Texas officials estimated the number of homes and businesses without electricity at over 600,000 coming into today—as compared to some 2.7 million yesterday—and that number had dropped to 325,000 by Gov. Greg Abbott’s mid-afternoon briefing. He emphasized that power generation is back online, those now still without power being so because of downed power lines or their requiring manual reconnection to the grid, and that the power company crews were rushing to resolve those.
Temperatures are not forecast to rise above freezing until Saturday, however, and Gov. Abbott was cautious about declaring the electricity crisis fully over. Officials from ERCOT, the grid operator, were still warning that it might have to institute short, rolling blackouts.
Food supplies in grocery stores, restaurants, and some institutions are running low, or are out, but the Governor hopes that this crisis will resolve as the passability of roads is improving.
