AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — More than 100,000 customers in the southern U.S. remained without power Monday following damaging storms, leaving residents searching for relief as sweltering temperatures continued to scorch the region.
Power outages for some customers in the piney woods of Texas could stretch late into this week as crews scrambled to make repairs. In some parts of Louisiana and Mississippi, the heat wave has been accompanied by heavy rain, punishing winds, thunderstorms and hail.
In Louisiana, officials closed nearly two dozen state offices Monday because of the risks of severe weather.
“It’s been unbearable,” Leigh Johnson, a resident of Mount Vernon, Texas, told Dallas television station KXAS. She had not had power for about three days.
“It’s been horrible because it’s like, the heat index has been so bad that literally, we’re having to sit in the cold baths to cool ourselves down. Our animals as well, we’re having to stick them in the bathtub just to keep them from having a heat stroke, it’s been that bad," she said.
More than 120,000 customers were without power as of Monday morning in the eastern parts of Texas and portions of Louisiana and Oklahoma, according to Southwestern Electric Power Company. Another 4,000 customers were still waiting for electricity to come back in the Texas town of Perryton after a devastating tornado ripped through last week.
Officials projected hot and humid conditions across the South Monday, with temperatures climbing into the upper-90s over much of the region, according to the National Weather Service. Excessive heat warnings were in effect for wide swaths of Louisiana and Texas, pushing many cities to open cooling centers.
In Austin and San Antonio, highs were expected to again surpass 100 degrees Fahrenheit (37 degrees Celsius).
As temperatures reached the mid-90s in central Mississippi, high winds pummeled the state early Friday, blanketing the region with power outages. Electricity crews in Mississippi worked through the weekend, some on 16-hour shifts, to restore power to tens of thousands of homes.
Some people had trouble obtaining medication after power forced pharmacies and grocery stores to close, according to WLBT-TV. As crews were working to restore power a Mississippi, multiple tornadoes swept through the state overnight into Monday, killing one and injuring nearly two dozen.
Cheddar's J.D. Durkin caught up with the head of NASA Bill Nelson, a former senator, who feels one thing that seems less rancorous on Capitol Hill these days is the work of the space agency.
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 22, 2022, with updates on a new Ukraine aid package, a new missile test by Russia, DOJ announcement of $150 Million in COVID-related fraud, the Florida senate supports Gov. DeSantis in stripping Disney of its special tax district, and more.
Scientists say a U.K. patient with a severely weakened immune system had COVID-19 for almost a year and a half. The case underscores the importance of protecting vulnerable people from the coronavirus.
Cheddar's Lawrence Banton speaks with entrepreneurs leading the way on textile and clothing recycling in an effort to help stem waste in fashion amid the climate crisis.
The FDA just approved a first-of-its-kind treatment for individuals with blood cancer that has proven results of 5-year survival rates. Christi Shaw, CEO of Kite, a Gilead company, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how this treatment works and compares to others currently on the market.
Dr. Neta Lavon, CTO and VP of R&D at Aleph Farms, joins Cheddar Innovates to discuss how the team sent cow cells to space to further research the production of meat in space, and why developing cultivated meat is so critical to the future of space travel.
Catching you up on what you need to know on April 21, 2022, with President Biden set to announce more security assistance funding to Ukraine, polls showing a majority of Americans in favor of transit mask mandates, rapper A$AP Rocky's arrest, and more.
Epidemiologist Dr. Eric Feigl-Ding joined Closing Bell to explain why ending the travel mask mandates could put the U.S. in a bad position in the coming months as new COVID-19 variants threaten to cause another spike in cases.
Laurence Tribe, a professor of constitutional law at Harvard University, joined Cheddar News to talk about the legal underpinnings of the ruling to lift the federal travel mask mandate. "Judge Mizelle decided that she would issue a nationwide injunction, which she and other conservatives have criticized in the past," he said. "That didn't stop her from doing it this time. She did it by just wiping away the CDC's rule, and she did it, have to say, in an opinion that was, well, I'll be honest, really stupid."
