WINTER STORM UPDATE (8:15 AM 2-15-21)
Conditions on the roads continues to be extremely hazardous if not impossible and will continue throughout the next 24 hours. All areas of Waller County are reporting rolling blackouts or outages. For many of you, the outage is a rolling blackout and the power will come back on after awhile. For others, the outage may be due to downed power lines or transformers due to frozen limbs falling on the lines etc., which requires a line crew to fix and it takes much longer (especially under these conditions). The blackouts have become necessary due to record breaking demand for power and the extreme conditions have caused some power generating units to go offline, causing a shortage. For the ERCOT press release, visit http://www.ercot.com/news/releases/show/225210
Please continue to minimize usage on non-essential fixtures and appliances at this time. Bundle up and stay warm.
Per Lindner:
Crippling winter storm continues over the region.
Widespread freezing rain, sleet, and snow is occurring over the region with accumulations across all surfaces. Nearly all roadways are ice covered and slushy. Radar shows back edge of snow along I-35 and will progress eastward and across SE TX by near sunrise with precipitation ending from west to east over the area.
Bitter cold air mass has been working into the area overnight with temperatures now in the teens for most areas north of I-10 and low to mid 20’s south of I-10. Wind chills have fallen below zero across the northern areas and 5-10 for most of the rest of the region.
Accumulations across the area will remain all day and travel will continue to be nearly impossible.
ERCOT has ordered rolling blackouts across the entire state that should last 15-45 minutes at any one location. There are also outages due to ice on the power lines and crews are having an extremely difficult time responding due to impassable roads.
Jeff Lindner
Director Hydrologic Operations Division/Meteorologist
Harris County Flood Control District
Twitter: @jefflindner1