2.6+ million Texans without power with no end in sight

Anderson Cooper 360

CNN

News

3.7 • 3.8K Ratings

🗓️ 18 February 2021

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A winter storm and lengthy cold snap has crippled power facilities in Texas and left more than 2.6 million people without power for several days. The outages cover the area served by the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, and some Texas officials have pointed the blame at the power company and some are blaming Republican Governor Greg Abbott for failing to adequately prepare for the storm. Beto O’Rourke is a former Democratic Presidential Candidate and was a U.S. Congressman representing the district around El Paso. He joins AC360 to discuss the power crisis in Texas. Plus, several states across the country are forced to delay Covid-19 vaccinations due to the extreme winter weather. Meanwhile, studies suggest both the Pfizer and Moderna vaccines can protect against the current known coronavirus variants. Dr. Anthony Fauci is the Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. He tells Anderson Cooper we should be in good shape if we roll out the vaccine appropriately, efficiently and effectively while maintaining public health measures. Airdate: February 17, 2021 Guests: Beto O’Rourke Dr. Anthony Fauci To learn more about how CNN protects listener privacy, visit cnn.com/privacy Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Transcript

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0:00.0	The evening we have breaking news, hopeful news tonight on the effectiveness of the two
0:04.4	publicly available COVID vaccines, even against new strains of the virus. Dr. Anthony Fauci
0:09.2	is going to be here live to talk about that in just a moment. But first, it is anything
0:12.7	but a good evening for millions of Americans who are without power tonight, some without
0:16.6	heat or even running water. For yet another record-setting day, they're facing the harsh
0:20.9	reality of cold temperatures and places simply unprepared for it.
0:24.9	Fortis hit is Texas, where water lines have burst, gas lines have frozen, and power lines
0:29.7	are down. Some of the more than 2.6 million households without heat or power have been
0:34.3	forced into community warming centers where available. Others have been sick and are killed
0:38.9	by carbon monoxide from makeshift heating arrangements.
0:42.2	One Houston area furniture store owner opened up two of his locations for people to stay
0:46.5	in. He did the same after Hurricane Harvey, but even remarkable individual acts of kindness
0:51.5	they can only go so far. The problems right now are statewide, affect millions, and instead
0:56.8	of taking responsibility, it seems some top state officials are doing anything but, Ed Lebendera
1:02.0	is in Dallas for us tonight. So what's the latest?
1:05.4	Well, Anderson, right now the bottom line is the question that everybody wants to, once
1:10.6	the answer to is exactly when is the power going to be fully restored across the state, and
1:16.6	sadly tonight, we don't have a firm timeline on one exactly that is happening.
1:22.2	The state officials with the power grid systems say that they are essentially at the mercy,
1:27.2	at the power plants across the state to get the power systems back online. There are about
1:32.8	680 power plants across the state. We were told that about 180 of those have been impacted
1:39.1	in some way. The officials here are saying they're hoping that the power could be fully
	...

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