When the storm hit last weekend, Sean Kitchen’s home in Garland went dark. His power had been out for more than 36 hours when he and his wife decided to hole up at his brother’s house in Richardson, hoping to wait out the freeze.
The storm started last weekend with snow and plummeting temperatures. Rolling power outages meant to last up to 45 minutes ended up spanning several hours. As the chill set in, many residents had to leave their homes, trying to find available spaces in hotels, warming centers and shelters.
Each day, Kitchen, 32, drove back home to check on the place. On Wednesday, he returned and found water pooling on his kitchen floor. A frozen pipe had busted beneath the sink. By the time he got the valve off, the damage was already done: the wooden floor was warped, and water had flooded into his backyard.
But even this did not prepare the organization for the volume of cases to come.
A dog is found outside of a Houston auto body shop in freezing temperatures.
From Houston SPCA via CNN
Dogs are being found abandoned and freezing
On Monday, the SPCA investigation team responded to a report of six dogs left outside an auto body shop.
One dog was dead and covered in snow, another was alive but emaciated. The five living dogs were taken to the local SPCA campus where they were immediately seen by a veterinary team, the organization said.
The area where the dogs were found registered at 18 degrees.
CHERRY HILL, New Jersey (WABC) The owner of a beauty salon in New Jersey jumped in to help people in need across Texas.
For Wanda Mora, the mission is very personal after her own family was greatly impacted by Hurricane Maria in 2017. I lost my father to the hurricane, and we did a lot of work over there. I know firsthand what it is to suffer, she said.
Her salon, Mora Salon, is holding a drive to collect warm items like hats, scarves and space heaters that will be shipped to two shelters in Texas.
The items will go to the Kay Bailey Hutchinson Convention Center and another shelter in Bach Springs.
An 11-year-old boy was rescued from an icy Texas pond after a teenager spotted him while walking her dog. Caitlyn Thomas, a high school senior, said she spotted the boy Wednesday in Jefferson, a town about 170 miles east of Dallas.