Here in Texas, Hell has frozen over

‘If I owned Texas and Hell,’ General Phil Sheridan famously said, ‘I would rent out Texas and live in Hell.’ Although the weather was unusually warm for the season in central Texas we guessed something was up when, in broad daylight with hawks about, our normally crepuscular attic mice risked running down a porch pillar and gathering the spilled seed from bird feeders. They vanished completely days before the snowstorm struck. Sadly, some of our birds were not so prescient. We watched a bewildered Audubon’s warbler, which could no longer fly, hopping about in the snow. Either it had lost the main flock continuing south, or good weather had persuaded it to stay. Trying not to frighten it, my wife made sure it was fed. Ultimately, it did not resist when Linda found a small insulated box and brought it inside. It died a few hours later.

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Things certainly haven’t been cosy recently. Before the freeze set in, people here had no experience of real cold. They simply could not imagine it. In a state identified with the production of energy, no preparations were made for what has become a national disaster, with hospitals shutting down and hotels opening as ‘warming centres’ for people without heat or, often, food and water. Covid super-spreaders, of course. People have no choice.

Power stations in the southern USA are typically left uncovered to deal with extreme heat. This complicates things when we get an unprecedented winter storm, ‘the worst in history’. Drivers, unused to ice, caused terrible multi-vehicle accidents. Ambulances could not get to emergencies. Helicopters were sparse. Patients remain at risk, without power. Many cannot call for help because they have lost internet and chargers. Few pipes were lagged. Treatment plants backed up, poisoning the mains supply.