This Week in Texas

I was watching the ABC evening national news, and David Muir uttered a sentence I never dreamed I would hear: "A humanitarian crisis is currently unfolding in Texas..."

Let that sink in for a minute.

A humanitarian crisis.

There have been plenty of natural disasters in the United States in my lifetime.

Hurricane Katrina

Hurricane Harvey

Earthquakes

Fires

Tornadoes

But I don't know that the news media have ever used the term "humanitarian crisis" to describe a natural disaster in the United States.

Maybe they did, and I just wasn't listening.

Katrina and Harvey each certainly did cause a humanitarian crisis.

But the term always makes me think of a third world country.

Texas became a third world country this week.

At the beginning of the week, the main concern was the homeless population. They were the vulnerable ones. Exposed to the elements that were going to become extreme.

The rest of us had shelter, electricity, heat, water, and food.

We would be okay.

We would stay safe.

And then circumstances changed.

Suddenly tens of thousands of "safe" Texans were in the dark.

No lights.

Many with no heat source.

Some experienced broken pipes.

Then many more lost running water.

In the span of a day or two, "safe" Texans lost perishable food and drinking water. 

Some people resorted to melting and drinking snow, or at least using it to flush their toilets.

Many grocery stores were closed, and those that were open quickly ran out of food and bottled water.

Literally nothing on the shelves.

Austin issued a boil water notice.

That led to this sad meme on social media (paraphrasing): "I'll boil my non-existent water with my imaginary heat source in my house with no power."

Yep

A humanitarian crisis.

In the United States of America.

In the year 2021.

librarianintx

An Unbelievable Week

It has been an unprecedented week in Texas.

People who have lived in the state for decades have never seen anything like it. 

Everything that could go wrong has for too many people.

This has been a horrendous week for so many.

Scary

Frustrating

Excruciating

Traumatizing

Usually Texans are excited by snow, because we rarely see it.

Often we only get a dusting at the most.

It comes and goes.

We take pictures and video.

We revel in the small flakes, some of which don't even make it to the ground.

We have had to contend with ice storms.

That is not such a rare occurrence.

Sometimes life grounds to a halt for a day or two, maybe three.

But we have never seen anything like this.

Multiple rounds of snow and ice.

Days of treacherous roads.

Temperatures in the single digits with wind chills below zero.

Truly life threatening conditions.

But there's more.

Millions of people have been without power for days, either because of damage to power lines or the failure of our state's independent electrical grid.

Frozen pipes have busted.

People have lost water for other reasons.

Grocery stores have had to close.

Trucks can't get through to deliver supplies, so the stores that are open have empty shelves.

People are running out of food and water.

Some shelters have been set up, but they are hard to access because of the road conditions.

And we can't forget, COVID is still an issue.

First responders are working overtime dealing with:

Car accidents

Stranded drivers

Falls

House fires

Carbon monoxide poisonings

I did my best to prepare.

The one good aspect of my anxiety is that it makes me prepare.

I ordered two food deliveries.

I filled the bathtub with water for flushing the toilets.

I filled containers for drinking water.

I was particularly successful.

We are okay on food.

But we don't have enough water.

I didn't reserve enough.

I didn't think about how many reasons you need water:

Drinking

Washing hands

Brushing teeth

Washing dishes

We have lost water and heat

We are exceedingly fortunate to still have power.

It's scary.

Really nerve-wracking.

It's not like we can just drive to the store to get water.

And we can't go to a shelter because of the roads, and because of COVID.

We will be okay.

We will get through it.

I am learning to be resourceful.

I am learning to handle scary situations.

I still want to get excited by snow.

I don't want this experience to change that.

librarianintx