Ted Cruz: Clinton hits out at senator for leaving dog as Biden to declare Texas a ‘national disaster’

Hello and welcome to The Independent’s Texas weather liveblog, which will be bringing live updates as hundreds of thousands face power outages and millions go without running running water, and taking in all the political reaction after Ted Cruz flew to Mexico while the crisis unfolded at home.

Texas senator Ted Cruz admitted his decision to fly to Cancun, Mexico with his two daughters was “obviously a mistake” as protesters chanted “Resign!”.

He added: “In hindsight, I wouldn’t have done it. I was trying to be a dad.” His trip to the $309-a-night Ritz Carlton in Cancun amid power outages and water shortages sparked an intense backlash.

Cruz was among the millions in his home state going without heat or power when he decided to jet off on Wednesday. He said his daughters urged him to take them “out of here” after two days without power.

Cruz reportedly intended to stay in Cancun until Saturday, but touched back down in Texas on Wednesday. Sources close to him insist he intended to come right back all along.

Heidi Cruz asked neighbours if anyone “can or [wants] to leave for the week?” as fellow Texans struggled with water and power outages in leaked texts seen by The New York Times.

The senator’s wife added that her home was “FREEZING” and that she was thinking of staying at the Ritz-Carlton in Cancun where the Cruz family had stayed “many times”.

The resort costs $309 per night. Cruz has faced protests and calls for his resignation after he flying out to it and spending a night there.

In a statement on his return, he claimed that he had taken the trip to “try to be a Dad” as his daughters wanted to leave the freezing state.

More than 80 people were evacuated from an apartment complex in Bexar county, San Antonio, after a huge fire broke out according to local media reports. No deaths or injuries were reported.

Firefighters struggled to control the blaze as all of the fire hydrants in front of the building were frozen. They were forced to carry water in tenders and tankers as they attempted to fight the fire with limited resources.

According to a KSAT report quoting fire officials, the building’s residents received an alarm to turn off their water header shortly before the fire broke out on the second floor.

A fire chief quoted by local media said: “We’ll be here all night. So, you know it’s gonna continue, we don’t have the fire stopped yet so we gotta, we gotta, we gotta stop this thing.”

A cheerleading competition is reportedly set to take place over the weekend – in a convention centre housing residents sheltering from the winter storm.

There is some confusion among workers as to whether the “Spirit Celebration” at the Fort Worth Convention Centre will actually go ahead, but residents are worried that if it does it could displace those sheltering.

Around 170 people slept in cots at the facility on Tuesday night. A city media representative told the Daily Beast that guests would be transported to upgraded and superior facilities.

Mayor Betsy Price said: “As the power is restored across the city and fewer people need warming stations, we will demobilise the Convention Center tomorrow (February 19), and instead transport guests to smaller centres that are more appropriate for the number of people who need it.”

A Killen couple have been forced to ration their five-month old baby’s oxygen tanks amid a days-long power cut. Christopher Garcia was born premature with weak lungs and requires supplemental oxygen.

His mother, Angel Garcia, had been supplying him the oxygen using an electric machine until her home was hit by a blackout. “We’re not able to plug in his pulse oximeter to check on his oxygen. We’re keeping a constant eye on him to see how he’s doing,” she told CNN.

“A lot of people don’t know the severity of what’s going on,” she said. “People are tearing down their fences to burn. We started burning my daughter’s little wooden blocks because it was just too cold.”

She was able to access some gas for her family after waiting in line for an hour.

Pet dogs and cats have been found abandoned in the snow by authorities in Houston.

Care groups and investigators have responded to numerous calls regarding animals left outside without food and with frozen water bowls.

A dog owner is facing charges after eight “severely malnourished” dogs were discovered in frozen temperatures. One had a broken jaw.

Six dogs were also found abandoned in an auto body shop, including one that had died.

Harris County Sheriff, Ed Gonzalez said: “Texas law requires pets to be brought inside during severe weather. It is illegal to restrain your dog under these conditions. Members of a countywide Animal Cruelty Task Force stand ready to respond.”

Freezing temperatures left one Texas home with a completely frozen fish tank.

A video of the tank, uploaded to TikTok, was captioned: “This is what it’s like like living in Texas right now. [I’m] literally in shock, wow”.

User ray.k13, who uploaded the footage, noted that her daughter’s goldfish had died.

Other people have uploaded photos of swimming pools and baths completely iced over to social media.

The state’s power grid was just “seconds and minutes” away from total collapse, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). Residents could have faced months of blackouts if this worst-case scenario was reached.

Grid operators made the quick decision to order transmission companies to quickly reduce power as massive quantities of energy supply suddenly began dropping off the grid.

This was intended to cause rolling blackouts across the state rather than a full shutdown. Hundreds of thousands of Texans are still without power.

ERCOT president Bill Magness told the Texas Tribune that the issue “needed to be addressed immediately”, adding that the grid was “seconds and minutes” from possible failure.

“As chaotic as it was, the whole grid could’ve been in blackout,” Bernadette Johnson, a power and renewables expert, told the magazine. “ERCOT is getting a lot of heat, but the fact that it wasn’t worse is because of those grid operators.”