TEXAS—Two years ago, Texas froze over. While temperatures were certainly survivable, Texas infrastructure was not made to withstand it, leaving an opening for dangers. As a result, 246 people died during the Winter Storm of 2021.

With the most recent cold temperatures, many Texans, like senior Chloe Bradford, have proceeded to prepare for the cold, while some prepared for the worst.

“I have lived in South Texas for two years and honestly, I’m never ready for when the cold temps come around. They always take me by surprise. To prepare for the cold weather I make sure I bring all of my animals indoors and wear warm clothes,” said Bradford. Other people may drip faucets and wrap up any plants they have around their houses.

In other states, especially those up north, people are confused by Texas’ need to do all of these things in 30-degree weather. To understand that, there are some other things to understand first.

The first thing to remember is that the Texas power grid was not made to deal with the cold. Because Texas is not on the national power grid, it could not draw from it when the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT)’s failure to winterize caused an inability to keep up with demand. ERCOT ordered mass rolling power outages to keep up.

When power was cut, some people went without power for extended periods while others never lost power at all, displaying ERCOT’s failure to roll the blackouts they ordered. While this may not seem awful, Texas homes were not made for cold weather. Homes in Texas are made to keep heat out and keep people cool in the summer. So add cold temperatures ranging into below zero temps in Dallas-Fort Worth. 

Plenty of people in Texas deal with the cold regularly but that doesn’t make it enjoyable for people who live in hot weather most of the time.

“When I was younger I lived in El Paso for a while and during the winter it was a lot colder and I wore multiple layers when I would play outside. I don’t personally like the cold though,” said senior JP Urtado. 

It’s important to show compassion to each other as Texas goes through the resurfacing of the tragedy that happened in 2021, and not be too quick to judge the preparedness of people in a situation that may not be understood.