“THE GRAVE YARD DOESN’T LIE”
The Texas Winter Storm And Power Outages Killed Hundreds More People Than The State Says
A BuzzFeed News analysis shows the catastrophic failure of Texas’s power grid in February killed hundreds of medically vulnerable people.
Peter AldhousBuzzFeed News Reporter
Zahra HirjiBuzzFeed News Reporter
Posted on May 26, 2021,
The true number of people killed by the disastrous winter storm and power outages that devastated Texas in February is likely four or five times what the state has acknowledged so far. A BuzzFeed News data analysis reveals the hidden scale of a catastrophe that trapped millions of people in freezing darkness, cut off access to running water, and overwhelmed emergency services for days.
The state’s tally currently stands at 151 deaths. But by looking at how many more people died during and immediately after the storm than would have been expected — an established method that has been used to count the full toll of other disasters — we estimate that 700 people were killed by the storm during the week with the worst power outages. This astonishing toll exposes the full consequence of officials’ neglect in preventing the power grid’s collapse despite repeated warnings of its vulnerability to cold weather, as well as the state’s failure to reckon with the magnitude of the crisis that followed.
Many of the uncounted victims of the storm and power outages were already medically vulnerable — with chronic conditions including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and kidney problems. But without the intense cold and stress they experienced during the crisis, many of these people could still be alive today.
This was the case for 80-year-old Julius Gonzales, his family believes. As dawn broke on February 15, he made his way to one of his regular dialysis appointments, only to find that the clinic had lost power and was closed. So the retired maintenance worker turned his Dodge Ram around and headed back to the mobile home he’d shared with his wife, Mary, in the small town of Arcola, Texas, for nearly 20 years.
So began the last 24 hours of his life
In its count of deaths caused by the winter storm, the Texas Department of State Health Services is relying heavily on records submitted from officials in individual counties. Most are confirmed deaths from hypothermia. But the official count also includes accidents on the ice and carbon monoxide poisoning. So far, relatively few of these deaths are people with existing medical problems that were exacerbated by the storm and power outages.
Although government agencies have traditionally accounted for the impact of disasters using narrow counts like the one being run by Texas officials, there is a growing recognition that this method may vastly underestimate the true toll.
The problem came into stark relief in the weeks after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017, when news organizations, including BuzzFeed News, provided evidence that many more people had died as the island struggled with the collapse of its power grid than the official count of 64 killed by the storm.
Eventually, Puerto Rico’s governor commissioned a comprehensive analysis from researchers at George Washington University in Washington, DC, which estimated that 2,975 more people than expected died between September 2017 and February 2018, as large parts of the island went without power for months. This is now accepted by the authorities in Puerto Rico as the official toll from Hurricane Maria and the subsequent power outages.
The Texas Department of State Health Services did not respond to requests for comment on our findings on the death toll from the winter storm or whether they would investigate further.
According to the experts consulted by BuzzFeed News, “excess deaths” analyses like the GWU report on Hurricane Maria and our accounting for the Texas winter storm provide the best way to measure the full impact of major disasters.
Ariel Karlinsky, an economist and statistician at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who is compiling the World Mortality Dataset to aid similar studies of the deaths caused by disasters and diseases, put it this way: “The graveyard doesn’t lie.”
Thomas Shea / AFP via Getty Image
Power lines in Texas City, Texas, Feb. 19
In the winter storm’s aftermath, the governor, elected politicians, and the public demanded answers about how Texas’s grid could fail so spectacularly and who was to blame.
The Texas legislature grilled leaders at ERCOT, a nonprofit overseeing the state’s grid, and the Public Utility Commission of Texas, which regulates ERCOT, about why more wasn’t done to prepare for power supply problems and warn the public about what could happen. Since then, ERCOT fired its CEO and at least seven of its board members have resigned. Additionally, the state’s three commissioners at the PUC all resigned.
Now all eyes are on the state legislature, which is debating a sprawling bill that would empower state regulators to require power providers, including some natural gas operators, to protect their equipment against cold weather or face financial penalties. The bill passed the Senate, and an updated version just passed the House. The chambers have a week to resolve their differences and send the proposal to the governor’s office to get signed into law.
But for many families who lost loved ones during the storm, none of these steps are enough. So far, the relatives of more than 60 people who died during the disaster have filed wrongful death lawsuits against ERCOT, the state’s primary grid operator, as well as specific power providers, according to the lawyers representing these cases. Dozens more families may follow suit.
The Dallas-based law firm Fears Nachawati, for example, is representing the families of about 80 people who died during the storm. “Some people just froze to death in their chair,” said lawyer Majed Nachawati.
“It’s astounding and it is disturbing, and our job is to make sure we hold the [power] generators, who we believe primarily responsible, accountable for the untimely deaths of these 80 deceased victims,” Nachawati said. “Those people being mothers, fathers, children, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters.”
In response, ERCOT has argued in court filings that “it is entitled to sovereign immunity due to its organization and function as an arm of State government.” But whether or not this is true is still an open question.
When an unrelated case challenging ERCOT’s assertion that it is shielded from liability went before the Texas Supreme Court in March, the justices punted on making a decision.
For some families, the failure to account for the full toll of the storm and power outages could have serious financial consequences. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is offering assistance with funeral expenses for families who lacked insurance or other help with the costs. But the deadline to apply was May 20, and to qualify, applicants needed to confirm that the death had been directly or indirectly attributed to the disaster by state, local, or tribal medical officials.
As of May 17, FEMA had paid out in just two cases.
In response to questions from BuzzFeed News about what happens if any deaths are linked to the storm after the May 20 deadline, the agency responded by email: “In order for FEMA to process late registrations, applicants must submit a letter to FEMA that explains the extenuating circumstances that prevented them from applying for assistance in a timely manner.”
Producing a more accurate count of the deaths linked to the storm may help bring closure to some grieving Texan families. It is also vital so that the authorities responsible for the state’s infrastructure, emergency services, and disaster responses can learn what needs to be done to prevent a future tragedy of a similar magnitude.
“We need to know who’s most at risk,” said Casey, the environmental epidemiologist at Columbia University. “Right now we’re missing big chunks of data and a lot of people are getting missed out of this accounting.”
Michael Starghill Jr. for BuzzFeed News
Mary Gonzales at her home in Arcola, Texas, on May 22
In Arcola, Julius Gonzales’s sudden death has left his family with a host of financial problems. The trailer that he and his wife lived in was in his name, and Mary Gonzales wanted it transferred to hers. But for that to happen, she said, the bank told her that she’d have to pay off the mortgage in full right away. She decided that she couldn’t afford that, so she is surrendering the home. While she grieves, she is deciding which of a half-century’s worth of their possessions to keep when she moves into her son’s house next door.
Another source of stress was the medical examiner’s delay in issuing an official cause of death. Having worked in maintenance for the nearby city of Stafford for more than two decades, Julius had accrued a pension that was supporting them both after he retired. But without a final death certificate to show the city, his wife said she was not able to access that money.
Three months after Julius died — after his funeral was held, after he was cremated — his family finally received the certificate on May 18.
While having it solves some problems, it still doesn’t answer Mary’s biggest question: Could her husband’s death have been prevented?
“When you’re middle-class and — not poor, but you don’t know a lot — you just stay in the dark,” Mary said. “Nobody hears about you.” ●
Posted on May 26, 2021,
The true number of people killed by the disastrous winter storm and power outages that devastated Texas in February is likely four or five times what the state has acknowledged so far. A BuzzFeed News data analysis reveals the hidden scale of a catastrophe that trapped millions of people in freezing darkness, cut off access to running water, and overwhelmed emergency services for days.
The state’s tally currently stands at 151 deaths. But by looking at how many more people died during and immediately after the storm than would have been expected — an established method that has been used to count the full toll of other disasters — we estimate that 700 people were killed by the storm during the week with the worst power outages. This astonishing toll exposes the full consequence of officials’ neglect in preventing the power grid’s collapse despite repeated warnings of its vulnerability to cold weather, as well as the state’s failure to reckon with the magnitude of the crisis that followed.
Many of the uncounted victims of the storm and power outages were already medically vulnerable — with chronic conditions including cardiovascular disease, diabetes, and kidney problems. But without the intense cold and stress they experienced during the crisis, many of these people could still be alive today.
This was the case for 80-year-old Julius Gonzales, his family believes. As dawn broke on February 15, he made his way to one of his regular dialysis appointments, only to find that the clinic had lost power and was closed. So the retired maintenance worker turned his Dodge Ram around and headed back to the mobile home he’d shared with his wife, Mary, in the small town of Arcola, Texas, for nearly 20 years.
So began the last 24 hours of his life
In its count of deaths caused by the winter storm, the Texas Department of State Health Services is relying heavily on records submitted from officials in individual counties. Most are confirmed deaths from hypothermia. But the official count also includes accidents on the ice and carbon monoxide poisoning. So far, relatively few of these deaths are people with existing medical problems that were exacerbated by the storm and power outages.
Although government agencies have traditionally accounted for the impact of disasters using narrow counts like the one being run by Texas officials, there is a growing recognition that this method may vastly underestimate the true toll.
The problem came into stark relief in the weeks after Hurricane Maria hit Puerto Rico in 2017, when news organizations, including BuzzFeed News, provided evidence that many more people had died as the island struggled with the collapse of its power grid than the official count of 64 killed by the storm.
Eventually, Puerto Rico’s governor commissioned a comprehensive analysis from researchers at George Washington University in Washington, DC, which estimated that 2,975 more people than expected died between September 2017 and February 2018, as large parts of the island went without power for months. This is now accepted by the authorities in Puerto Rico as the official toll from Hurricane Maria and the subsequent power outages.
The Texas Department of State Health Services did not respond to requests for comment on our findings on the death toll from the winter storm or whether they would investigate further.
According to the experts consulted by BuzzFeed News, “excess deaths” analyses like the GWU report on Hurricane Maria and our accounting for the Texas winter storm provide the best way to measure the full impact of major disasters.
Ariel Karlinsky, an economist and statistician at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem who is compiling the World Mortality Dataset to aid similar studies of the deaths caused by disasters and diseases, put it this way: “The graveyard doesn’t lie.”
Thomas Shea / AFP via Getty Image
Power lines in Texas City, Texas, Feb. 19
In the winter storm’s aftermath, the governor, elected politicians, and the public demanded answers about how Texas’s grid could fail so spectacularly and who was to blame.
The Texas legislature grilled leaders at ERCOT, a nonprofit overseeing the state’s grid, and the Public Utility Commission of Texas, which regulates ERCOT, about why more wasn’t done to prepare for power supply problems and warn the public about what could happen. Since then, ERCOT fired its CEO and at least seven of its board members have resigned. Additionally, the state’s three commissioners at the PUC all resigned.
Now all eyes are on the state legislature, which is debating a sprawling bill that would empower state regulators to require power providers, including some natural gas operators, to protect their equipment against cold weather or face financial penalties. The bill passed the Senate, and an updated version just passed the House. The chambers have a week to resolve their differences and send the proposal to the governor’s office to get signed into law.
But for many families who lost loved ones during the storm, none of these steps are enough. So far, the relatives of more than 60 people who died during the disaster have filed wrongful death lawsuits against ERCOT, the state’s primary grid operator, as well as specific power providers, according to the lawyers representing these cases. Dozens more families may follow suit.
The Dallas-based law firm Fears Nachawati, for example, is representing the families of about 80 people who died during the storm. “Some people just froze to death in their chair,” said lawyer Majed Nachawati.
“It’s astounding and it is disturbing, and our job is to make sure we hold the [power] generators, who we believe primarily responsible, accountable for the untimely deaths of these 80 deceased victims,” Nachawati said. “Those people being mothers, fathers, children, aunts, uncles, brothers, sisters.”
In response, ERCOT has argued in court filings that “it is entitled to sovereign immunity due to its organization and function as an arm of State government.” But whether or not this is true is still an open question.
When an unrelated case challenging ERCOT’s assertion that it is shielded from liability went before the Texas Supreme Court in March, the justices punted on making a decision.
For some families, the failure to account for the full toll of the storm and power outages could have serious financial consequences. The Federal Emergency Management Agency is offering assistance with funeral expenses for families who lacked insurance or other help with the costs. But the deadline to apply was May 20, and to qualify, applicants needed to confirm that the death had been directly or indirectly attributed to the disaster by state, local, or tribal medical officials.
As of May 17, FEMA had paid out in just two cases.
In response to questions from BuzzFeed News about what happens if any deaths are linked to the storm after the May 20 deadline, the agency responded by email: “In order for FEMA to process late registrations, applicants must submit a letter to FEMA that explains the extenuating circumstances that prevented them from applying for assistance in a timely manner.”
Producing a more accurate count of the deaths linked to the storm may help bring closure to some grieving Texan families. It is also vital so that the authorities responsible for the state’s infrastructure, emergency services, and disaster responses can learn what needs to be done to prevent a future tragedy of a similar magnitude.
“We need to know who’s most at risk,” said Casey, the environmental epidemiologist at Columbia University. “Right now we’re missing big chunks of data and a lot of people are getting missed out of this accounting.”
Michael Starghill Jr. for BuzzFeed News
Mary Gonzales at her home in Arcola, Texas, on May 22
In Arcola, Julius Gonzales’s sudden death has left his family with a host of financial problems. The trailer that he and his wife lived in was in his name, and Mary Gonzales wanted it transferred to hers. But for that to happen, she said, the bank told her that she’d have to pay off the mortgage in full right away. She decided that she couldn’t afford that, so she is surrendering the home. While she grieves, she is deciding which of a half-century’s worth of their possessions to keep when she moves into her son’s house next door.
Another source of stress was the medical examiner’s delay in issuing an official cause of death. Having worked in maintenance for the nearby city of Stafford for more than two decades, Julius had accrued a pension that was supporting them both after he retired. But without a final death certificate to show the city, his wife said she was not able to access that money.
Three months after Julius died — after his funeral was held, after he was cremated — his family finally received the certificate on May 18.
While having it solves some problems, it still doesn’t answer Mary’s biggest question: Could her husband’s death have been prevented?
“When you’re middle-class and — not poor, but you don’t know a lot — you just stay in the dark,” Mary said. “Nobody hears about you.” ●
EXERPT THE ARTICLE IS VERY LONG AND THOROUGH
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