Breaking news! Just now, this place has entered a major disaster state!

A statement from the White House Office mentioned that the current assistance includes funds for building temporary housing and providing housing repairs, low-cost loans to compensate for uninsured building losses, and other measures to help individuals and business owners resume production and life.

The winter storm has been raging in Texas for many days. According to local media reports, the temperature in Texas will gradually rise on the 20th and in the next few days. However, at present, more than 15.1 million people in Texas still have no water supply, and many people's water pipes are frozen and cracked.

Frozen water pipes not only affect the daily lives of residents, but also the firefighting work. According to a report by the American Broadcasting Corporation on the 20th, a hotel in Killeen, Texas, caught fire on the evening of the 19th local time. The local fire department said that due to the icing of the water pipes, the hotel's automatic sprinkler system failed, and the firefighting work after the firefighters arrived was also hindered. The hotel was fully booked when the fire broke out. Fortunately, the fire only caused a few minor injuries.

CNN reported that as of the morning of the 20th local time, about 85,000 households in Texas were still without power. While some other residents had normal power supply at home, they faced "sky-high electricity bills." According to reports, Texas resident Ty Williams said that the electricity bill for his house, guest room and office is usually $660 per month, but this time he was asked to pay $17,000 (about RMB 109,000), which is only the cost for the first half of February. Under the influence of the extreme weather of the snowstorm, the soaring energy usage pushed up the wholesale electricity price. The market price of electricity of some power companies is about 300 times higher than the usual price. Many families were told by the power company that the electricity bill was "about to explode."

In Texas, on the 20th, snow was still falling, and a long line formed outside a large supermarket in Austin. In order to buy food and drinking water, hundreds of residents stood in the cold wind for two or three hours. However, what greeted them was the pitiful amount of food on the shelves.

Resident of Austin, Texas, USA: I drove two and a half hours to get here. It was so cold that I felt I would get frostbite.

Austin, Texas, USA resident: The supermarket shelves are empty, with almost no vegetables or fruits. In fact, there is nothing on the shelves at all. All frozen foods are almost sold out. The supply of all goods is getting smaller and smaller. It has been snowing all the time. I just want to stock up now. I don't know when this crisis will end, so we can only prepare more.

Resident of Austin, Texas, USA: In order to buy some food, we have to wait in line for two to three hours, but when it comes to me, there is not much left. I have been wondering what to do in the next few days. The water supply is still seriously insufficient and the situation is becoming more and more terrible.

Eric Cooper, regional director of a charity in Texas, said: San Antonio is still struggling to fight the COVID-19 pandemic. This winter storm has increased the number of people receiving food relief from 60,000 per week to 120,000 per week. Driving on the road is very unsafe now, and the food supply chain is interrupted. Although we know there is a huge demand, it has become very difficult for all families to get the much-needed food, so we are going to give priority to providing food to those families who have lost power.

Faced with the winter storm that has been raging for days, Texas, known as the "energy heart" of the United States, has encountered an "energy crisis". Under the crisis, the Texas government has been criticized for its slow and inefficient response. American public opinion pointed out that Texas' poor performance this time was caused by the fact that the US government at all levels was unprepared for the disaster.

Elaine, a resident of Austin, Texas, USA: The official response is frustrating and actually increases anxiety. They haven't told us any practical solutions.

Regina Bissette, deputy director of medicine at Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, said the winter storm brought a "traumatic experience" to Texas hospitals. She pointed out that hospitals did not receive enough guidance before the winter storm, so they were completely unprepared.

The article stated that Texas' poor performance is the latest example of the US government's ineffective response to disasters. This problem has been exposed many times before and has become a long-standing problem that has plagued the US government. When Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, the US government was not well prepared and responded poorly, resulting in huge losses of life and property.

(Source: Cross-border Black Technology)