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.

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