Frustrated Texans queued for hours for safe drinking water Friday, after an unprecedented and deadly "polar plunge" burst pipes and left millions in the US state shivering without power or clean water for days.

The extreme winter weather system wreaked havoc across much of the southern and central United States this week, reportedly killing at least 40 people and igniting anger in Texas as authorities scrambled to turn the lights back on.

A resident in Waco, Texas clears snow as the oil-rich state struggles to cope with a historic cold snap
A resident in Waco, Texas clears snow as the oil-rich state struggles to cope with a historic cold snap AFP / Matthew Busch

Houston resident Percy McGee rated his frustration level at "number 10" as he waited his turn at the city's Delmar Stadium, now a mass bottled water distribution site.

"I've been up since five o'clock. And I've been on the road since six. And I know it's 11:30 but I'm gonna sit here until, I mean, I have no choice. All the stores in my area are out of water," he told AFP.

More than 500,000 Texas homes and businesses remained without electricity Thursday morning
More than 500,000 Texas homes and businesses remained without electricity Thursday morning AFP / Matthew Busch

"I'm very frustrated. I'm a diabetic. I have a 94-year-old senior as a diabetic. We haven't had no medicine. Nothing... So I'm really frustrated mentally. But I'm keeping it together," he said.

Erica Granado, another Houston resident, said she had rushed to the site after seeing it on the news.

A blanket of snow covers the streets of Houston, Texas, a southern US state more accustomed to record-breaking heat than ice. An historic cold snap has been sweeping the country for several days as a result of an Arctic blast that is causing temperatures
Snow in Houston, Texas. The Old Farmer's Almanac has released its 2021-2022 winter forecast, predicting a very cold winter for most of the U.S. AFPTV / Francois PICARD

"I gotta be early because I knew everybody -- yeah, everybody wants water and so it's a difficult time for everybody," she said, adding: "Thank God I had gas in my car."

On Friday the weather system was slowly moving northeast, where hardy New Englanders -- far more used to scouring winter storms than residents of the Lone Star state -- were battening down.

A worker distributes salt in preparation for a snow storm at Wall Street in New York
A worker distributes salt in preparation for a snow storm at Wall Street in New York AFP / Angela Weiss

But even as the temperature rose above freezing in Texas -- and the National Weather Service forecast weekend weather in the 50s Fahrenheit (10-15 Celsius) -- state governor Greg Abbott said some 165,000 people were still without power Friday.

Water pressure problems meant nearly seven million Texans were being advised to boil their water before drinking it or using for cooking, said Toby Baker, who heads the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, adding that nearly 264,000 people were impacted by non-operational water systems.

Keeping warm at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas
Keeping warm at the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas AFP / Thomas Shea

Some residents were facing the misery of burst pipes and flooding.

"It was like a waterfall was coming down and it was starting to come out of the bathroom and to the other rooms," said Birgit Kamps of Houston, adding that a neighbor helped switch off the water at the break -- halting the flood, but leaving her without running water.

Men are seen outside of the Lincoln Memorial under a blanket of light snow in Washington, DC on February 18, 2021
Men are seen outside of the Lincoln Memorial under a blanket of light snow in Washington, DC on February 18, 2021 AFP / MANDEL NGAN

Texas power companies implemented rolling blackouts in recent days to avoid grids being overloaded as residents cranked up the heat during the cold snap.

The state is the only one in the continental US to have its own independent power grid, meaning it was cut off when the weather hit.

The blackouts also shut down a major computer chip manufacturer, NXP Semiconductors in Austin, at a time when a worsening shortage of semiconductors is already affecting a variety of sectors including automobiles, mobile phones, game consoles and more.

Authorities opened hundreds of "warming centers" across the state. One furniture store in Houston also threw open its doors to freezing residents.

"We had a thousand people coming here trying our warming stations and getting free hot meals," James McIngvale, owner of the Gallery Furniture store, told AFP.

President Joe Biden spoke with Bob Fenton, acting director of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which is already on the ground in Texas, and said he was ready to mobilize other federal agencies, according to a White House statement Friday.

The president has also ordered federal authorities to coordinate disaster relief in Oklahoma and Louisiana, which declared emergencies after they were also hit by the extreme weather.

The cold stretched as far as Seattle, in the northwestern US state of Oregon, where a 90-year-old woman trudged six miles (10 kilometers) in a foot of snow with two walking sticks to get her first vaccination against Covid-19, after frantically calling around to get a shot.

The harsh weather had made driving to Fran Goldman's hospital appointment too dangerous.

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