Your gift pays for everything you find on KUT.org. If you found the reporting above valuable, please consider making a donation to support it. The bill touches on everything from regulating some retail electricity plans to establishing an energy emergency alert system, but some worry it won't do enough to make sure all of the state's natural gas infrastructure is winterized or that penalties won't be high enough to get gas companies to comply.Īdditional reporting by Houston Public Media’s Paul DeBenedetto. That’s up 36 deaths from the earlier total of 210. TEXAS Texas has increased the number of deaths attributed to the devastating February 2021 winter storm to 246. Texas lawmakers are currently considering legislation meant to prevent further blackouts, most of which are contained in Senate Bill 3. Official death toll from Texas February 2021 winter storm climbs to 246. The county also felt the brunt of electricity and internet service outages, and the ability to obtain food or groceries, according to a report from the University of Houston Hobby School of Public Affairs. Texas puts final estimate of winter storm death toll at 246 Officials added 36 to the estimate of lives lost in the disaster, which knocked out power in much of the state. In Harris County alone, at least 66 people died from the storm. The February winter storm left thousands without power in subfreezing temperatures and caused serious damage to people's homes, leaving some apartment tenants with nowhere to go. The victims included medically vulnerable people with chronic conditions like cardiovascular disease, diabetes and kidney problems, BuzzFeed said. Neighboring states that were hit hard by the winter storm but did not experience the widespread power outages seen in Texas did not show a spike in deaths." Even the lowest end of the range is almost three times the number officials have acknowledged. "Our best estimate is that 702 people were killed by the storm that week. "Our analysis, reviewed by three independent experts, suggests that between 426 and 978 more people than expected died in Texas in the week ending February 20 alone," the BuzzFeed report says. That method is known as "excess fatalities" and has been employed during other disasters, like the COVID-19 pandemic, to estimate related death tolls. Using mortality data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, BuzzFeed said it compared the number of deaths from all causes that were reported in Texas during and after the storm with the number of fatalities that are normally reported during ordinary conditions. While Texas officials have confirmed that 151 deaths were related to the freeze in February, the death toll could actually be four or five times higher, according to a BuzzFeed data review. Pérez / KUT An Austin-Travis County EMS ambulance moves down South Congress Avenue on Feb. More than 100 Texans died as a result of the winter storm that knocked out the state’s power grid last. Some of the seven dead in the area were found in cars and snow banks, Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz told Reuters news agency.Gabriel C. The official death toll is now more than 100 according to the state’s health department. New York State Governor Kathy Hochul - a native of Buffalo - said: "This will go down in history as Buffalo's most devastating storm." A data analysis performed by BuzzFeed News estimates there were 702 deaths from Winter Storm Uri in Texas in February, nearly five times higher than the state’s official death toll. Thousands of flights have been cancelled, preventing many people from reaching their families at Christmas. The "bomb cyclone" winter storm - which occurs when atmospheric pressure plummets, causing heavy snow and winds - has disrupted travel across the country. The reach of the blizzard conditions has been unprecedented, stretching from Canada as far south as Texas.įour fatalities occurred in Canada when a bus rolled over on an icy road near the town of Merritt, in the western province of British Columbia. Fewer than 200,000 US homes and businesses remained without power early on Sunday, down from a peak of 1.7 million, the Associated Press reports. The worst-hit area has been Buffalo, in upstate New York, where seven weather-related deaths were recorded and strong winds have hampered rescue efforts. Photo: Scott Olson/Getty Images/AFPĪt least 34 people have died in the US as a severe Arctic freeze continues to grip much of North America. A man walks along Lake Michigan at sunrise amid sub-zero temperatures on Decemin Chicago, Illinois.
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