Abbott addresses power and water outages
Governor Greg Abbott delivers a speech addressing the power and water outages that impacted millions last week. He says “tragic” doesn’t even begin to describe the suffering that people endured.
“I want you to know the state is using every possible resource to fix this problem. Many of you are angry and you have a right to be. I’m angry, too,” says Abbott.
He is calling for an overhaul of ERCOT and he wants the Legislature to mandate and fund full winterization and stabilization of the power grid. He says this legislative session will not end until this problem is fixed. As the autopsy of what caused the outages last week is now underway, ERCOT CEO Bill Magnus delivered the review of events on February 8th. ERCOT warned the energy providers of the pending cold weather. By Sunday, the 14th the energy collapse began.
“We had extreme increase in natural gas outages that then hung along there around 25,000 megawatts for quite some time.” At 1:20 a.m. that went into energy emergency alert level three and “we instituted rotating outages of over 10,000 megawatts to the very large amount to institute in the scheme of things,” says Magnus.
Apparently too large for rotating outages.
“They were not going to be able to rotate these effectively in a lot of places.”
Austin storm repairs
Austin City Council is looking for ways to make it easier for homes to recover from the storm. Austin Mayor Steve Adler explains they are set to get in line with Governor Greg Abbott’s goal of pulling in out-of-state plumbers to help fill the needs locally by waiving fees and registration requirements. He says they’re also looking to help with medical bills,
“Waving emergency medical service fees and costs for services that were provided during the winter disaster,” says Adler.
The council is to discuss further recovery plans in session later this afternoon.
Austin does have a new website as of this week to help you with emergency home repairs and to damage caused by the storm. The site offers guidance and resources for both business and residential properties. You can find it at AustinTexas.gov/atxrepairs
Water distribution sites
The City of Austin is again opening a handful of water distribution sites today. The majority of people do have access to water once again, but if you do not, there will be six locations around the area where you can get some.
Stores stocking up
Store shelves are slowly filling back up. But there’s still plenty of stores around Texas that have yet to restock things like eggs and milk. John Esparza, with the Texas Trucking Association, says even a tiny hiccup in the supply chain can cause a big ripple.
“When you see that grocery store empty, don’t think for a minute that HEB is not doing everything in their power to keep those stores full. But it just takes logistics and oftentimes you’re gonna see a gap like that,” says Esparza.
In some areas, meat is also in short supply. HEB says it’s continuing to put hundreds of its trucks on the road to restock all of its shelves.
Homeless camping ban rewording
The Austin City Council today is set to discuss the rewording of ballot language regarding a citywide homeless camping ban that voters will decide upon in May. A lawsuit has been filed claiming the ballot language chosen by the city is intentionally written to confuse people into voting against the ban. But council may not have to make any changes. That’s because last night the Third Court of Appeals rejected a writ of mandamus that would have required the city to make revisions on appeal on that ruling is expected.
Similarly, underpasses are being cleaned around Austin this week, many of which are also homeless camp sites. The city says it’s changed its protocol a bit for these cleanings instead of cleaning, cleaning up all trash crews will only collect things that are on sidewalks or roadways visibly near camp sites. But no cleaning will be done around any tents. Activists believe the cleanings are inhumane and should not be allowed.
Johnson & Johnson single dose
US regulators now say that the Johnson & Johnson’s single dose vaccine is 66% effective against moderate and severe cases of COVID-19. Dr. John Carlo with the Texas Medical Association’s COVID-19 task force says it’s great news.
“Remember, this is just one shot and doesn’t require extensive freezing. It could be stored in a normal refrigerator So if we can add this to our tools, I think we would be in a much better place as soon as possible,” says Carlo.
The FDA is expected to make a final decision on that in days.
COVID-19 update
Travis County is declining COVID hospitalizations has continued. It’s now down to 304 as of this morning. That’s a drop of 15 from a day ago, and the number of people in the ICU are down to 102. Active cases have also gone down a bit to 1,141.
This news and more on News Radio KLBJ:
https://omny.fm/shows/klbjam-flash-briefing-1/am-newscast-2-25-21
