Desiree Humphries鈥� home in Fort Worth lost power for multiple stretches last week, with each blackout lasting almost 20 hours. She got only short reprieves of a couple of hours, and when she did, she called her electric company.
鈥淭his is not a rolling blackout,鈥� she told the company representative. 鈥淲hy am I not getting electricity? I have pets, and I have a 71-year-old mother. We鈥檙e cold. We鈥檙e hungry. And we have no heat.鈥�
Millions in Texas lost power for days during the almost week-long cold snap. Humphries craved information, and didn鈥檛 see much coming from Texas鈥� governor, Greg Abbott.
鈥淚 didn鈥檛 see him but maybe once or twice on Facebook,鈥� she said. 鈥淚 definitely didn鈥檛 see him on any of my news sources.鈥�
Abbott is set to address the state tonight about the ongoing recovery from the storm and power outages, but a lack of communication during the first few days of the event drew and left some constituents searching for answers.
Ahead of the bad weather swooping into the state, the governor gave a statewide press conference on Saturday Feb. 13. He talked about the expected cold temperatures, as well as the potential for dangerous road conditions and power outages due to demand exceeding supply.
Abbott didn鈥檛 do a similar statewide press conference until the following Wednesday.
By Monday Feb. 15, President鈥檚 Day, millions of Texans like Humphries didn鈥檛 know what was happening.
Dan Woodfin, senior director of system operations of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, which manages the state鈥檚 electric grid, didn鈥檛 say how long the outages would last.
鈥淚t depends on the transmission owner. They鈥檙e the ones that are really in control of that,鈥� he said on a call with reporters.
People sought information from their power companies, who said ERCOT required them to shut off power. Abbott with television . On Tuesday Feb. 16, he .
But his most high-profile media appearance in the early days of the storm was on that Tuesday night.
This is the beginning of his answer to the first question: 鈥淪ean, this shows how the Green New Deal would be a deadly deal for the United States of America.鈥� In the interview, Abbott chose to . He later backed away from the claim, as the appearance was .
鈥淧eople are not concerned about, you know, renewable energy or anything else,鈥� said George Haddow, who was a senior official at the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the Clinton Administration. He鈥檚 now at Tulane University鈥檚 Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy.
鈥淲hat they want to [know] is, 鈥榟ow are you helping me? What鈥檚 going on? What鈥檚 happening? Why are my lights out? When are they coming back on?鈥� All these things. People are not interested in his political agenda.鈥�
Haddow said a leader鈥檚 main goal through a disaster 鈥� start to finish 鈥� is to give people timely and accurate information through many platforms.
础产产辞迟迟鈥檚 did give some ERCOT-related updates in those early days of the crisis, as did his . His had one storm related retweet between Sunday Feb. 14 and Tuesday Feb. 16. On Facebook, the had one post from Feb. 14-16: wishing followers a Happy President鈥檚 Day.
The Texas Division of Emergency Management, which handles emergency response, has and accounts that posted links to a map of warming centers and warning people about road conditions.
Yet many people don鈥檛 use social media, and televised press conferences meant for a statewide audience get more widespread coverage.
鈥淚 don鈥檛 know why the governor would not choose to be on TV in the morning, in the mid-afternoon and at night every day of this event,鈥� Haddow said. 鈥淲hy not? There鈥檚 information to be given.鈥�
Abbott press secretary Renae Eze said the governor maintained a robust media presence early on through 25 interviews on individual local television stations.
鈥淢onday he started doing interviews around three o'clock [p. m.] and kept going through until the six o'clock hour, hitting Dallas, Austin, Midland, San Antonio, Houston, just kind of across the state,鈥� she said. The interviews continued the following day, Feb. 16.
鈥淪o he continued to have a statewide presence throughout this."
Abbott began regular statewide press conferences on Wednesday the 17th. His official governor鈥檚 Twitter account and official Facebook account also increased storm-related posts starting that day.
Early on in disasters, there can be a lack of information to deliver. Yet updates still have value, according to Chris Jones, senior vice president at Pierpont Communications.
鈥淚t is a good quality in a crisis leader to tell you what I know, but I鈥檓 not going to speculate what we don鈥檛 know, and I鈥檓 not going to promise you a solution before we have one,鈥� Jones said. 鈥淭hat鈥檚 just sort of a basic principle of crisis communications.鈥�
For her part, Humphries doesn鈥檛 blame Governor Abbott for the state鈥檚 response to the winter storm. She said he did his best with what he had, although his best could鈥檝e been better.
鈥淭hey just need to make the public a little bit more aware, and come back and say 鈥榟ey, we don鈥檛 have anything yet but we鈥檙e still working on it, folks.鈥� Don't just leave us all out in the cold,鈥� she said.
鈥淎t one point I did feel like nobody was there.鈥�
Got a tip? Email Bret Jaspers at bjaspers@kera.org. You can follow Bret on Twitter .
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