Frigid weather knocks out water in El Paso

[harvey007]

Source: Houston Chronicle

El Paso's mayor declared a water emergency Sunday to stiffen enforcement of a ban that restricts residents and businesses from using water for anything but drinking.

Mayor John Cook took the step after frigid temperatures put some of El Paso's water distribution network out of commission, prompting a water shortage.

The emergency proclamation allows the city to cut off water service to customers found to have violated the restrictions. Hospitals and other emergency services are exempt. A citywide alert continues urging the public to boil water before drinking.

Read more: http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/7415950.html

[burrowowl]

1. WoW

I was born in El Paso. It has been damn cold down there as well as Albuquerque. Our pipe to the back yard spigot burst.
I remember in 1971 when ABQ got down to -17 with no wind chill factor.

[sonias]

2. "This community was not built for sustained sub-freezing temperatures"

So true...

My thoughts go out to our fellow Texans in El Paso. Hopefully they will get their water restored soon.

Equally shocking was the plight of the turtles in S. Texas: (from the same Chronicle article linked in OP)

Meanwhile, in South Texas, marine biologists and volunteers worked urgently to try to save hundreds of sea turtles left stunned by the frigid conditions along the beaches of South Padre Island and Boca Chica, near the mouth of the Rio Grande.

Rescuers had found 575 sea turtles in hypothermic shock because of the weather, said Kat Lillie of Sea Turtle Inc. That was nearly double the record set in the 1980s, she said. Twenty died, however, and the toll was expected to rise, said Jeff George, a curator with the nonprofit turtle rescue group.

Most of the inert turtles were found on the beach, but some were rescued from the cold surf, Lillie said.

Poor little turtles. :hug:

[sonias]

3. El Paso's Water Crisis Should Ease Soon

Texas Tribune 2/7/11
El Paso's Water Crisis Should Ease Soon

(snip)
The water crisis in El Paso stems partly from last week's electricity shortages. The city experienced three days of rolling blackouts that ended on Friday after extremely cold temperatures knocked out two natural gas-fired power plants operated by the El Paso Electric Company. This caused some power to get cut to pumps bringing water into and out of the city's reservoirs and also disrupted operations at El Paso's desalination plant. At the same time, frozen pipes all over the city began leaking water, exacerbating the problem.

"On balance, people are now crisis-fatigued," said Diana Natalicio, president of the University of Texas at El Paso, which has been closed since Wednesday — last week due to the blackouts, and today because of water. "Everybody is just ready to get back to work, including the students, by the way."

El Paso's electricity has been restored citywide since Friday at noon, according to Teresa Souza, a spokeswoman for El Paso Electric Company. But there are "still a lot of repairs that need to be made to power plants," Souza said. "We suffered a lot of damage." (El Paso is not on the same electric grid as the rest of Texas, which also experienced blackouts, albeit less severe.)

:kick: