Winter Storm Uri: Looking back three years later

TEXAS, USA — The weather is looking quite a bit different in San Antonio than it did exactly three years ago, when the area was in the grip of a winter storm that hit just before Valentine’s Day.

The historic ice storm, called Winter Storm Uri, began on February 12, 2021 and brought several days of dangerously cold temperatures. Winter Storm Alerts lasted for a full eight days, hundreds of people lost their lives, and thousands of people across the state lost heat, electricity and access to food and medical supplies.

Roads in central and south Texas began to get icy on Friday, Feb. 12, with multiple accidents causing hours-long delays along I-10 in the Hill Country. Winter Storm Warnings began on Saturday, Feb. 13.

At the peak of the power outages, on Monday, Feb. 15, more than 4.5 million Texas homes and businesses were without power. That’s more than 30% of customers. To make matters worse, another winter storm system moved through San Antonio Tuesday night, bringing freezing rain to fall on snow-covered surfaces.

Rolling outages continued through the week. 

Four days later, nearly half a million homes and businesses were still without power. Friday night and Saturday morning were the final hours San Antonio reached below-freezing temperatures. On Saturday afternoon, temperatures were in the mid-50s and power started to return to residents en masse. 

The Texas Department of State Health Service reports 246 people died in the storm in Texas, although other surveys found that the death toll may have been much higher. 

Data analysts agree that it is hard to determine exactly how many people died from the effects of Winter Storm Uri.

According to reports, Bexar County says 16 people died as a result of the storm.

In June of 2023, the Texas Supreme Court ruled ERCOT can’t be sued over the storm because of sovereign immunity. It largely shields government agencies from civil lawsuits. After power and electric companies filed suits against ERCOT, the Texas Supreme Court had to decide if ERCOT is a governmental unit that gets sovereign immunity. The decision with 5-4 with four of the dissenters determining that they were not entitled to sovereign immunity because of the fact that they were a privately-created entity.

Various other lawsuit were filed by individuals who were affected in different ways and are seeking to force change in the system. Thousands accused power companies, distribution companies, electric grid operators and others of failing to prepare properly for the storm. Some of the many plaintiffs include a person whose house caught fire when power was restored, another who had both feet amputated after getting frostbite and a disabled person whose ceiling collapsed on him while he was in bed.

One expert estimated the cost of the freeze was as high as 200-300 billion dollars,  in a report released by the American Society of Civil Engineers. . The economic impact of the 2021 ice storm was greater than the impact from either of the two most costly hurricanes2 in US history, Harvey ($145B) or Katrina ($161B), the report says.

The disaster also prompted calls to reform the system. Legislators required power generators and natural gas producers to prepare their infrastructure better for the extreme cold, among other fixes.