Hello and welcome to the 538 Politics Podcast.

I'm Gaelin Drouk.

Texas is in a dire situation.

Millions of people have been without power or heat and in some cases water, in freezing

cold temperatures for days because of severe blackouts.

At the time of recording, half a million Texans still don't have power.

According to reporting from the New York Times, at least 38 people have died this week in

the United States as a result of storm-related incidents, and it's likely that number will

continue to rise.

Officials in Galveston, Texas requested a refrigerated truck to collect bodies as they checked

in on members of the community.

People are angry and politicians are pointing fingers, so we're going to spend today's

podcast getting a sense of what is happening in Texas and where responsibility lies.

They're also, yes, going to talk about politics, it seems like the country has faced crisis

after crisis.

Remember, we're still in the middle of a pandemic that has taken nearly half a million lives.

So how does our political system react to crises that may be natural disasters, but also

involve human decision making?

Here with me to discuss is our politics editor, Sarah Frostensen, who is in Houston and

face power outages this week.

Hello, Sarah.

Hey, Gaelin.

...