Texas Governor Greg Abbott Thursday provided an update on the state's response to winter weather and power outages.
Abbott announced that power has been restored to nearly 2 million homes across Texas since his Wednesday's briefing.
Despite the positive advancements in power generation, there continue to be approximately 325-thousand Texans still in the dark and cold.
Abbott said these are not the result of issues with the State's power grid. "Those without power are being impacted either by power lines that are down, or the need to manually reconnect the premise to power."
After speaking with Energy providers earlier in the day Abbott said they told him every available repair truck in Texas has been dispatched to address the causes of the continued outages.
With 7-million Texans facing boil water notifications, Abbott also reached out to water providers to develop strategies to restore water and expedite additional clean water in communities across the state. "We need to ensure that we use every tool possible to get water restored to our fellow Texans," said Abbott. "We are in the process, as we speak, of evaluating waivers as well as executive orders that can be used speed up that process."
The third task Governor Abbott said he was working on has to do with assisting vast number Texans who have had pipes burst due to the deep freeze.
Abbott's requesting a Major Disaster Declaration from President Biden. This declaration will allow eligible Texans to apply for assistance to help address broken pipes and related property damage. The Governor previously requested a Federal Emergency Declaration from the White House which was granted on Sunday.
In an effort to ensure that widespread power outages like Texas has experienced this week never happen again, Abbott issued several executive orders. Earlier in the week he issued one calling for the State Legislature to investigate and reform the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). This is the Legislature-established entity charged with maintaining the State's power grid. "We need to find out if the leaders of ERCOT sent the correct information to the generators of power in the State, so that all generators of power in this state were up and running to provide the power that was needed to feed into the grid so they wouldn't get compromised," said Abbott.
As part of his update, Abbott declared a new emergency item for this legislative session. The Governor is asking the Legislature to mandate the winterization of Texas' power system and for the Legislature to ensure the necessary funding for winterization.
The state is also working to distribute food, water, generators, and additional supplies to Texas communities. Additionally, more warming centers continue to be established every day. For winter weather resources, including a map of warming centers and ways to help Texans in need, visit: https://open.texas.gov/winter
"The past several days have been beyond challenging, but with every passing hour we are restoring power and water for families across Texas," said Governor Abbott. "We are doing all we can to make it through this challenge, and the state continues to deploy resources and personnel throughout the state."
