A rare winter storm recently caused power and water outages in Texas in the southern United States. In addition, some necessities and electricity prices have also soared. According to Russia Today (RT) on the 21st, a Texas woman said after receiving a “sky-high” electricity bill, “I absolutely can’t afford it”.
According to the report, the name of the woman is Akira Scott-Amos. The pipe in her house burst and the water has been cut for four days. However, this is not the worst thing.
In bad weather, luckily, there was only one short power outage in her home. However, when she received the electricity bill, the figure on it was as high as 11,000 US dollars.
“I absolutely can’t afford [the electricity bill,” Scott Amos said of the huge bill, who has been saving as much electricity as she can during those tough days.
Scott Amos also mentioned that “unfortunately, they impose this on wage and middle-class families, which will overwhelm many people financially.”
The New York Daily News previously reported that Scott Amos revealed in an interview with the media that on the 13th, her household appliances had “jumped” $450, and as of the day of the interview, the household electricity bill had exceeded $6,000.
Why is the electricity bill of Scott Amos so high?
The reason why Scott Amos was charged such a high electricity bill is related to the operators who provide power services to it.
RT said that when the market was stable, the cost of electricity at the Scott-Amos family during this period was usually between $40 and $50; but in crisis situations, electricity bills became a “disaster”.
Scott Amos first shared her story with the media, according to the report, many Texas families with similar experiences contacted her.” People have stopped using electricity because they can’t afford it, which has reached this point,” she called on the relevant authorities to intervene.
“This period should not be time to raise prices.”
Affected by the polar cold current, parts of Texas began to encounter snow, ice, freezing rain, etc. on the night of February 14, causing road surfaces to freeze, roads to be closed and widespread power outages.
The state’s power reliability committee announced on the 15th that the state has entered a “three-level warning of electricity emergency”, and the regions rotated to pull the brakes and limit power. As the winter storm fades away, electricity in Texas is gradually recovering.
The Texas Electricity Reliability Commission announced on the 19th that it would lift the state’s “three-level warning of electricity emergency” and that there would no longer be a need to pull the brakes and limit electricity in turn.
On February 20, local time, the White House issued a statement that President Biden had declared a major disaster in Texas on the 19th and ordered the U.S. federal government to provide assistance to support the recovery of state and local governments since the winter storm on February 11.
