I have cousins in the Bedford (Dallas-Forth Worth) area whom my mum is in touch with. I'll have to ask if she's heard from them.
Finally heard back from cousins - seems they coped ok, only one of them had to move into a hotel for a couple of days. The cousin who wrote back was well prepared - they heeded warnings and stocked up on groceries, turned water off at the metre and opened the water lines every 3-4 hours to prevent freezing.
Here's a quick quote, referencing the political fallout:
As you saw, last week was terrible, here. We're usually concerned with how hot it gets in the summer, not how cold in the winter! Big problem was the natural gas. Most of our generators are powered by it. When it got so cold, everyone with gas, cranked up their heat. The generators couldn't get enough gas to run...they started to shut down. Then things "snowballed," no pun intended. After awhile, they grid had lost 30-40% of generating power with record cold temperatures... below 0 degrees F, think that's about -20C. Roads were iced over, almost impossible to drive anywhere. As a result, the stores ran out of groceries & gas stations out of gasoline. All back to normal, at this time. A lot of "finger-pointing" among politicians right now.The last time we had a cold snap. similar, was 2001. They had some of the same issues, but not on this scale. Legislature passed a bill "recommending" power companies winterize their generators. No teeth to it, so nothing done. This was much worse. Governor is demanding legislation to require winterization + other changes.