“As our state takes appropriately aggressive measures to stem the tide of a disease with outsize potential to spread and harm our citizens, we must include provisions to assist families at increased risk of losing power, water and sewer service,” DeAnn Walker, the utility commission chairwoman at the time, said.
But no state money was dedicated to promoting the program to the general public; utility customers not on a special low-income list
were responsible for requesting the relief. And behind the scenes, lobbyists for utilities and trade associations were meeting with state officials in an attempt to hollow out the program.
Number of deaths counted from Texas blackout catastrophe approaches 200
The recorded death toll from Winter Storm Uri in Texas continues to rise as more information on the full scale of human suffering comes out. A recent
Houston Chronicle analysis linked 194 deaths to the February storm according, making it one of the worst natural disasters in the state in the last 100 years. The toll is almost three times the direct fatalities resulting from Hurricane Harvey in 2017 which at the time was the deadliest storm to hit Texas since 1919.
The official count is still ongoing with additional deaths already linked to the storm. The state’s death rate, which was already higher than normal due to the COVID-19 pandemic, was 8 percent above the already high level during the week of the blackouts.