shelves stocked with bottled water. Many restaurants remained closed.
In Washington, the White House said about a third of the storm-delayed COVID-19 vaccine doses were administered over the weekend.
The weather lagged about 6 million doses as power outages closed some vaccination centers and icy weather left vaccine stranded in shipping hubs. White House press secretary Jen Psaki told ABC’s “This Week” that about 2 million of those doses have been issued.
President Joe Biden is eager to visit Texas, which was particularly badly hit by the weather, Psaki said. Biden hopes to travel to the state this week, but “doesn’t want to take resources away” from the response, she said. Biden declared a great disaster in Texas on Saturday.
He is very aware that it is not a light footprint for a president to travel to a disaster area.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner told CBS ‘Face the Nation’ that Biden can always come.
“We would certainly welcome him,” said Turner.
Texas Rep. Michael McCaul told CNN’s “State of the Union” that federal disaster relief can be used to repair cracked pipes and flood damage, and help Texans with skyrocketing utility bills.
McCaul also criticized fellow Republican Senator Ted Cruz’s decision to take his family on vacation amid the crisis.
“If a crisis hits my state, I’ll be there,” McCaul said. ‘I’m not going on holiday. I know Mr. Cruz called it a mistake, and he admitted it. But I think that was a big mistake. “
Mattise reported from Nashville, Tennessee. Sainz reported from Memphis, Tennessee. Associated Press authors Hope Yen in Austin, Texas, and Zeke Miller in Washington contributed to this report.