As texas froze, ted cruz flew to mexico. Has the states republican senator left his reputation out in the cold . And facebook Unfriends Australia The Social Networking Giant Blocks access to news media on its site in a row over paying for content. Hello, welcome to the programme. We start on another planet mars, where the Nasa Perseverance Rover has safely touched down. It has already started sending back messages from its new home, and will now set about the business of trying to find signs that mars was once and could even still be a planet where life took hold. Heres our science correspondent rebecca morelle. And a warning her report contains some flashing images. Perseverance is going about one kilometre per second. A nerve racking wait at mission control. Perseverance has landed safely, on the surface of mars cheering then celebrations as a signal is received from mars. Its touchdown for nasas perseverance rover. And these are its first images a view of its landing site before it
Thats about half the state. Dallas resident thomas black took this picture. Tells cnn he and his girlfriend are running out of food and they are boiling snow for water. I only knew to do that because i had a pouring of outreach giving me tips on how to weather this out and without them, you know, as a texan, were just not inherently prepared for Something Like this. Austins water system lost 325 million gallons of water after thousands of pipes burst there. Officials say City Reservoirs were drained by the water demand and theyre warning this could go on for days. U. S. Department of health and Human Services declaring a Public Health emergency in texas. The lack of water means hospitals cant provide dialysis. Crews in san antonio working through the night to put out an Apartment Building fire that broke out moments after water was shut off to the building. Hydrants are frozen so firefighters are Trucking Water to the scene. Roads are so slick and dangerous the red cross is providing s
Houston. Antonia you were speaking two days ago to a mother who had been driving around because her children needed their medicine at a certain temperature. That certain mother faces Gas Shortages and youre talking to people without water. Whats it like for them . Reporter stephanie, the challenges of this week are starting to have a cumulative effect on people, particularly families that are low income. The lights, the power, the heat is starting to come back on for most people in the city of houston and in harris county, but thats being replaced by a water crisis. People dont have safe water to drink, or they dont have any water at all in many cases. Ive spoken to more families who have been driving around, going to Grocery Stores and gas stations, trying to find someone who can sell them drinkable water. I met with a family yesterday that took somebodys pool water so that they could boil it and allow their children to bathe in the water and to wash some of their clothes because they
Without power since monday has been Rationing Oxygen Tanks for their 5monthold baby boy born premature just home from the hospital. They built a make shift heater from a pot on bricks. The family is boiling bottled water because theres no water pressure. This is no longer just an emergency. Its clear that it is a disaster. Weve seen a cascade of effects that have turned what is already a dire situation into something much worse. Residents are frustrated. Theyre angry. They are cold. What theyre enduring and continue to endure is heartbreaking. In the town of del rio, the Wastewater Plant is offline. Officials are begging residents, do not flush your toilets. Panic buying across the state leaving supermarket shelves bare. The state Agriculture Commissioner says theyre, quote, looking at a Food Supply Chain problem like we have never seen before. Nearly 12 million texans facing Water Service disruptions this morning. Look at that. Nearly 1 4 of the state is under orders to boil tap water
Part of the people who are without power might have been without power because of damage to power lines and that sort of thing. But still a great deal of work needs to be done. I dont want to minimize that in terms of getting Power Generation fully restored. Theres been a dramatic drop so far. At its peak, about 4. 4 million households without power across the state. The number is down to about 500,000, and really dropped significantly since late last night. So that is the good news. The other bit of good news is that while there is some snowstorms still moving through parts of texas, warmer temperatures are expected here in the next day or two. Once we get above freezing, sounds like things will begin to imp ima little more quickly. Weve also learned new details, brianna, how dangerously close, bad as this has been, how dangerously close it could have been monday night. We were told by a texas congressman from fort worth yesterday that he had been told that the Power Grid System here