L.Last week, Malori Elsner’s family suffered power cuts at their poorly insulated rental home near Houston, Texas, burning cardboard in the fireplace to keep warm during a deadly Arctic explosion.
But even as they went through the cold, their electricity bills shot up – the Texas deregulated power grid was in disarray and Elsner sat there helpless, ‘knowing I’m sucking money but I have no choice because it’s eight degrees outside. ‘
Then a pipe burst in their attic. As the water poured into the garage, kitchen, and dining room, they ran around frantically trying to figure out what to do – until Elsner touched a light switch and electricity ran down her arm.
“At that point I sprinted into the backyard and turned the crusher over,” she said. Their home was no longer structurally secure, and as they packed to stay with a family member, their ceiling began to collapse.
After devastating winter weather left Texans trembling in the dark last week, warmer temperatures and open shop windows have restored a semblance of normalcy. But the storm’s remnants could haunt parts of the state for months – or even years – after disasters exacerbated each other in a true humanitarian crisis. Its impact on finances, health and homes and the politics and economy of the state will not just fade away as the warm sunshine has returned and the media has shifted into the spotlight.
The storm, simply put, shocked the state. First it came bitterly cold, then slippery roads and sidewalks caused by ice. And once large areas of Texas lost power, water, or both, what was originally a natural disaster turned into a technology outage that lasted the better part of a week.
“They tell people to boil water,” said Robert Emery, vice president of safety and a professor at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston. “But many people have no power. So what are you doing now? “
The failed emergency management of the state will have far-reaching consequences, from an inordinate impact on already underprivileged communities – often colored communities – to a potential increase in the cost of living. Bitter lawsuits can tear communities apart, and taxpayers will likely have to save the same fossil fuel companies responsible for the power grid outage.
“I suspect it will be very caustic and troubling,” said James Elliott, a sociology professor at Rice University. “People will not soon regain confidence in their institutions.
“In the long run, maybe that’s good. I hope people stay angry. I am angry.”
A deadly storm covered in a pandemic
“Being cold is one thing,” but “being cold in the dark” is “even more miserable,” Emery said.
Because millions of Texans were without electricity or drinking water, sometimes for days, they used dangerous solutions such as gas stoves, cars and generators for heat. Hundreds of carbon monoxide poisoning. Others died of suspected hypothermia. Still others died in residential fires after lighting their fireplaces.
Drivers exploded and crashed amid icy roads and faulty streetlights, while cold weather shelters packed with displaced people, despite Covid-19.
“People were already stressed and faced with a variety of challenges with the pandemic, and getting this on top was really quite a challenge for all Texas residents,” Emery said.
Now residents affected by the state’s lack of plumbers, electricians and other skilled workers are trying to fix their homes on their own, threatening “an inevitable series of injuries,” Emery said. And as the weather gets more favorable to fungal growth, hidden damage from water leaks poses yet another threat to public health.
There are also potential mental health consequences. Families were already mourning more than 42,000 Texans killed by Covid-19, and the winter storm brought more suffering, trauma, and death.
“Resilience is one thing,” said Elliott. “Resilience when things just happen over and over, you can just leave without the ability to be a little hopeful.”
A blow to the Texas economy
Part of what makes Texas so appealing to residents and chief executives alike is its relative affordability compared to other trendy states like New York and California.
But this month’s winter storm wasn’t an anomaly: Extreme weather events are expected to become even more common as climate change accelerates, and Texas remains incredibly vulnerable. After last week’s disaster, power plants, homes and businesses have little choice but to “winterize”.
Those upgrades will come with a hefty price tag that will likely be passed on to consumers, driving up electricity rates, construction costs and insurance premiums, said Pia Orrenius, vice president and senior economist at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
“It reduces that cost advantage that we’ve been taking for a long time,” said Orrenius.
The inability of officials to cope with the crisis could also impact economic growth and job creation in Texas, even as it is on the verge of becoming the next Silicon Valley. Major technology companies such as Oracle and Hewlett Packard Enterprise have moved to Texas amid the coronavirus pandemic, boosted in part by lower costs and favorable tax rates.
But after witnessing a total collapse of state infrastructure, businesses that need reliable sources of power and water to fuel their operations may reconsider taking the plunge unless those concerns are somehow met. taken away, warned Lloyd Potter, the Texas state demographer and a professor at the University of Texas at San Antonio.
That subsequent loss of well-paid, highly skilled jobs would be a blow to Texans across the board, Potter said, but especially to those lower on the socioeconomic spectrum.
“In terms of magnitude and severity, [this] was, you know, more than anything we’ve experienced historically, ”he said. “The consequences of not tackling it would be potentially beautiful, quite strong.”
A disproportionate toll
“It doesn’t take a rocket scientist,” said Elliott. Those who have the least resources to get out of this will suffer the most. And that suffering is aggravated the most. “
When the power grid went down last week, residents in underprivileged and disadvantaged communities faced poor insulation, food shortages and a lack of shared circuits of critical infrastructure that would have left their lights on.
Now that the state begins repairs, the same inequalities are likely to affect who gets much-needed funding – and who gets left behind.
“How we recover from these natural hazards in the long run is the real disaster,” said Elliott. “There is the event, but the disaster actually comes as it plays out.”
While researchers are trying to push for more fairness in disaster relief, help in the past has gone to “who has lost the most, not who needs the most,” said Elliott – restoring property, not the community.
That often exacerbates pre-existing inequalities in wealth, and “the more damage there is in a place over time, the more unequal wealth becomes,” explained Elliott.
Even the acute hardships of the storm – burst pipes, hotel bills, etc. – will be hardest for Texans least able to deal with it, as “unexpected out-of-pocket expenses are much harder for people … from paycheck to paycheck”, Potter said.
The storm will also exacerbate problems for families who have already lost income as a result of the recession caused by Covid-19, who are now carrying home repairs and high electricity bills despite their depleted bank accounts.
“This came at a very unfortunate time, when many people were already struggling,” said Orrenius.
Earlier this week, Elsner’s belongings were still kneading in her kitchen, waiting for her landlord to clean it up so she could take inventory for an insurance claim.
Her family had tried to find a new place to live, but houses quickly disappeared from the market.
“The past year has just been really tough here,” she said, “with these extraordinary disasters happening all the time and being put out all the time.
“The city, the state – nobody does anything.”