A fire broke out in an apartment in Texas, but the fire hydrant was frozen. How big is the impact of this snowstorm?
The New York Times reported on the 19th local time that a fire broke out in an apartment building in San Antonio, Texas. However, due to the extreme weather, the local fire hydrants were frozen and the fire could not be put out in time. Residents could only watch as their houses were destroyed. Devoured by fire.
According to reports, the fire broke out from Thursday night to Friday morning local time. Local residents evacuated immediately and waited for rescue. However, when rescuers arrived, due to the extreme cold weather in recent days, , the fire hydrants in front of and around the apartment were frozen and unusable. The report described that these residents could only stand in the cold wind and watched their houses being engulfed in flames.
Eventually, firefighters found a nearby stream and transported water through large trucks to extinguish the fire, but firefighters said that these trucks only had enough water to spray for a few minutes at a time. After 125 firefighters worked for several hours to put out the fire, the fire was finally put out.
According to reports, this apartment has a total of 32 units. The fire caused almost the entire apartment to be destroyed, and some buildings collapsed. About 130 people lost their homes. There were no casualties yet. A local resident named Henshaw said that when the fire broke out, he and his wife ran away with their laptop. "Texas was not prepared for the winter storm and it froze the pipes and that's what ultimately led to the fires," Henshaw said. "It's really sad." ?
In the past few days, Texas, USA, has experienced extremely cold weather, resulting in water and power outages in many places. On the 20th local time, the White House issued a statement stating that President Biden declared a major disaster in Texas and ordered the U.S. federal government to provide assistance to support state and local governments in their recovery efforts since the winter storm on February 11. Is the entire state of Texas frozen?
As the powerful Arctic vortex system moved south in mid-February 2021, rare severe cold weather occurred in many parts of the United States? The low temperature records in many places in the central United States were Breaking, extreme cold combined with severe weather such as blizzards and freezing rain has caused many places to freeze. Texas, the United States, has experienced unprecedented freezes throughout the country. Even the largest city, Houston, has been frozen.
Texas was hit hard by blizzards and severe cold. Gas shortages were already limiting power generation in Texas ahead of a cold snap in mid-February, according to news reports. On February 13, after the Arctic vortex pulled the severe cold air mass southward, the demand for electricity in Texas surged. Power curtailment measures and damaged transmission lines plunged many places in Texas into darkness. According to media sources, Texas wholesale Electricity prices once expanded 200 times, exceeding $10,000/MWh. Many more people are facing water supply disruptions.