This last weekend my family and I went to Texas so that my younger sister could tour colleges in the Austin- San Antonio area. We had only planned on staying for the weekend, but that all changed when the severe winter storm swept through Texas taking everyone by surprise.
The severe storm brought cold weather and snow across the county, which is extremely atypical for those in the Lone Star State. Since this type of cold weather is rare, Texas and its citizens were unprepared and blind-sided. The weather has disrupted all aspects of life here in Texas such as work, school, restaurants, and even grocery stores being shut down. People were unable to drive as the roads had become icy and they were unfamiliar navigating in the snow. An electricity supply crisis began as millions of people lost power and heat in their homes. Pipes in homes even started to freeze and burst leaving just as many people without running water as well. Those in Texas were stuck inside with no power, no heat, and no water for multiple days, and as of now many still are.
The Airbnb my family was staying in lost power Sunday night. From then until when we left Wednesday morning we would lose power on and off again. Sometimes the power would come back within the hour, but other times it would not come back for over six hours. Every time it did go out, we would all rush to charge our phones and laptops- not knowing how long it would last.
My siblings and I still had school and my parents still had to work; luckily, navigating online is what quarantine had trained us for and we were all able to switch to a digital work environment with ease. Since the power and service was so spotty inside the house, I even ended up sitting in the car so that I could have a better connection for my Zoom lectures.
We were lucky enough not to lose running water; however, since we were staying at an Airbnb and had only planned on staying for two days we had not stocked the fridge. So, one major issue we did face was a food and drinking water shortage. On Sunday morning, before the stores had closed, we made our way to a Dollar General that was only a few miles away and bought some snacks and stuff for sandwiches, little did we know the next day the roads would be full of snow and the majority of stores would be closed. By Tuesday our food supplies had diminished so my dad had to drive to the one store he could find that was still open, was not turning people away, and still had products to sell: a donut shop. My dad bought three dozen chocolate and glazed donuts to tie the eight of us over.
Fortunately, after multiple cancelations and over six hours on hold we were finally able to get flights back to Arizona. We had to drive ten hours away to a different part of Texas that was not as impacted by the cold weather, but we had a flight. I have never been so happy to be back in Arizona and away from the chaos that was Texas. But there are still millions of people being negatively impacted by the storm and the poor reactions of officials when it hit. There are people still waiting swept away from the chaos.