THREE HOURS FROM DALLAS IN TEMPLE, Texas — More accidents, downed trees, and blackouts have been reported in central Texas as a result of the winter storm.
There have been widespread blackouts across the globe. Many of us in Central Texas are among the hundreds of thousands of Texans who are scrambling to find a way to keep warm.
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More than 3,200 outages affecting over 125,000 customers were reported on Oncor’s Outage Map at approximately 11:00 p.m. CST on Wednesday. Nearly 600 people in McLennan County and about 5,500 people in Bell County lost service.
Both Chiquitta Waff and Justaneece Jackson, of Temple, Texas, joined those figures on Wednesday.
It’s been tough, Jackson admitted. “The phone is dead, I have no way of contacting anyone, and the food has gone bad, despite my prayers. Without power, it’s difficult to get through the day with a seven-month-old on my hands.”
Waff is also responsible for her stepdaughter, who she is doing her best to keep warm despite the weather. The two claimed to have heard a transformer go off, leaving half their street in the dark and forcing them to hunker down and ride out the storm in the dark.
With so many other Oncor customers experiencing the same thing, they are unsure of how long they will be without power.
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In addition, Waff stated, “We called them and they didn’t really give us a quote, but they did say it was 700 or so people without power or more.”
According to Andy Morgan, an Oncor spokesperson, the high number of outages makes it difficult to provide customers with regular restoration updates.
We know how difficult it is to live without heat or electricity in the winter,” Morgan said. We’re doing everything we can to get as many people back to work as soon as possible.
All day Wednesday, Oncor’s line crews were hard at work repairing broken power lines, blown transformers, and broken poles.
Oncor decided on Wednesday to bring in a thousand utility workers from other Texas utilities and neighbouring states through mutual assistance partnerships.
Morgan noted that restoring service can take some time, but that crews are working under difficult conditions to get the job done as quickly as possible.
He elaborated, “We have someone go out and see what the damage is.” After determining whether or not any trees or branches need to be removed, crews “go in and do the work,” which may include replacing a poll, wire, or even the cross arms.
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Because more ice is expected to build up on power lines overnight and into Thursday, Morgan warned of the possibility of additional power outages.