Winter Storm 2021: Louisiana Man Dies After Slipping On Ice, Hitting His Head

A Louisiana man died after slipping on ice and hitting his head on the ground, officials from the state’s Department of Health said Monday.

A powerful winter storm has forced people across the U.S. to brave record-breaking, sub-freezing temperatures; dangerous road conditions; trecherous ice-covered power lines; deceiving black ice; and rolling blackouts.

In Louisiana, Lafayette Parish resident Caroll Matthews, 50, died at 1:30 p.m after he slipped on ice in Carencro. "It is the first death related to the February 2021 Winter Storm," the health department noted in a news release.

Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards declared a state of emergency last week in Louisiana as the winter storm left most of the state covered in snow and ice. Over the last two days, the state’s police department has responded to 150 car accidents caused by the storm.

As of Monday morning, approximately 1,917 Entergy customers in the state's Tangipahoa Parish had no electricity. The utility company said it estimates that at least 58,000 customers are without power across Louisiana.

In Jefferson Parish, more than 10,000 residents are without power after the icy storm system ripped down numerous power lines. Chris Fitzmorris, a Jefferson resident, captured a video that showed power surging through the lines moments before the transformer went down.

In Texas, officials estimated that at least 3.6 million residents were affected by the outages. In the city of Galveston, 95% of households were still in the dark as of Monday afternoon.

The rolling blackouts are expected to continue across Texas until the weather emergency ends, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which controls the much of the electric load in Texas.

The state’s utility companies are facing problems with natural gas supplies and frozen wind turbines. However, Gov. Gregg Abbott clarified that the storm has not affected Texas’ power grid.

“The Texas power grid has not been compromised,” Abbot wrote on Twitter. “The ability of some companies that generate the power has been frozen. This includes the natural gas & coal generators. They are working to get generation back on line. ERCOT & PUC are prioritizing residential consumers.