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Thank you imstilla for starting this very important thread.
Stay safe everyone !!
Stay safe everyone !!
Colorado City, Texas, Mayor Tim Boyd resigns; Facebook post under fire
Tim Boyd, the mayor of Colorado City, Texas, put on Facebook: “The City and County, along with power providers or any other service owes you NOTHING! I’m sick and tired of people looking for a damn handout!... If you are sitting at home in the cold because you have no power and are sitting there waiting for someone to come rescue you because your lazy is direct result of your raising! [sic]…. This is sadly a product of a socialist government where they feed people to believe that the FEW will work and others will become dependent for handouts…. I’ll be damned if I’m going to provide for anyone that is capable of doing it themselves!... Bottom line quit crying and looking for a handout! Get off your *advertiser censored* and take care of your own family!” “Only the strong will survive and the weak will parish [sic],” he said.... more in screenshot below
After an outcry, Boyd resigned.
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Source of image: Ex Colorado City mayor catching heat for comments about citizens affected by cold | KTAB - BigCountryHomepage.com
Power has improved significantly in the Houston area. Yesterday at this time there were 1.3 outages in the Houston area. This morning there were just over 100,000 still out. That’s a celebration! We are so grateful! There is still a widespread low water pressure problem and a boil water notice, and a hard freeze is expected tonight, but things are looking better today. Hallelujah!
Bless you all. I think of Texans every night in my own warm house. I know you're tough people, but I'm sorry about all this heartache and worry, especially for those with sick, elderly, or young family members.Power has improved significantly in the Houston area. Yesterday at this time there were 1.3 outages in the Houston area. This morning there were just over 100,000 still out. That’s a celebration! We are so grateful! There is still a widespread low water pressure problem and a boil water notice, and a hard freeze is expected tonight, but things are looking better today. Hallelujah!
Bless you all. I think of Texans every night in my own warm house. I know you're tough people, but I'm sorry about all this heartache and worry, especially for those with sick, elderly, or young family members.
The problem with a lot of homes in Houston, Galveston, they are not built for cold weather. Not enough insulation. And cold weather, wind, with high humidity factor is no joke.
My gosh, I’m a weather nut. We have to be here - especially in early spring. Tornado Alley. Our cross to bear. I’m so sorry to read of all the sorrow, stress and helplessness in Texas - our sister state. I’m worried about the power, water and food crisis for Texans and their pets.Thank you @imstilla.grandma for this thread!
The state’s power grid operators have defended the call to initiate controlled outages, saying the grid was “seconds or minutes” from collapsing.
“Our frequency went to a level that, had if operators not acted very rapidly ... it could have very quickly changed,” said Bill Magness, CEO of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, the agency that oversees the grid.
Starting about 11 p.m. Monday, generation units started knocking off “in rapid succession,” Magness said Thursday morning in a call with reporters. Several big units could have gone offline by the minute had they waited, Magness said.
Magness has defended the decision to initiate controlled outages, saying a true blackout would leave the entire state without power for an indefinite amount of time, possibly months.
ERCOT officials said Thursday morning that they hope to not have to call for more outages as fresh snow falls. They said more outages are possible if the demand shoots up as people get their power back in homes and businesses or if the cold knocks off generators again.
“Right now the generation availability is going up. If demand outstrips supply again like in the evening today or tomorrow morning, we could have to go back to rotating outages because of the power balance problem,” said Dan Woodfin, ERCOT’s senior director of system operations.
New outages, if they can’t be avoided, should be rotating and not extended like the ones thousands of Texans endured earlier this week, Woodfin said.
”We’re not ready to say we’re finished with this event because weather is driving the event,” Magness said. “Weather is still driving events on the ground.”
Oncor Electric Delivery said early Thursday that it was able to end controlled power outages previously necessary through this week’s extreme winter weather, though thousands of North Texas homes were still without power due to damaged equipment.
As of 1:15 p.m., 181,000 of its customers statewide were still without power because of damage to equipment from both of this week’s winter storms. The company said a lot of the equipment damage couldn’t be identified until power went back online.
“Our personnel will continue working 24/7 to restore power to remaining customers,” Oncor said in a Tweet. “We recognize the hardships this power emergency has caused our customers & communities. We appreciate their patience as we [await] the return of electric generation & protected the TX electric grid.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a California Democrat, said on Thursday that the House Energy and Commerce Committee would “will be taking up some form of investigation” into the fallout from Texas’ historic freeze, calling it “a look into it to see how things could’ve turned out better and will turn out better in the future.”
”Our hearts and prayers go out to the people of Texas for what they are suffering in their situation there, in terms of lack of water, lack of energy,” she said at a news conference on Capitol Hill.
Pelosi noted that she has a daughter who lives in Houston, “so I know firsthand what her concerns are.” But she said her daughter’s “concerns are minor compared to people in need, people truly in need.”
”To lose water and service for my family is one thing,” Pelosi said. “But for people who don’t have so many options, it’s just heartbreaking. I would hope that the public policy of the state would recognize the needs that are there.”
She said Texas lawmakers are asking for immediate federal assistance on a number of fronts, ranging from home repair aid to small business loans to COVID vaccination help.
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton said in a statement Wednesday night that he is planning to launch an investigation into ERCOT and other related entities in response to this week’s outages.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission and the North American Electric Reliability Corporation also confirmed earlier this week that they will be launching an investigation into the massive outages.
Texas power grid was “seconds or minutes” from a total blackout that could have lasted months, ERCOT says