COVID in the Context of Disaster
An unprecedented snowstorm of national scope leaves Texas in unlivable conditions and unable to fight COVID-19.
By Jenny Nguyen ‘24
A full year has passed since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, but now an imminent rival is competing for prominence in our national headlines.
On February 13th, Mother Nature birthed a snowstorm of historic proportions, overtaking the entire North American continent. Originating in the Pacific Northwest, the storm moved towards the southeast across the Sun Belt states and even into Mexico. After hitting Florida, the storm shifted towards the northeast, eventually targeting the entire East Coast and even parts of Canada.
Winter Storm Uri, as it is unofficially named, died within a few days only to be followed by its twin, Winter Storm Viola. As a result of these back-to-back snowstorms, the entire nation was left blanketed in an unprecedented volume of snow. Although all states witnessed record-breaking snowfall, Southern states in particular experienced the most extreme aftermath. With freezing temperatures, critical infrastructure began to fail. As a result, complications in electrical, hydrological, and gastronomical distribution emerged, leaving millions of people without heat, water, or food. For Texas, the only state in the nation to operate independently of the federal energy system, the situation was particularly dire. Because of their failure to anticipate, prepare for, and coordinate for such extreme weather conditions, electrical companies in Texas failed to serve their people. Without electricity, many were left to die of hypothermia or from the fear of hypothermia itself as people experimented with dangerous heat sources out of desperation. As of this writing, over 86 people have lost their lives due to these unlivable conditions. Unfortunately, the prolonged failure of electrical companies and leadership in Texas inevitably increased this number of casualties.
Under such critical conditions, the news that Texas will be receiving its largest vaccine shipment of 676,000 doses will not be met with the excitement and change it is worthy of. With citizens’ lives being jeopardized, the notion of defending against a virus has become degraded to the status of an insignificant hypothetical for millions of individuals. However, even for those who wish to take action against COVID in the current moment, the hazardous environmental conditions does not permit them to do so as thousands of testing clinics and vaccination sites state-wide shut down in response to the icy roads. With all vaccination efforts “grinding to a halt,” the President’s chief medical advisor, Dr. Anthony Fauci, asserts that health-care providers will be forced to go “double-time” immediately after Texas reestablishes some sense of normalcy. While there have been plans to mobilize health-workers to administer vaccines to homebound seniors, the practicality of this proposal depends solely on the timely restoration of electricity, water, and safe roads. The longevity of COVID resulting from these environmental barriers is exacerbated by the recent news that Governor Greg Abbott has decided to lift the mask mandate and bring Texas businesses back to operating at full capacity, a decision that deliberately contradicts the guidance from public health officials. With such clashing between politics, environment, and public health, the health disparities within Texas will only compound.
Figure 1: A screenshot taken on February 27th, on the Texas Department of Emergency Management displaying the locations of vaccinations and their respective status. As can be seen by the dominantly red color of the map, the majority of vaccination sites in Texas are unavailable.
With Mother Nature standing in the way of the Texans as they fight against COVID-19, it is clear that they will fall behind the rest of the nation. Because Texas is already among the lowest performing states for vaccine distribution, the winter storm’s effects will only worsen the state’s COVID response. Despite the inevitability of this setback, its magnitude can be minimized if Texas accelerates its recovery from this disastrous winter storm and re-enter the fight against COVID. By donating to non-profit organizations, such as the American Red Cross, Central Texas Food Bank, the Austin Area Urban League, and Feeding Texas, individuals can help to save lives, limit suffering, and get Texans back to their feet to fight.
As Representative Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez has so eloquently put it during her visit to Houston, “When disaster strikes, this is not just an issue for Texans; this is an issue for our country”. The turmoil and suffering that the people of Texas are facing is a direct reflection of America’s fragility. Thus, Americans from other states should do their part to get Texas back on track to fighting COVID-19 along with the rest of the nation.