Desperate Texans have been thrown into survival mode as the state is now running out of food and water with seven million people under boil water orders – despite many still having no power – and hungry residents forced to line up for four hours to get their hands on a hot meal.
Thursday marked the fifth day in a row that thousands of homes have been left without power in the midst of record-smashing, freezing temperatures that rolled in with Winter Storm Uri at the weekend.
More than 488,000 still have no power, down from around 3 million Wednesday, after Governor Gregg Abbott ordered the state’s natural gas producers to sell fuel to in-state power generators and demanded answers from the state’s electricity supplier over the catastrophic failure that has contributed to the at least 10 storm-related deaths in Texas.
The lack of power and extreme weather has kickstarted a growing crisis in the food supply chain with power outages at grocery stores spoiling fresh produce, shelves depleted as panicked shoppers stockpile goods and no sign of deliveries arriving along the icy roads to replenish stocks.
People wait in near freezing temperatures to fill water bottles and coolers with water from a public park spigot in Houston
Hungry residents were forced to line up for four hours to get their hands on a hot meal at Burger King in Houston
Leovardo Perez (right) fills a water jug using a hose from a public park water spigot Thursday in Houston
Father John Szatkowski of St. Paul The Apostle Church sweeps water from a broken water line out of his church in Richardson
Empty shelves are seen at a supermarket in Austin as the storm has wreaked havoc on the state’s food supply chain
Vehicles drive down East 7th Street as power outages continue to darken most of East Austin Wednesday night
In Houston, hungry residents running out of supplies and having to toss spoiled food after days of no power in their homes lined up for four hours at a local Burger King to get a hot meal for the first time that day – before that too ran out of food.
Water supply is even more concerning with seven million Texans across Arlington, Austin, Houston and San Antonio issued with boil water orders while around 263,000 people have been impacted by non-functioning water providers.
Among those urged to boil water are thousands without the power to do so in Harris County, leaving them with a desperate choice between going without water or facing possible illness.
Meanwhile, in scenes reminiscent of a third world country, Houston residents resorted to filling up buckets of water from a spigot in a local neighborhood.
In Galveston, Mayor Craig Brown said burst pipes had depleted the areas water supply leaving hospitals with a ‘dangerously low’ supply Wednesday as he described the devastation the storm is wreaking as ‘worse than a hurricane.’
Meanwhile, Texas Republican Senator Ted Cruz has sparked outrage as he was pictured fleeing with his family to Mexico while his constituents reach breaking point in the state crisis.
A water bucket is filled as others wait in near freezing temperatures to use a hose from public park spigot in Houston where residents are under a boil water order
People form a line towards the cashier at a supermarket in Austin, Texas, as shelves lie empty and there are no signs of deliveries to restock them
People pictured in a Fiesta supermarket in Houston on Tuesday stocking up amid the crisis that has devastated the state
A broken water line caused flooding in the St. Paul The Apostle Church in Richardson while drinking water is in short supply
Multiple health agencies across the state issued warnings urging Texans to boil tap water to ensure it is safe to drinking.
About 590 public water systems across 141 counties had warned of disruption to the supply of water impacting around 12 million residents already reeling from the storm.
In Harris County, which covers Houston, its 4.7 million residents were under a boil water order.
However Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo told MSNBC that most residents under the notice ‘don’t have power to boil the water.’
Meanwhile in the capital of Austin a power failure at the city’s largest water-treatment facility plunged the 950,000 residents under a similar order.
The situation is so dire in Kyle, the city of 48,000 people just south of Austin, that residents were told to suspend all water use unless essential to sustaining life.
‘Water should only be used to sustain life at this point,’ officials said Wednesday. ‘We are close to running out of water supply in Kyle.’
Galveston Mayor Brown told Good Morning America Thursday the ‘human suffering’ caused by the storm and the subsequent food and water crises is ‘very concerning.’
‘The human suffering that is occurring through this is very very concerning,’ he said.
Texas is also running out of food, with a long line of about 50 cars seen snaking around a Burger King in Houston Monday as people were desperate to get a hot meal
But even the fast food joint ran out of food and was forced to turn desperate residents away at around 10 pm
One customer told ABC13 they hadn’t ‘ate a meal all day so we’re trying to get a hot meal and eat it at home’
Brown said the water supply needs to be turned off to all homes as pipes are bursting and this is ‘draining the system.’
‘We had burst water pipes all through the island here – it depleted our complete water source,’ he said.
Brown said water should be restored Thursday but a lot of residents were still without power after 90 percent of the area’s population was cut off for two straight days.
The water shortage threatened the local hospital Wednesday leaving its supply ‘dangerously low’ Wednesday.
The hospital is now back up and running with tanks filled but the nightmare over the food and water supply is far from over for residents.
Galveston is used to dealing with hurricanes but Brown said the crisis triggered by the storm is ‘worse.’
‘This is worse than a hurricane. In a hurricane you can go to the mainland and get away from this,’ he said.
‘In this particular situation, no matter where you go in Texas you still have a concern that is similar to what we have here.’
The entire state is buckling under ‘some sort of paralysis’, he added.
Texas is also running out of food with fresh produce spoiled by power outages in homes and stores, the supply chain thrown into turmoil and deliveries delayed due to treacherous conditions on the roads.
Access to food could be in dire straits for several weeks to come as the supply chain has been disrupted all along the chain from farm to production plant to store.
Supermarkets were forced to close when they lost power and an unfathomable quantity of fresh food was ruined.
Stores that managed to keep their lights on now sit almost empty of food, with no sign of when shipments will arrive.
The state’s agricultural industry has been hammered with farmers branding the situation the ‘Valentine’s Day produce massacre’ as fruit and vegetable crops in the Rio Grande Valley froze over, reported The Produce News.
Celia Cole, CEO of hunger-relief organization Feeding Texas, told the Texas Tribune eight food banks have asked the state for assistance in feeding communities.
A car completely encased in ice as this week’s winter storms continued to slam the Lone Star State
Meanwhile, school districts have been forced to stop sending meals to children across parts of the state due to a lack of supply.
The dairy industry has been especially hard hit with farmers forced to toss a staggering $8 million worth of milk each day because they can’t get it to dairies, said Texas Department of Agriculture Commissioner Sid Miller.
If farmer can’t get their livelihoods back up and running soon it could have long-term implications on the sector, warned Miller and Cole.
‘They’ve been very, very badly hit – the agricultural sector, generally —by the pandemic, so they’re already struggling,’ they told the Tribune.
‘And so I think although the impact if the power gets restored quickly might not be huge in absolute terms, it’s hitting a sector that’s already reeling from the pandemic.’
Desperate residents running out of ambient supplies and in desperate need of a hot meal amid the freezing temperatures are resorting to lining up for hours on end at fast-food joints.
A long line of about 50 cars seen snaking around a Burger King in Houston Monday.
But even the fast food joint ran out of food and was forced to turn desperate residents away at around 10 pm.
One customer told ABC13 they hadn’t ‘ate a meal all day so we’re trying to get a hot meal and eat it at home.’
It was a similar story at a Chick-fil-A store near the Otis Hotel in Austin where hungry residents lined up to as their homes continue to be out of power and water.
In Galveston, Mayor Craig Brown said burst pipes had depleted the areas water supply as he described the devastation the storm is wreaking as ‘worse than a hurricane’
In Houston, local businessman – known as Mattress Mack – said around 500 Texans sheltered in his store last night and they are trying to get food from wherever they can to feed hungry residents
Local businessman Jim McIngvale – known as Mattress Mack – said he was trying to get food from wherever he can to feed hungry residents as around 500 Texans sheltered in his store last night.
McIngvale, who opened his doors back in 2017 when Hurricane Harvey struck the city, first said residents were ’emotionally distraught’
‘People were freezing in their homes. They had no heating and electricity and compounding the problem they had no water,’ he said.
‘Their lives have been totally disrupted by this terrible power outage and water shortage. So it’s a terrible situation.’
Around a thousand people went to his store for shelter on both Tuesday and Wednesday, with 300 staying the night.
McIngvale said the store is a ‘cavernous store’ of 100,000 square feet so people are able to maintain social distancing amid the pandemic.