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Anger mounts in southeast Texas as crippling power outages and heat turn deadly (www.cnn.com)

submitted 3 months ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

107 comments fedilink hide all child comments

Frustrations are mounting across southeast Texas as residents enter a fourth day of crippling power outages and heat, a combination that has proven dangerous – and at times deadly – as some struggle to access food, gas and medical care.

More than 1.3 million homes and businesses across the region are still without power after Beryl slammed into the Gulf Coast as a Category 1 hurricane on Monday, leaving at least 11 people dead across Texas and Louisiana.

Many residents are sheltering with friends or family who still have power, but many can’t afford to leave their homes, Houston City Councilman Julian Ramirez told CNN. And while countless families have lost food in their warming fridges, many stores are still closed, leaving government offices, food banks, and other public services scrambling to distribute food to underserved areas, he said.

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[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago (2 children)

I see a lot of people here blaming the TX grid but not all of Texas is under ERCOT.

SE of Houston, power is supplied by Entergy Texas which also supplies power along most of the gulf coast.

Here is a statement from them, "As of 6:30 p.m. Friday, Entergy Texas crews have safely restored electrical power to approximately 199,100 of the 252,460 customers impacted by Hurricane Beryl. We expect all customers who can safely take power to be restored no later than Monday, July 15."

These are not TX policy decisions causing these outages. It is simply economical decisions that are made throughout the national grid system to make it affordable to deliver the vast quantities of power that people need at a price they can afford. It's simply a fact of life that when you have such a powerful storm passing through, any human built system is going to fall to the power of mother nature.

I was a electrical engineer back in college, so if anyone has any specific things they want to ask, I'll try to respond.

I'm not an economist though so I can't tell you why it's more important for peoples heating and cooling bills to be closer to $100 a month instead of $300 and why the policy decisions are made to support that. And this is with modest electrical usage setting my AC to cool down to a conservative 78-80 degrees since I'm cheap and want to conserve energy.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago (1 children)

I was a electrical engineer back in college, so if anyone has any specific things they want to ask, I’ll try to respond.

Yes, why are phasors so terrible?

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

They look like they work fine to me.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 3 months ago (1 children)

As a Texan, the problem is we have 0 below ground lines, we don’t stage workers even when we know storms are coming, we don’t require structures to be built in resilient ways (including solar or wind facilities for new builds) and the end result is that our communities aren’t resilient.

Sure we pay less in taxes (note: if you’re wealthy), but you need a generator and an interlock kit to have the electric uptime other places have. You’re still paying a tax to live here, it’s just not going to the government to give you a nicer community, it’s going to businesses so their execs can get wealthier.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (2 children)

We don't have 0 below lines. Look at downtown houston. They have below ground lines. Look at recent subdivisions in places like Fannett, TX, they are below ground there.

Are you talking about transmission lines? I'm not sure of any place that runs those below ground.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

I was indeed using hyperbole. Med center also has a lot of ground lines. But the vast majority is unmaintained, extremely aged above ground infrastructure. That might be okay if we didn’t live somewhere that gets hurricanes and other severe events, but we do.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

I think they were using hyperbole dude, zero meaning relatively few in relation to whats needed. Its basically the zame as saying fuck all.

[–] [email protected] 33 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Wow we've done nothing and nothing changed

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago (1 children)

they most loyal and obedient slaves are the slaves who think they're free

[–] [email protected] 2 points 3 months ago

Crazy thought but makes sense. Just thinking of Smithers.

[–] [email protected] 25 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Will they get angry enough to do something about the GOPers that are causing the problems? Probably not.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 3 months ago

They've been brainwashed into thinking that the GOP is the only solution to their problems and the reason why they never solve the problems is that the enemy is both too strong and too weak.

See point 6: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ur-Fascism

[–] [email protected] 23 points 3 months ago (1 children)

But not so angry they are going to do something french about it.

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago (1 children)

IIRC revolts are statistically more likely during heat waves.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 3 months ago

Bro if it's triple digits and humid I'm staying my ass inside. Reschedule the revolt to a mild day in the 70s.

[–] [email protected] 29 points 3 months ago

But if we tax rich people to pay for services that's Communism! Also black people would benefit, is that what you want commie?!

[–] [email protected] 27 points 3 months ago

Keep voting republican!

[–] [email protected] 89 points 3 months ago (1 children)

Vote Republican again, I'm sure they'll fix it!

[+] [email protected] -35 points 3 months ago (2 children)

This is Houston which consistently votes blue

[–] [email protected] 5 points 3 months ago

Houston controls the statewide power grid?

[–] [email protected] 66 points 3 months ago (1 children)

The governor and both state legislative houses are blood red. Love how MAGA pins all the blame for their policies and any Dem that's around no matter how lowly.

[–] [email protected] 26 points 3 months ago

I wonder if they're just pointing out that the victims here are already voting sanely, not trying to assign blame.

Repubs elsewhere in the state, as all Repubs do, treat disasters as something to ignore or cheer, depending on who the victims are. If they were capable of distinguishing between good and bad governance (or capable of empathy at all), they would not be Republicans in the first place.

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