- Two men have died in
Texas as rare freezing conditions pummel some Southern states. - Power companies said controlled electricity blackouts might continue well into Wednesday.
- Some of Houston's warming shelters were among places that lost power, the city's mayor said.
Two men have been found dead in Texas after single-digit temperatures swept across the state, cutting off power to millions of people, including those in some of the state's emergency warming shelters.
The men's causes of death have not been officially confirmed, but law-enforcement officials in both cases have suggested the men died of exposure in the freezing conditions.
The extreme cold blast, especially rare for the South, is predicted to affect the power grid in multiple states at least through Tuesday, suppliers said. President Joe Biden issued a state of emergency, freeing up federal assistance, on Sunday.
Temperatures in Eastland, Texas, west of Forth Worth, were minus 8 degrees Fahrenheit early Tuesday morning, the National
—NWS Fort Worth (@NWSFortWorth) February 16, 2021
One of the men who died was found on a median in central Houston, the city's police chief, Art Acevedo, said in a tweet.
A 60-year-old homeless man's body was also found in a van at an overpass just east of Houston, the local outlet KHOU 11 reported, citing law enforcement.
The outlet cited the Harris County Sheriff's Office as saying the man had earlier turned down an offer to be taken to a warming center.
The deaths were reported after a major power-grid manager ordered rolling blackouts on Monday, affecting 14 states.
A mixture of those intentional measures - which are meant to avoid overwhelming the system as demand soars - and power failures directly caused by the storm have been reported.
Power disruptions have affected some of Houston's warming shelters, Mayor Sylvester Turner told ABC13 on Monday.
Hundreds have crowded into hastily converted churches, high-school gyms, and community centers - some of which have reached capacity, Turner said.
As of 4 a.m. CT on Tuesday, 3.8 million Texans were without power, according to PowerOutage.us.
"Things will likely get worse before they get better," said Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo, according to the Associated Press.
Another barrage of snow and sleet is expected across the state Tuesday night, the ABC affiliate WFAA reported.
Several states, including Texas, have also paused their vaccination programs because of the road hazards and loss of power wrought by the severe weather.
Oncor, the largest power distributor in Texas, said in a Monday update that it was facing both storm-related power failures and controlled outages intended to manage the energy supply.
"We are using all designated power lines for controlled outages so that hospitals and other critical infrastructure remains intact and system stability is preserved," the update said.
"We are prepared for emergency operations to continue for at least several days," the statement added.
Southwest Power Pool, which manages parts of the electric grid in more than a dozen states and ordered rolling blackouts on Monday morning, said such disruptions might continue well into Wednesday.