The most common lasting damage occurrences in Madison County from the historic winter storm earlier last month included broken tree limbs scattered throughout the county and damaged pipes from freezing.

The entire county was included in both the state and federal disaster declarations, as both the county and the cities of Madisonville and Midway promptly applied for the distinction immediately following the storm.

“Government entities and certain non-profits, such as municipal utility districts are eligible to receive 75/25 reimbursement on Category B expenses for public assistance, which include emergency protective activities and temporary repairs,” said Madison County Emergency Management Coordinator Shelly Butts last week. “Some of those expenses that the cities, county and (North Zulch Municipal Utility) incurred were overtime for personnel, rental of generators and temporary repairs.”

At the time of this writing, the county was not granted reimbursements under disaster categories such as debris and permanent building repairs and infrastructure such as road damage. However, it is possible these categories could be added at a later date, prompting officials to encourage record keeping such as damage logs and before and after photos. FEMA is offering individual

FEMA is offering individual assistance for certain qualifying citizens as part of the potential reimbursements.

“This allows individuals and businesses to request reimbursement through FEMA for personal damages to property,” said Butts. “FEMA handles the entire process, so we encourage citizens with substantial losses to contact them to begin their request for assistance, if applicable.”

To apply for individual reimbursements, citizens should visit www.disasterassistance.gov or call 800-621-3362.

Cities within Madison County had many utility-related challenges in the aftermath of the storm, causing many citizens to lose power and water for an extended period of time. This was a common issue throughout the state of Texas, resulting in documented catastrophic situations and, in some cases, loss of life.

There were no lives lost in Madison County.

On Monday, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick called for the resignation of Public Utility Commission (PUC) Chairman DeAnn Walker and Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) President and CEO Bill Magness.

“Immediately following the storm, I pledged to the people of Texas that I would get to the bottom of the crippling power outages that began on Feb. 15, leading to tragic loss of life and billions in damages to homes and infrastructure across the state,” said Patrick in a Monday press release. “There is no question the arctic temperatures the state experienced beginning on Feb. 14 were historically unprecedented. After almost 24 hours of testimony in the Senate Business and Commerce Committee’s investigation of the power outages, including nine hours from the Chair and the CEO, it is clear neither of them adequately addressed the challenges of this huge winter storm.”

“Our state senators repeatedly asked for their analysis and suggestions regarding what could have been done differently and what needs to be done going forward to prevent a similar problem in the future. The Chair and the CEO offered few ideas. Frankly, I was shocked by their failure to respond.”

Patrick stated that, based on the testimony, it was clear the organizations did not consider the harsh freeze could shut down electricity generating power plants or that crews would not be able to make emergency repairs based on the road conditions.

“Their projections did not accurately calculate the impact of diminished wind power that would be lost in the storm combined with the loss of 14,000 megawatts of power they knew would not be available due to power plants that had been shut down for maintenance,” said Patrick.

“These two issues alone accounted for hundreds of thousands of homes being without power and threatened a statewide blackout.”

According to the testimonies, Texas was mere minutes away from losing the entire power grid, which would have taken months to repair and left state citizens in the dark.

“It is obvious ERCOT and the PUC simply did not anticipate the magnitude of the storm or the amount of power it would require,” said Patrick. “The ERCOT CEO and the PUC Chair did acknowledge their poor communication prior to the storm, but they did not seem to understand what a critical point that was. As one example, ERCOT didn’t make a public call for Texans to conserve energy until the storm was upon us on Feb. 14.”

Patrick’s press release went on to state the organizations “hoped for the best instead of planning for the worst”.

“I do not make this call for the resignation of the PUC Chair and the ERCOT CEO lightly,” said Patrick.