thanks, jonathan. i m jonathan capehart in for lawrence o donnell. tonight, day five. humanitarian crisis in texas. the good news, power s been restored to most of the state. the number of households without electricity is down from 4 million to around 100,000. but there s a new danger putting texans at risk, millions are now confronting a water crisis. 13 million texans don t have safe drinking water due to cracked pipes, frozen wells and water treatment plants that have been knocked off line. the people of texas are suffering because of decades of republican intransigence. republicans refuse to take action to weatherize water systems from the cold, and the texas tribune reports texas officials knew winter storms could leave the state s power grid vulnerable, but they left the choice to prepare for harsh weather up to the power companies, many of which opted against the costly upgrades. texas republicans are to blame for these failures, let s be clear, and democrats ar
triggered all this. make no mistake, however, man-made failures turned this into a crisis. frozen pipes that later burst, also, meant no running water whatsoever. so many homes and apartments, ruined. a boiling-water advisory is in place. so, those who can t get water out of their taps, are resorting to boiling snow, if they can. and the situation is increasingly desperate. it s pretty tough to find bottled water. we are having to boil, you know, to wash dishes or do anything. we ve been hunting. we ve gone different places, looking for it. and can t find it. the worst of it is, no water for the flushing. it s sure going to be great when all of us have safe-drinking water. we need water, more than anything else. you know, it is one plague, after another. it s looking like at least several more days. when s the last time you heard that from the mayor of a major american city? about 165,000 customers in texas are still experiencing power outages. down from over 3 mill
13 million texans don t have safe drinking water due to cracked pipes, frozen wells, and water treatment plants that have been knocked off-line. the people of texas are suffering because of decades of republican intransigence. republicans refuse to take action to weatherize water systems from the cold, and the texas tribune reports texas officials knew winter storms could leave the state s power grid vulnerable, but they left the choice to prepare for harsh weather up to the power companies, many of which opted against the costly upgrades. texas republicans are to blame for these failures, let s be clear, and democrats are now working to right these wrongs starting at the top. on february 14th, the first day of the power outages in texas, president biden signed an emergency declaration that authorized fema to provide the state with critical equipment like generators and resources such as water and diesel fuel. president biden spoke with the governor of texas last night, and t
also, meant no running water whatsoever. so many homes and apartments, ruined. a boiling-water advisory is in place. so, those who can t get water out of their taps, are resorting to boiling snow, if they can. and the situation is increasingly desperate. it s pretty tough to find bottled water. we are having to boil, you know, to wash dishes or do anything. we ve been hunting. we ve gone different places, looking for it. and can t find it. the worst of it is, no water for the flushing. it s sure going to be great when all of us have safe-drinking water. we need water, more than anything else. you know, it is one plague, after another. it s looking like at least several more days. when s the last time you heard that from the mayor of a major american city? about 165,000 customers in texas are still experiencing power outages. down from over 3 million, just a few days back. in many communities, grocery store shelves remain empty. president biden is fast tracking a dis
living through now are not enough to deal with, their governor lied about the catastrophe, tried to use it to score political points. he went on fox news to blame it on renewable energy saying wind and solar were shutdown by the crisis. shows how the green new deal would be a deadly deal for the united states of america. wind and solar, by the way, makeup about 10% of texas power grid. even the governor s own energy department contradicted him on the ridiculous attempt of gas lighting or natural gas lighting. the failures came about because the state failed to weather proof the infrastructure, including natural gas pipelines. we have been warning the governor about this since 2011 when it was nearly this bad around the super bowl. you may remember the ice storm. there was a federal report said if you don t winterize, it will happen again. there was a state report that said the same thing. the governor made a conscious choice not to do that. when you re at a regulated marke