The South is getting health warnings as temperatures rise, but thousands are STILL without power
A sweltering, intense heat wave is sweeping across the South, offering states little relief as thousands remain without power after devastating storms.
Temperatures have risen to record levels, leaving much of the southern US in triple-digit temperatures, reaching a sweltering 114F (46 degrees Celsius) in some areas.
By the last day of spring on Tuesday, the heat was already closer to mid-summer in much of the southern tier, forcing a warning to some 32 million in parts of Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana and New Mexico . The National Weather Service also warned of the “dangerous conditions.”
Texas’ power grid operator was forced to ask residents to voluntarily cut electricity due to expected record demand on the system.
But the patience of the hundreds of thousands still without power has dried up after the blackouts that have persisted since weekend storms and tornadoes have caused widespread damage.
A person rests in the shade at a playground in the Hungry Hill, Texas neighborhood amidst the heat on Tuesday
Standing in the midday heat, James Hand wipes sweat from his face as he oversees an asphalt renovation at a parking lot in Richardson, Texas, Tuesday
The National Weather Service issues a warning about the ‘dangerous conditions’
A woman and child stand outside a tornado-damaged residential neighborhood in Perryton, Texas, on Friday
In the Mississippi capital of Jackson, some residents said they were without power and air conditioning for nearly 100 hours, which is longer than the blackout caused by Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
Entergy Mississippi, the state’s largest electric utility, said its crew had been operating 4-hour shifts since Friday, but some officials had doubts about its readiness.
Temperatures in the state were expected to reach as high as 90F (32 degrees Celsius) on Tuesday.
“The delay in restoring power has caused significant problems for their customers and it is unacceptable,” said Brent Bailey, a member of the Mississippi Public Service Commission, the state’s energy regulator.
The request from Texas’ Electric Reliability Council, which serves most of that state’s nearly 30 million residents, was the first of the year to cut energy use. ERCOT said it was “experiencing no emergencies,” but noted that the state set an unofficial June record for energy demand on Monday.
In the West Texas oil field, temperatures in San Angelo rose to a record high of 114F (46 degrees Celsius) on Tuesday, according to the National Weather Service.
Many Texans have been skeptical of the state’s power grid since a deadly ice storm in 2021 knocked out power for millions of customers for days. Republican Governor Greg Abbott has said improvements since then have made the grid more stable, but those improvement efforts continue to come under scrutiny.
Ceecee Manor, 59, sits in her blanket-covered vehicle in the Hungry Hill neighborhood of Austin, Texas, on June 20, 2023
A worker takes a break from the heat of shoveling asphalt at a parking lot in Richardson, Texas, on Tuesday
Myra Howard cleans out her aunt’s damaged home in Moss Point, Miss
A tornado in Mississippi damaged a family’s home, their vehicles and contents on Tuesday
In neighboring Oklahoma, more than 100,000 customers eagerly waited for power and air conditioning to be restored after storms over the weekend that toppled trees and broke hundreds of power poles.
Officials say at least one person in Oklahoma has died as a result of the prolonged power outages, which could last into the weekend for some residents.
Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders declared a state of emergency on Tuesday over the weekend’s storms, citing weather damage and “numerous” downed power lines.
Louisiana Mayor Tom Arceneaux said more than 51,000 electricity customers were still without power on Tuesday due to the storms that damaged more than 800 buildings around Shreveport alone. Officials said more than a dozen major transmission lines were still awaiting repairs.
The disturbances come after severe storms over the weekend, where winds reached as high as 80 mph south.
About 300,000 customers across the region are still without power as crews scramble to repair broken poles and downed cables.
One person using a ventilator died as a result of the power outage, Tulsa Mayor GT Bynum said at a press conference in the city.
A fallen tree from Saturday night’s storm lies across Quincy Avenue near 13th Street above a parked car on Tuesday
Shirtless men check their phones at White Rock Lake in Dallas on Tuesday
Dymond Black sits in the shade with a towel over his head on Monday June 19, 2023 in Austin, Texas
A Houston Astros fan uses a handheld fan to stay cool as he waits to enter Minute Maid Park for a baseball game, Houston, Texas, Saturday
Power suppliers warned some outages could not be fixed until the end of the week, and Bynum urged residents to be mindful of family and neighbors who rely on electronic medical devices.
“Please check them,” he said.
In Louisiana, officials closed nearly two dozen state offices on Monday due to severe weather risks. On top of the power outages, a heat wave continued to bring dangerous triple-digit temperatures to Texas, and some parts of the state were issued excessive heat warnings that would last at least through Wednesday.
“It’s unbearable,” Leigh Johnson, a resident of Mount Vernon, Texas, told Dallas television station KXAS. She had been without power for about three days.
“It was awful because it’s like the heat index is so bad that we literally have to sit in the cold pools to cool down. So do our animals, we have to put them in the bathtub to prevent them from getting heat stroke, it’s been that bad,” she said.
Blackouts also spread to Mississippi, where some people struggled to get medicine after pharmacies and grocery stores had to close, according to WLBT-TV. As crews worked to restore power to Mississippi, multiple tornadoes swept across the state overnight, killing one and injuring nearly two dozen.