Daily Times

Texas officials warned of “disasters within the disaster” of historic cold weather that left millions without heat for a third day on Wednesday, telling residents to prepare for energy to not return until the weekend.

Residents in over 100 counties in Texas have been told to boil their drinking water as treatment plants continue to suffer from energy blackouts, officials said. Upward of 12 million people in the state — the country’s second largest with a population of roughly 29 million — have either have no drinking water on tap in their homes or have drinking water available only intermittently.

Energy remains out for 2.7 million households, officials said. With freezing temperatures expected through the weekend, getting the lights back on will be a slow process, as the state has lost 40% of its generating capacity, with natural gas wells and pipelines, along with wind turbines, frozen shut.

Hospitals in Houston, the state’s largest city, and elsewhere in Texas have reported they have no water. Nearly two dozens deaths have been attributed to the cold snap. Officials say they suspect many more people have died – but their bodies have not been discovered yet.

On Wednesday evening, officials told residents in the most populous parts of the state to brace for another round of freezing rain and snow in the next 24 hours.