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Local emergency responders are on standby with ongoing ice storm in Texas

It's the 2nd major winter event in Texas in two years. The last event was a cold snap that caused billions of dollars in damage and raised utility prices nationwide.

MINNEAPOLIS — Slipping and sliding on the street is a way of life during Minnesota winters, but even us northerners rarely see ice as bad as what Texas is dealing with this week.

"This is a severe ice storm, and we would be experiencing similar problems,” Hennepin County Emergency Management Director Eric Waage says.

The biggest problem is the ice weighing down power lines.

According to the tracking website PowerOutage.us more than 366,000 Texas homes and businesses were without power Thursday morning.

“They also don’t have the equipment to get out there and deal with some of this ice. Many areas may not even have any plows. I’ve heard of places that when they get snow, they drive around their fleet of garbage trucks to try to make ruts at least let people get out onto the roads.”

Waage says many homes down south also aren't built for the cold, so emergency managers in Texas may be dealing with more frozen pipes and other problems.

He says Texas emergency managers can request assistance from other emergency departments by using the nationwide Emergency Management Assistance Compact (EMAC), but so far Waage says he has not seen any official request submitted at this time.

Dave Schoeneck says he and a few hundred other Red Cross volunteers in the Midwest are also on standby in case more helped is needed.

“I’m ready to go when they call,” Schoeneck says.

He says power outages can be dangerous in winter, especially when residents aren't used to the cold, and emergency crews can't get to them.

"The icy road conditions are keeping everyone in place right now, so there’s not a lot of movement,” Schoeneck explains.

“I don’t expect to get the call, but if it comes we’ll be ready.”

This ice storm comes after an unusually cold winter in Texas in 2021 that also caused massive outages and loss of life.

Waage says if emergency responders in Texas weren't worried about winter before, they certainly are now.

"It may not make sense to suddenly have a whole fleet of plows and stuff down in Dallas, but there are still things they could be doing and I'm definitely sure they are thinking about those."

Utilities say that cold snap from 2021 caused billions of dollars in infrastructure damage and also had a big impact on natural gas prices nationwide.

We asked Center Point Energy whether this ongoing ice storm in Texas could also raise rates here in Minnesota.

The company says at this time they are not expecting any pricing or supply issues for their customers.

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