Karen Gleason
Members of community organizations from across Texas are calling for immediate accountability and reforms following crippling cold that left many Del Rioans without electricity and water for days.
Members of the Texas Industrial Areas Foundation (IAF) Network of community organizations, which includes The Border Organization in Val Verde County, met virtually with members of the media from across the state.
“We talked about the message that we want to get out there publicly, and our message really was this: We believe that this lack of response comes down to greed,” Del Rioan Sandra Fuentes, a co-chair of The Border Organization, said Thursday following the meeting.
Fuentes said she learned Wednesday the state has a plan created in 2012 to winterize its energy transmission infrastructure.
“They never did it. It’s like everything else. It looks really good on paper, but they never did it. It’s just sitting there,” Fuentes added.
She said the community organizations are calling on state leaders to take another look at the plan and implement it.
Fuentes said during the press conference organization members shared stories from their communities about the difficulties faced by residents of their towns and cities. Record cold Texas temperatures led to electricity shutdowns across the state, and resulted in the closure of Del Rio’s water treatment plant.
“There was a story from the Rio Grande Valley of a 76-year-old woman who’s been getting into her car every night for the last four nights so she could sleep where it was warm,” Fuentes said.
The Network of Texas IAF Organizations is asking Texas Gov. Greg Abbott to immediately release state funds to local governments for food, water and other supplies, to work with FEMA and other federal agencies “to bring immediate national assistance to Texas” and to restructure the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) to ensure such an event does not happen again.
“We’d like our state leaders, past and present, to spend three days in San Felipe or Chihuahua, in some house without electricity or water for two or three nights and then tell us the things they’re telling us,” Fuentes said.
