Texas Blackout Reveals Deep Impact of Environmental Racism, Aid Organizers Say
Organizers with Stop the Sweeps and The Challenger newspaper protest for housing rights outside Austin City Hall in Austin, Texas, on February 21, 2021, after Winter Storm Uri plunged those on the streets into sub-freezing temperatures.
Candice Bernd
Austin, TexasâAbout 70 Austinites gathered at the Homeless Memorial and Tree of Remembrance along the south bank of Lady Bird Lake on Sunday for a vigil in honor of unhoused people who lost their lives during last weekâs winter storm and blackout in Texas.
It was a surreal scene, as shirtless parkgoers along the riverâs bank exercised, threw frisbees and soaked up the sun as temperatures reached back into the upper 60s for the first time since the state was plunged into extreme winter conditions last Monday. The storm took down the stateâs independent energy grid, touching off a power and water crisis that remains ongoing even as con