Garland/Rowlett Electrical Outage Disaster
In Garland and Rowlett, folks were beginning to venture out as the snow began to melt on Saturday, February 20. As they did, they found that grocery store shelves were empty. Bread and milk were especially in short supply. There was a great demand for bottled water, as many homes and businesses were out of water due to broken pipes. A Garland neighbor who called a plumber for a water pipe repair, was told that she would be number 200 on the list, and someone would try to help her within the next two weeks. With electricity now restored, it appears that a water shortage could become our next big challenge.
If one thing doesn’t kill us, another might, so don’t forget we’re in the midst of a pandemic. The covid 19 immunization program will resume and will proceed as planned.
Many of us suffered day long electrical outages, with no light or heat in extreme cold for several days. The outages were geographically irregular. We learned that we are on circuits, and some of those circuits are “critical”, such as those that surround hospitals and police stations. Those fortunate enough to live within a “critical” circuit experienced no outages at all. That does not explain the irregularities among the rest of us in the non critical circuited areas. In South Garland outages lasted for more than 24 hours at a time, accounting for frozen pipes and loss of water supply. Friends in North Garland experienced outages lasting 8 hours or less, in some cases. We want to know why some of us were made to suffer so much more than others. We are searching for answers.
Nancy Ghirla
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