Kaylee Scott, native Houstonian and Lubbock local (Picture provided by Kaylee Scott)
On Feb. 15, 2021, a continent-sized mass of frigid air had crept south from the Arctic, cutting across the Great Plains, and sending temperatures throughout Texas plummeting, according to the Houston Chronicle.
Kaylee Scott, a Lubbock resident and longtime Houstonian, said she was coming to Houston for the weekend to see family but found herself stuck at home for seven days in “miserable” conditions.
“I was in Houston, I had flown on home Friday before the freeze,” Scott said. “My family was without power, or water, or heat for four days.”
Scott said during the freeze cell towers were down for two days and she was unable to communicate with anyone.
“I was unable to communicate with my professors or anyone for up to two days,” Scott said. “It was really crazy my whole family was sleeping in the living room, huddled around the fireplace.”
Kristi O’Hara, a Houston resident, said described her situation as a “horrible” experience amid the cold weather conditions.
“We were without power probably for three and half days,” O’Hara said. “Ended up having a busted pipe, unfortunately, in the garage, but it took down the ceiling and the walls in the garage.”
O’Hara said growing up in Kansas and dealing with cold weather was her life, and now it’s unimaginable.
Kristi O’Hara, Houston resident (Picture provided by Kristi O’Hara)
“It never fazed me; it was just something we did, you know? It was just our life. You did the cold, and that’s just what life was for 20 something years, so looking back where I am now, I could never imagine living where it’s cold,” O’Hara said.
Jack Perry, a Houstonian who lives in Katy, Texas, said he was without water and power for days.
“We did not have power for about three days, we didn’t have water for about six days, we had some pipes broken,” Perry said. “By the second day it was getting really cold out, it was probably about 40 degrees in the house without any heat or electricity.”
According to the Wall Street Journal, it was a fundamental flaw in the freewheeling Texas electricity market that left millions powerless and freezing in the dark during a historic cold snap.
Perry said Texas could not stand the subfreezing temperatures because the infrastructure in the south is not built for the cold.
“I think because we’re not used to the cold, being that cold for that long. We don’t have the building standards,” Perry said. “We don’t have stuff underground we have stuff above ground.”
Jack Perry, Native Houstonian, and current resident (Picture provided by Jack Perry)
O’Hara said she knows of people bringing in relatives from out of state that work in plumbing and construction to come help Texans struggling with home damage.
“They’re having a lot of people from, like relatives, that are plumbers and construction workers from all over the country coming in to stay with their relatives to work on people’s homes and stuff,” O’Hara said.
Scott said because her family had never experienced something like this their home ended up damaged.
“We had a pipe over our garage in our attic that busted, and our entire garage collapsed,” Scott said.
According to the Wall Street Journal, property insurers are estimated to face $18 billion bills for damage to homes and businesses because of this winter storm.
Scott said she thinks the south has been “going through it” the past few years, specifically in Houston.
“First we had Harvey then we have this,” Scott said. “These are monumental weather events that happen once in people’s lives and it is happening really frequently for us.”
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