Texas agriculture commissioner pushes to get power to farmers
Republican Sid Miller joins 'Fox News @ Night' to discuss the devastating impact of winter weather on key Texas industry
A Texas man froze to death in his reclining chair Wednesday, according to a report.
The unidentified man was found dead, with his wife "nearly dead" at his side, after their Abilene home lost power during the winter storm that has battered the state, said Josh Casey, president of Abilene Fresh, a nonprofit food hub.
Casey said the wife was receiving medical care at a local hospital but was "still in peril."
TEXAS NOW GRAPPLES WITH WATER CRISIS AS POWER RETURNS TO NEARLY 2 MILLION HOMES
"You guys read that? A man FROZE TO DEATH under our collective noses. In Abilene! I don't even know what to do with this information. Except to check on my immediate neighbors," he wrote on Facebook Thursday.
Texas was among the many states to be hit by the deadly winter weather, which overwhelmed the electrical grid and left millions shivering in the cold this week.
Power was restored Thursday to some homes and businesses in Texas -- but not before more than three dozen people died while trying to keep warm.
At least three people also died in Abilene this week due to the extreme cold, including a man who froze to death in his home, Abilene's KTXS-TV reported. It wasn't immediately clear if that man was the person who reportedly died in his recliner.
SOME TEXAS HOMES, BUSINESSES SEE POWER RESTORED -- THOUGH MANY STILL WITHOUT SAFE DRINKING WATER
Just under 500,000 homes and businesses remained without power Thursday, down from about 3 million Wednesday. Meanwhile, nearly half the state's approximately 29 million residents -- were under an advisory to boil drinking water, reports said.
Houston and San Antonio were among the cities planning to distribute drinkable water to the public on Friday, according to reports.
The remaining power outages were largely weather-related, rather than forced blackouts that began Monday to stabilize the power grid, the state's grid manager, the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) said.
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Dan Woodfin, ERCOT's senior director of system operations, warned that limited rolling blackouts could return if electricity demand rises as people get power and heating back.
"I don't know any solution for anything really right now," Casey wrote. "Except people freezing to death near me is not ok. Not ok. Not ok."
Abilene is about 180 miles southwest of Dallas.
Fox News' Bradford Betz contributed to this report
