Norah good evening, i am norah odonnell. And thank you for being with us. We come on the air with dangerous and deadly weather for tens of millions of americans tonight across the southern plains. The National Weather service is issuing a rare highrisk forecast for violent thunderstorms come along track tornadoes, and giant tail. Talking about hail from 24 inches in diameter, the size of baseballs to grapefruit. President s from oklahoma to kansas or in the bullseye tonight and bracing for powerful ef3 Strength Twisters or stronger. This is the first Time Oklahoma has been under high risk weather alert in five years. We will begin tonight in Oklahoma City were meteorologist paul goodloe from our partners at the Weather Channel is standing by for a busy night of storms. Good evening, paul. Reporter good evening, norah, the wind has been howling all day long, 30 plus miles an hour as the wind changed coming down in here. You mentioned a highrisk day, last time that happened was 2019 unde
worth, the pumps ran dry today. and now the growing calls to investigate after authorities said that power gid was clo er to full collapse. the state utility had been advised to winterize their grid after that similar emergency a decade ago what was done. and amid all of this, the outrage tonight after these images went viral. texas senator ted cruz flying to cancun with his family on vacation when millions in his home state were without power. how he s now explaining himself tonight. but we re going to begin with the emergency and the millions still in need of help. abc s marcus moore leading us off from dallas again tonight. reporter: tonight, power finally coming back to hard-hit texas, albeit slowly. but some 13 million people in the state still must boil water to drink. and tonight, serious questions about why problems with their electrical grid weren t fixed after a similar situation a decade ago. officials revealing today that on sunday, demand was so high and conditions so
tonight. and millions still boiling their water. and marcus, tomorrow brutal cold yet again? reporter: david, the lows tonight expected to be 15 degrees. the wind chill 7. but tomorrow, temperatures are expected to get back above freezing for the first time in six days. and that will be a moment of real relief for people here, david. but so many are frustrated. they want to know why nothing was done to address the vulnerabilities with the power grid after that last major outage a decade ago, david. all right, marcus moore, leading us off again tonight. marcus, thank you. let s get right to senior meteorologist rob marciano, in philadelphia tonight, because there s still a second part of this storm set to hit here in the east. rob? that s right, david. one last wave of winter precip we ve got to get through before any sort of warmup begins and that includes more snow in san antonio tonight. there you see it on the radar, with winter weather advisories, hard freeze expansively acro
organizations as well as the city handing out bottled water to families who need it. and although the power is coming back, problems in texas still remain. and this is what we ve seen across the state, water pipes bursting and firefighters responding to reports of possible fires. this catastrophe unfolding in so many ways for several days. the storms that plagued the south now moving east, blowing snow and ice, rain and wind. and tonight, looming questions about why ercot, the private company that runs about 90% of the texas power grid, was not prepared for a weather event like this, when conditions were even worse than in february of 2011, when ice and cold knocked out power to more than 3 million across texas, just as the state was hosting the super bowl. every ten years it seems we get a really bad one. and in the last one, federal reports suggested, we need to winterize for the lowest known temperatures. texas didn t do that. reporter: the state s independent grid system, the o
postponing vaccinations because of the storms. pfizer now testing its vaccine on thousands of pregnant women. what we ve learned. and life expectancy in the u.s. affected by this pandemic. life expectancy dropping by at least a year. that s the biggest decline since world war ii. the white house and democrats unveiling their major new immigration reform plan. does it have a chance? mary bruce is live tonight. we also have breaking news on iran this evening. what the u.s. is now signaling. and martha raddatz with late reporting. the horrific images in new york city. the powerful gas explosion. at least nine injured, including two children in critical condition tonight. and the first of its kind mission to mars. the celebration late today as nasa touches down and history now made. good evening and it s great to have you with us here on a thursday night. this has been a very long week for the millions suffering in texas and tonight, 13 million are still boiling their water. the