It’s been a tough week for all of us. I was stuck in Austin (for several days in an apartment with no heat, but that’s a story for another day) and am only today able to send out a newsletter. I hope you’ve been following my storm updates on Facebook (SchofieldForTexas) or Twitter (@Repschofield).
Many of our neighbors were without power for a significant amount of time and some lost water service or, worse, had pipes burst when the thaw began. Our first priority is to get everyone’s power and water back, and ensure that gas stations and groceries stores can be fully stocked and operational to get us back to normal as soon as possible.
Our next priority is to get to the bottom of the power outages, find out what really happened, and make sure it doesn’t happen again. The Texas House and Senate will have hearings beginning next week to determine what decisions were made and how they can be fixed. I urge you to watch the hearings and decide for yourself what Texas needs to do. The House hearings will begin Thursday at 9 a.m. You can watch them live (or later, since they are recorded) on the internet at: https://house.texas.gov/video-audio/?fbclid=IwAR0wVyE8OBIZ2S0DcT0uLhQ1fLQjha5PKWHuBLpChZSXtcUo-1Pjv0PE24E
Below is a summary of some of the information that will be useful going forward as we begin to recover from the power outages and burst pipes. I will continue to try to get more information to you as I hear it.
Tips for the recovery
Here are some of the tips we picked up for recovery in the coming days:
NEW POWER OUTAGES: Although we still expect freezing temperatures at times through Saturday or early Sunday morning, ERCOT and CenterPoint are not expecting further power outages. If you lose power over the next few days, it likely will be from a local cause (such as a tree limb falling on a power line) and can be fixed by CenterPoint sending out a crew to fix it. Report any power outage to CenterPoint so they know to fix it.
BOIL WATER NOTICE: Most of Harris County is included in boil water notices. You should be able to go to your Municipal Utility District’s (or the city of Katy if you live in the city limits) website to see if you are included. If you can’t find it, it is safer to assume you are under a boil notice until at least Monday or Tuesday. If you are subject to a boil water notice, do not drink, cook with, brush your teeth with, make ice from, or otherwise consume any water unless it has been brought to a full boil for at least a minute and them cooled. If possible, it is better to use bottled water for cooking and drinking until you are sure your water is once again safe to consume. I have been informed that once the roads are clear and the water providers can send out people to test the water, it will take at least another 24 hours before they get test results back and can declare the water safe to use.
BURST WATER PIPES: Restoring water service is not the only water problem we face. If your power was out for a significant period of time, you run the risk of water freezing in your pipes that will expand when the water thaws, potentially bursting your pipes. If you haven’t had water service, or have turned off your water at the valve at the side of your home, you will want to open the faucets so they can drip and clear the water. Gov. Abbott is encouraging homeowners and tenants to line up plumbers ASAP, to avoid long waits for service. In the mean time, he has authorized out-of-state plumbers to come to Texas to help out. Be very careful if you don’t know your plumber; make sure you are not getting gouged or charged up front for work that doesn’t end up being performed.
CONTACT YOUR INSURANCE PROVIDER: Just like in the case of a flood, many people will be contacting their homeowners or renters insurance company all at once. Gov. Abbott has recommended that you contact your insurance company or agent now and set up a file number for your claim, to speed up your recovery once the extent of any damage is discovered. Take plenty of pictures and document everything that was damaged or destroyed by the water. TDEM (Texas Division of Emergency Management) advises that people without insurance may be eligible for FEMA reimbursement in the coming weeks.
ROAD SAFETY: We expect at least some freezing temperatures until some time Saturday morning. This means that even roads where the ice melts may re-freeze and be dangerous to drive on. Be careful and drive more slowly than usual until the temperature gets above freezing and stays that way on Saturday.
Government Agencies
Here are a few Texas government agencies you can contact if you need help or have a complaint:
YOUR WATER COMPANY: If you live in the city of Katy, you can call the water department.
For everyone else who lives in my district (Katy and Cypress), your water is provided by your Municipal Utility District (MUD). Call them with any problems with your service. We are told that over half of all Harris County residents are still having problems with water service as of Friday afternoon, whether a lack of water, low water pressure, or unsafe water.
PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION – The PUC advises that the number of phone calls they are receiving is greatly exceeding their capacity to answer them. If you have a complaint or a question about how the storm will affect residential power bills, they have asked that you email PUC at customer@puc.texas.gov or dial 211.
YOUR STATE REP: As always, there are several ways to reach me.
If you’d like to get in contact with our office, please feel free to go onto my webpage and click the “Email” button to fill out the form. The page can be found here: https://house.texas.gov/members/member-page/?district=132
You can also call our Capitol office at 512-463-0528 or our Katy district office at 281-492-0684. Our district office is located in the Houston Community College building at 1550 Foxlake Drive. We aren’t there right now, because HCC has closed the campus on Fridays and weekends.
I encourage everyone to stay connected this session on legislation, committee hearings, and floor debates through the following website: https://capitol.texas.gov/
COVID Vaccinations
Although it has been next to impossible to dispense COVID vaccines during the storm, the need for vaccinations for those seniors and at-risk people who qualify for them has not gone away. The information below is still good regarding how to sign up to receive the vaccine.
COVID-19 Vaccine Information
I have been working closely with the Governor’s office, Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS), and a number of representatives from the healthcare field to get information out about the COVID-19 vaccine.
So far it has been too difficult to find out where vaccines will be available and to know where to sign up to get vaccinated. Many people have told me that by the time they hear that a location will have the vaccine and go to sign up, they are told that location is already out of vaccine. It needs to become a lot easier to locate places that have the vaccine and to be able to sign up in time to get vaccinated.
We will try to push information out about how to sign up to get the vaccine as soon as we receive that notice. Unfortunately, the process for vaccine distribution is rapidly changing week to week. There is no one single, centralized location to sign-up or register for a vaccine. I would encourage you to reach out to your healthcare providers, particularly any hospital where you have previously sought medical care, to find out if they are expecting any vaccines and how you can sign up.
You can also reference DSHS’ website where a map is provided with the most current and up-to-date locations of vaccine distributions. Follow the prompts through the following link: https://dshs.texas.gov/coronavirus/
COVID-19 Updates
4,472,800 doses of the vaccine has been distributed, which has been administered to 3,391,990 people in 254 counties.
To see the latest Executive Orders issued by the Governor, follow this link:
To see the Governor’s report to open Texas, follow this link:
On February 9, Governor Abbott announced that the Texas Department of Housing and Community Affairs (TDHCA) has launched the Texas Rent Relief Program — the first statewide rent and utility assistance program for qualifying households throughout Texas. This program has been created to administer the more than $1 billion allocated to Texas through the latest federal COVID-19 stimulus bill. TDHCA will begin accepting applications for the program on Monday, February 15th, but Texans can visit TexasRentRelief.com starting today to learn more about qualifications, required documents, and the application process.
Investigating power grid outages
Although this week’s storm and prolonged sub-freezing temperatures is unprecedented in modern Texas, there are still serious questions about how it was handled and why ERCOT’s power grid was unprepared to handle the storm.
We know that it was more than simply demand for power (which spikes whenever temperatures are severely higher or lower than normal) outstripping our peak supply. Instead, much of Texas’s power supply from all sources (natural gas, coal, nuclear, and wind) froze almost immediately, putting us in a dangerous situation from the very beginning of the subfreezing weather. This is not sustainable and is completely unacceptable. While it may not be feasible to fund a system that is never affected by weather, we cannot live with a system that breaks down within hours every time there is a widespread freeze.
As I stated at the top of this newsletter, both the Texas House and Senate will begin hearings in the coming week to get to the bottom of what happened and make sure it doesn’t happen again. I urge you to follow the hearings and learn for yourself what happened and what we can do about it. In the mean time, I will keep you updated as much as I can.
Thank you and God Bless Texas,
