AUSTIN, Texas - About 70,000 Texans are without power Thursday as the state sees significant icing across mainly northern parts of the state."We are dealing with one of the most significant icing events that we’ve had in the state of Texas in at least several decades," Texas Gov.
Greg Abbott said during a news conference at the State Operations Center.A winter storm that spans nearly 3,000 miles across the U.S.
is producing ice and snow from Texas to New England. Bitter cold is forecast to follow it.Abbott again expressed confidence in the state’s power grid, saying the power outages being reported right now are being primarily caused by ice-covered power lines or fallen trees.
He said about 10,000 power line crews are already working to restore power, and 2,000 more crews are being brought in from outside the state to help.This is the first real cold-weather test of the state’s grid since the February 2021 storm that left hundreds of thousands of Texans without power and water for days.