The Storm That Froze an Entire State — Texas 2021

On February 15th, 2021, a winter storm put all 254 counties in Texas under the same warning for the first time in history. But it wasn't the cold that took the lights from 4.5 million homes. It was a failure already written down ten years earlier – the frozen wells and seized gas pumps a federal report had named in 2011, the rules meant to fix them that were made voluntary instead, and the same equipment still running behind the same insulation a decade later. For four minutes and thirty-seven seconds that morning, the grid carrying 26 million Texans sat closer to total collapse than it ever had. What followed became the costliest winter storm in American history. 0:00 Four Minutes and Thirty-Seven Seconds 1:56 A Grid That Answered to Nobody 2:38 The Warning That Cost Nothing 3:27 254 Counties, One Warning 4:42 The Gas Fails Before the Power Does 6:51 4.5 Million Homes Go Dark 7:36 Then the Plumbing Goes 9:34 Nine Thousand Dollars a Megawatt Hour 10:40 Conroe, Houston, San Antonio 12:48 The Same Warning, Twice For copyright and business inquiries, contact us at: [email protected] Music by Epidemic Sound.