Dozens of Deaths Connected to Winter Storms This Week; 14 Million Texans Without Clean Drinking Water
Fourteen million people in Texas were under boil water advisories as of late Thursday afternoon, Tiffany Young, a spokesperson for the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, told weather.com in an email.
That's twice the number previously reported by media outlets and is higher than the total population of any other states besides California, Florida and New York.
In a follow-up Friday morning, Young said more than 1,180 public water systems in 160 Texas counties had reported disruptions in service due to the weather.
Officials have said the water issues stem from frozen water lines, power outages that took water plants offline and a large number of people leaving their faucets dripping.
Boil water notices are issued when there is a threat of water contamination. That can be caused by outages and low pressure.
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said in a news conference Thursday night that his city's 2.3 million residents will
remain under a boil water advisory until at least Monday.
The city was coordinating the distribution of bottled water.