Houston's 'Mattress Mack' opens his store so freezing residents with no power can take refuge in the storm: Texans rage as power grid CEO refuses to apologize for deadly outage
A Texas furniture store owner has opened his business as a shelter for those left without power in the state after nearly five million people were left freezing in the darkness as a result of the harsh winter storm there.
The death toll on Tuesday rose to 15 across multiple states. Historic snowfall and single-digit temperatures created a surge of demand for electricity to warm up homes across Texas unaccustomed to such extreme lows.
That buckled the state's power grid and caused the widespread blackouts. Some in Houston area could be without power several more days, officials there said Tuesday evening.
Jim 'Mattress Mack' McIngvale told ABC 13 of the decision to open his store as a shelter: 'The cold is bitter, so we're opening up the doors to Houstonians. Whether they want to stay for two hours until their power gets back on, or they want to stay for two days, we're here for the community.'
Those without electricity for two straight days are now demanding answers as to why the energy rich state has been left paralyzed and unable to produce enough power to face a winter storm.
The electrical grid CEO on Tuesday refused to take the blame for the ongoing crisis. Bill Magness of The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said it is down to 'catastrophic conditions'. He told WFAA that he was unable to say when power would be restored.
But Texas Gov Greg Abbott on Tuesday demanded an investigation into the state's main power grid operator and federal regulators said they are launching an 'inquiry' into the operations of the bulk-power system. Rep. Jeff Leach called it 'ridiculous' that five of the 15 ERCOT board members do not appear to live in Texas.
He tweeted: 'I'm filing legislation this session requiring all @ERCOT_ISO officers and directors to be Texas residents. Completely ridiculous and unacceptable that current ERCOT Board Chair lives in Michigan!'
'I know people are angry and frustrated,' said Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner, who woke up to more than 1 million people still without power in his city. 'So am I.'
Amber Nichols, whose north Austin home has had no power since early Monday, said: 'We're all angry because there is no reason to leave entire neighborhoods freezing to death. This is a complete bungle.'
Ed Hirs, an energy fellow at the University of Houston, rejected that the storm went beyond what ERCOT could have anticipated. 'That's nonsense. It's not acceptable,' Hirs said. 'Every eight to 10 years we have really bad winters. This is not a surprise.'
People select shirts and sweatshirts being given away at a Gallery Furniture store after the owner opened his business as a shelter for those without power at their homes Tuesday
More than 4 million people in Texas still had no power a full day after historic snowfall and single-digit temperatures created a surge of demand for electricity to warm up homes unaccustomed to such extreme lows, buckling the state's power grid and causing widespread blackouts. Those without power in Gallery Furniture on Tuesday
The winter storm has resulted in people sleeping in their cars and furniture stores to keep warm amid unprecedented rolling blackouts that have plunged five million into darkness. Natalie Harrell holds her sleeping daughter, Natasha Tripeaux while sitting in a recliner at a Gallery Furniture store after the owner opened his business as a shelter Tuesday
The deep freeze that has paralyzed Texas by knocking out its power grid and sparking an energy crisis saw 5 million homes plunged into darkness amid unprecedented rolling blackouts. Pictured above is homes in Houston without power but empty offices still lit up
TEXAS: Dan Bryant and his wife Anna huddle by the fire with sons Benny, 3, and Sam, 12 weeks, along with their dog Joey, also wearing two doggie sweaters, with power out and temperatures dropping inside their home after a winter storm brought snow and freezing temperatures to North Texas
Raul Alonzo use the light from a cell phone to arrange products in the meat section of a grocery store in Dallas on Tuesday. Even though the store was without power, they still opened for cash only purchases
Oil production in the country's largest crude-producing state has plunged by more than two million barrels a day due to the storm, which has sent prices surging to $60 a barrel for the first time in a year. Pictured above is Exelon Power Texas in Dallas on Tuesday
The storm has so far resulted in 15 deaths in multiple states. A woman and a girl died from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning in Houston at a home without electricity from a car running in an attached garage.
Three young children and their grandmother died in a Houston-area house fire early Tuesday morning while it's believed they were trying to stay warm during a power outage.
Officials in Galveston County said they were bringing in refrigerated trucks to handle the expected influx of dead bodies as a result of the storm.
Texas officials requested 60 generators from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and planned to prioritize hospitals and nursing homes. The state opened 35 shelters to more than 1,000 occupants, the agency said.
More than 500 people sought comfort at one shelter in Houston. Mayor Sylvester Turner said other warming centers had to be shut down because they lost power.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which oversees the state's main power grid, is still struggling to restore power after failing to keep up with heightened demand.
ERCOT provides electricity to about 90 percent of the state.
Gov Abbott said: 'The Electric Reliability Council of Texas has been anything but reliable over the past 48 hours... Far too many Texans are without power and heat for their homes as our state faces freezing temperatures and severe winter weather. This is unacceptable.'
Stephanie Murdoch, 51, from Dallas, said she was worried about another blast of wintry weather forecast for Tuesday night and the possibility of her home's pipes bursting.
'There's a serious lack of preparation on the part of the energy companies to not be ready,' Murdoch said.
In Houston, Barbara Matthews, 73, said she lasted in her home until Monday night before taking shelter at the nearby Foundry Church.
'It is aggravating how some parts down the street have lights and then we don't,' Matthews said. 'When they said rolling blackouts, I took them at their word.'
The winter storm has resulted in people sleeping in their cars to keep warm.
Images showing empty office buildings in downtown Houston still lit up overnight has sparked outrage given the millions elsewhere without power, while hundreds have been forced to line up outside grocery stores in the freezing cold for supplies.
ERCOT CEO Magness they are 'trying to get people's power back on as quickly as possible' but to do that they 'need to be able to safely manage the balance of supply and demand on the grid'.
He added: 'The number one job of everybody here at ERCOT is to get people's lights back on. We're seeing demand in the winter nearly like we see at the top of the summer, when we're all using our air conditioners.
'We have seen nothing like this honestly in Texas, that has covered the state like the storm has. It increased demand to an extreme, extraordinary height, and then the storm also made it difficult for the supply to be provided.'
The spot price of wholesale electricity on the Texas power grid spiked more than 10,000% on Monday, according to data on the grid operator's website.
Real-time wholesale market prices on the ERCOT power grid were more than $9,000 per megawatt hour late Monday morning, compared with pre-storm prices of less than $50 per megawatt hour.
ERCOT can be more susceptible to wholesale price spikes because it does not have a capacity market, which pays power plants to be on standby during peak demand and weather emergencies, for example. ERCOT's model means consumers are not paying for generation that may never be called into action.
But early on Monday, ERCOT said extreme weather conditions caused many generating units – across all fuel types – to trip offline and become unavailable. That forced more than 30,000 megawatts of power generation off the grid, ERCOT said in a news release.
The cold blast caused by winter storm Uri has wreaked havoc on the energy industry with Texas oil wells and refineries halted and natural gas pipelines and wind turbines frozen.
Experts say the energy crisis essentially boils down to equipment freezing because power plants failed to properly winterize their hardware.
Oil production in the country's largest crude-producing state has plunged by more than two million barrels a day due to the storm, which has sent prices surging to $60 a barrel for the first time in a year.
Wind turbines, which account for a fifth of the state's energy, have frozen solid as temperatures plummet to a bitter -20F.
Texas's grid operator and the Southwest Power Pool, a group of utilities across 14 states, imposed unprecedented rolling blackouts because the supply of reserve energy had been exhausted. Some utilities said they were starting blackouts, while others urged customers to reduce power usage, in a bid to prevent the collapse of their networks.
Surging demand, driven by people trying to keep their homes warm and cold weather knocking some power stations offline, has pushed Texas' system beyond the limits.
Dan Woodfin, a senior director of system operations at ERCOT, has defended preparations made by grid operators and described the demand on the system as record-setting.
'This weather event, it's really unprecedented. We all living here know that,' he said.
'This event was well beyond the design parameters for a typical, or even an extreme, Texas winter that you would normally plan for. And so that is really the result that we're seeing.'
He said limited supplies of natural gas and frozen instruments at power plants are partly to blame for the blackouts.
A map from poweroutage.us showed that nearly 5 million people were without power in Texas, and several hundred thousand in Louisiana and Oregon
Experts have said that as people were turning up their heat, power plants and pipelines were freezing or being taken offline due to the temperatures
Snow scene aerials over Dallas, Tuesday. At least five oil refineries in Texas have shut down operations because of the storm. Natural gas facilities and pipelines in Texas also closed after wellheads started to freeze up or get blocked with ice and compressors lost power
Experts trying to shed light on the crisis say it started to unfold when freezing temperatures that started at the beginning of the month led to record demand for electricity as Texans tried to heat their homes, which sent prices for heating fuels, including oil and natural gas, surging higher.
ERCOT said demand reached a record of 69,150 megawatts on Sunday night, which is more than 3,200 MW higher than the previous winter peak in January 2018.
Experts have said that as people were turning up their heat, power plants and pipelines were freezing or being taken offline due to the temperatures.
At least five oil refineries in Texas have shut down operations because of the storm. Natural gas facilities and pipelines in Texas also closed after wellheads started to freeze up or get blocked with ice and compressors lost power.
Natural gas makes up about half of the state's power generation. But much of what was available was used to enable people to heat their homes instead of generating more electricity.
Joshua Rhodes, of the University of Texas, told Gizmodo: 'We don't have the supply of gas that we normally do and we're consuming gas in record numbers, which is also depressurizing the gas lines.
'Natural gas power plants also require a certain pressure to operate, so if they can't get that pressure, they also have to shut down. Everything that could go wrong is going wrong with the system.'
Rhodes said part of the issue is because the power grid in Texas is mostly prepared for heat waves rather than winter storms.
'We just have this unprecedented strain on both our major energy grids that is just way beyond what they were designed to handle,' he said.
'About half of Texas homes heat their homes with natural gas, about half do it with electricity, and about half our power plants also consume natural gas to make that electricity.'
Neil Chatterjee, a member of the US Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, told Bloomberg the situation was critical.
'I've been following energy markets and grid issues for a while, and I cannot recall an extreme weather event that impacted such a large swath of the nation in this manner - the situation is critical,' he said.
People seeking shelter gather at a make-shift warming shelter at Travis Park Methodist Church, Tuesday
The state opened 35 shelters to more than 1,000 occupants, the agency said. More than 500 people sought comfort at one shelter in Houston. Mayor Sylvester Turner said other warming centers had to be shut down because they lost power
Some utilities said they were starting blackouts, while others urged customers to reduce power usage, in a bid to prevent the collapse of their networks
Nearly five million households in Texas were without power overnight and many residents took desperate refuge in their cars for warmth after the electric grid failed to keep up with heightened demand
Jorge Sanhueza-Lyon stands on his kitchen counter to warm his feet over his gas stove Tuesday in Austin, Texas
People wait in a long line to buy groceries during the extreme cold snap and widespread power outage on Tuesday in Austin
People sit at a dining room table inside a Gallery Furniture store after the owner opened his business as a shelter for those without power
People wait in a long line to buy groceries at H-E-B in Austin, Texas, during an extreme cold snap and widespread power outage on Tuesday
Military vehicles from the Texas Military Department of the Texas National Guard, tasked to transport residents to designated warming centers and other required duties, form a convoy in Abilene, Texas
Pike Electric service trucks line up after a snow storm on Tuesday in Fort Worth, Texas
Reports are now emerging of Texans staying in their cars just to keep warm, including 44-year-old Clint Cash.
He told CBS: 'It was awfully cold and of course getting colder, but honestly I slept in all my clothes, pretty much what I'm wearing right now I slept in. I am taking it minute by minute day by day. I don't plan on driving.'
Deaths in Texas included a woman and a girl who died from suspected carbon monoxide poisoning in Houston at a home without electricity from a car running in an attached garage, police said.
Law enforcement also said subfreezing temperatures were likely to blame for the deaths of two men found along Houston-area roadways.
A half-dozen Houston residents were treated for carbon monoxide poisoning on Monday after using a charcoal grill to warm their home, officials said.
Texas officials have requested 60 generators from the Federal Emergency Management Agency and planned to prioritize hospitals and nursing homes. The state opened 35 shelters to more than 1,000 occupants, the agency said.
More than 500 people sought comfort at one shelter in Houston. Mayor Sylvester Turner said other warming centers had to be shut down because they lost power.
As nightfall threatened to plummet temperatures again into single digits in Texas, officials warned that homes in the state still without power would likely not have heat until at least Tuesday.
'Things will likely get worse before they get better,' said Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, the top elected official in the county of nearly 5 million people around Houston.
Temperatures nosedived into the single-digits as far south as San Antonio, and homes that had already been without electricity for hours had no certainty about when the lights and heat would come back on.
In Dallas, officials told residents to refrain from calling 911 to report power outages as the 911 call center became overwhelmed with power outage calls.
Drone footages captures snowfall in Galveston, Texas amid winter storm Uri
TEXAS: State officials said surging demand, driven by people trying to keep their homes warm, and cold weather knocking some power stations offline had pushed Texas' system beyond the limits
TEXAS: Ice and snow blanket parts of a Grandview Avenue and Charles Walker Road on Monday in Odessa
TEXAS: The Trinity River in Fort Worth is mostly frozen after a snow storm Monday that saw millions lose power
TEXAS: A snow-covered Ann Richards Congress Avenue Bridge leads to downtown after a heavy snow on Monday
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas sought to cut power use in response to a winter record of 69,150 megawatts on Sunday evening, more than 3,200 MW higher than the previous winter peak in January 2018.
About 10,500 MW of customer load was shed at the highest point, enough power to serve approximately 2 million homes, it said, adding that extreme weather caused many generating units across fuel types to trip offline and become unavailable.
'Controlled outages will continue through today and into early tomorrow, possibly all of tomorrow,' Dan Woodfin, director of systems operations at ERCOT, told a briefing.
The storms knocked out nearly half the state's wind power generation capacity on Sunday. Wind generation ranks as the second-largest source of electricity in Texas, accounting for 23% of state power supplies, ERCOT estimates.
Of the 25,000-plus MW of wind power capacity normally available in Texas, 12,000 MW were out of service on Sunday morning, an ERCOT spokeswoman said.
An emergency notice issued by the regulator urged customers to limit power usage and prevent an uncontrolled system-wide outage.
The spot price of electricity on the Texas power grid spiked more than 10,000% on Monday.
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