Oh, my God!
The scale of the disaster in Texas
is just becoming clear.
Repairing the damage from burst pipes, power outages,
and fires could cost insurance companies
more than $20 billion.
Dozens have died, and that number is expected to climb.
The weather may have turned,
but the fallout will last for months.
I'm afraid people think, well, the snow is melted,
the weather is warm, it's over. But it's not.
It's not over.
People here are hungry, they're thirsty.
So how did this likely become
the most expensive weather event in Texas history?
The power shut off in Sarah Habel's Austin apartment
around 2 a.m. on Monday, February 15.
Without heat, neighbors lit fires to stay warm.
Soon enough, Sarah and her husband heard sirens.
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to have a fire right now.
That would just be awful."
And then two minutes later, there was pounding on the door.
They grabbed whatever they could,
then fled into the 12-degree night
and watched their building burn.
There was almost 10 inches of snow on the ground out here.
My son didn't have any shoes.
As indoor temperatures dropped without heat,
dozens of fires like these were reported across the state.
She lit a fire in her fireplace,
and it ended up burning her house down.
Insurance claims from fires, flooding,
and other damage are likely to hit $20 billion,
according to the Insurance Council of Texas.
That's more than the US spends
maintaining its nuclear weapons program each year.
And that doesn't even factor in repairs
to public infrastructure like schools and power plants.
I mean, what's this going to cost,
billions and billions of dollars?
This storm will rival the damage
from Hurricane Harvey, which cost $125 billion
when you account for everything from individual payouts
to federal disaster relief.
A week after this year's storm,
state and local governments had already spent almost
$100 million dollars on emergency response.
Tens of thousands of homes have burst pipes.
I woke up and I heard water running, and I turned around,
saw it coming out of the ceiling.
According to State Farm,
the average frozen pipe claim in Texas last year
was over $10,000.
That means in Houston alone, home repairs from water damage
could cost more than $560 million.
I don't think there's enough plumbers in this state
to fix everybody's plumbing right now.
Left without water for days,
some residents took extreme measures.
I'm melting buckets
and buckets of ice.
Those with running water
were told it wasn't safe to drink.
Right now, we're boiling some water
to use for the house.
Over a week after the storm hit,
almost 9 million Texans
were still told to boil their water before using it.
Bottled water prices reportedly doubled overnight,
so the state opened distribution sites
for those without water.
Prices at grocery stores soared amid the spike in demand,
while stores without power were forced
to throw out perishables.
Boxes and boxes of food.
That's crazy.
In a suburb of Austin,
city leaders don't all agree that it's worth investing
in preventative measures like running power cables
underground or buying snowplows.
When it comes to preparing for a storm like this,
unfortunately it's going to have to hit a couple more times
before I would think that it was worth spending
tax dollars on something.
The severity and pace of storms are increasing.
Research suggests that climate change is causing
the polar vortex, an area of cold air
and low pressure, to dip from its normal spot
in the Arctic into North America.
During the storm, parts of Texas hit temperatures colder
than cities in Alaska, Norway, and Sweden.
Last year, the US had 22 weather and climate events
that cost more than $1 billion each.
In this storm, the huge repair bill and cost to human life
could have been avoided if the state of Texas had invested
in weatherproofing from the get-go,
but it's more expensive to upgrade infrastructure
after the fact.
Every sort of contingency preparedness costs money.
And so we're going to have to figure out whether or not
we're willing to make that investment in our infrastructure
so that this doesn't happen again.
AccuWeather estimated that the national cost
of this storm would be between $45 billion and $50 billion.
For Sarah and her family, the costs have added up quickly.
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So you know, the entire half of the city
is looking for places to live.
That means warming centers and shelters
are packed with people, raising COVID concerns.
The Habels spent a night in a shelter like this one
before they found a hotel.
We just need help down here, and we need to feel
like our state government actually cares about us.
Because right now, I don't feel that at all.
Within hours of the storm starting,
40% of the power supply was offline.
And some providers charged as much as 180 times
the average cost for that energy.
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Why didn't they take care of it then?
Because it costs too much?
It actually doesn't cost too much.
Winterizing a natural gas well can cost less than 1%
of the total expense, according
to the Gas Technology Institute.
Weatherproof wind turbines cost about 5% more
with slightly reduced output.
But the decision not to winterize
left the public to pay the price —
over $50 billion in electricity in just five days,
compared to $4 billion the week before the storm.
Meanwhile, the CFO of a gas company bragged to shareholders
about the skyrocketing cost of gas.
Obviously, this week is like hitting the jackpot
of these incredible prices.
While at least a few companies saw ways
to profit, the public will be picking up the tab.