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Texas was freezing, and Senator Ted
Cruz was looking forward to sizzling his way to a Cancun vacation.
People didn’t have drinking water and were advised to boil
anything that came out of their faucets. That’s easy enough to
do when you have no power. Some resorted to burning their furniture,
fences, and anything else they could get their hands on. A woman and
her two grandchildren perished from flames when they lit a fire in
their fireplace to stay warm. Children died from the cold, and
Texas’s Electric Reliability Council (ERCOT) is being sued.
They’ve sent people five-figure electricity bills, and the
absentee governor says power cannot be cut off for nonpayment.
The
rest of the nation is looking at Texas (and Louisiana and Oklahoma,
but Texas is in the worst shape) with shock and horror. People have
queued up for food, water, and heat. Many have left their homes to
shelter with friends, only to return to frozen pipes and flooded
floors. Others have thronged to Gallery Furniture, where the
civic-minded “Mattress Mack,” Jim MCIngvale, opened his
store so people could rest in warmth. People slept on high-end beds,
recliners, sofas, and other furniture, ate snacks and drank water
that they could not find at home.
Houston
Mayor Sylvester Turner called the crisis the result of “twenty
years of bad government.” He criticized state leadership for
the situation and said the state, not individuals, should be
responsible for excessive bills. Other mayors, leaders, and
Congressional representatives talked about the lack of planning. They
seemed resigned to the crisis, which can’t be resolved until
people have running water and their homes are repaired. Could this
happen in Washington, DC, New York, Denver, or San Francisco? What
can we learn from the Texas calamity?
Firstly,
we must acknowledge that our infrastructure is crumbling. The
American Society of Civil Engineers reports that our infrastructure -
our highways and bridges, water systems, and dams - has long been
neglected and is crumbling. President Biden has an excellent
opportunity to generate jobs and repair our aging infrastructure, and
it is an effort that should garner bipartisan support. Texas reminds
us how fragile our infrastructure is and how much it will cost us,
both in money and human misery, if we continue to ignore it.
The
Texas debacle should also remind us how intertwined we are. The Texas
swashbuckling “go it alone” attitude kept them
disconnected from national electric grids that might have been able
to help when ERCOT could not. In the end, even though former Governor
Rick Perry said he would prefer to freeze than have the federal
government involved, President Biden declared Texas an emergency and
ordered the Federal Emergency Management Agency to direct resources
to Texas. The National Guard is delivering food, water, shelter, and
other emergency relief. New York Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio
Cortez crossed both state and party lines to provide emergency
supplies. I don’t think former Governor Perry would turn this
assistance down. What a difference an administration makes! While the
previous president would have undoubtedly gone to one of the places
where people have lined to throw water bottles just like he threw
paper towels in Puerto Rico, President Biden has eschewed the
spotlight and quietly directed resources to Texas.
Senator
Ted Cruz provides a lesson from Texas regarding class, race, and
access. He had the money to jump on a plane and take his family with
him. Too many don’t have that access. Disasters hit most people
hard, but they hit some people harder. When we develop disaster
relief, we must be mindful of the inequalities that every disaster
reveals. Those who are privileged should not be allowed to exert
their privilege during a disaster.
Kudos
to AOC, Beto O’Rourke, Sheila Jackson Lee, among others who
have stepped up to help. Texas is a tragedy, but it is also an
opportunity to learn more about planning and prevention.
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