What happened
In mid-February 2021, Winter Storm Uri drove temperatures across Texas far below normal. Demand surged as power plants and fuel supplies froze, and the grid operator began rotating outages early on February 15 to keep the system from collapsing. More than 4.5 million homes and businesses lost power, some for more than three days. Water systems failed as pipes froze and treatment plants lost power.
The Texas Department of State Health Services ultimately attributed 246 deaths to the storm, many from hypothermia. Independent estimates run higher.
Why it matters
Uri is the clearest modern example of how a grid failure becomes a heating failure and then a water failure, all at once, in the coldest week of the year. Homes that depended on electricity for heat and on the city for water had no fallback.
What it means for a family estate
Winter is the test every Styrkholm compound is designed to pass: two independent heat sources, a full season of fuel stored on site, water that does not depend on a utility, and power that does not depend on the grid. Read how in Winter Proof.
Briefings summarize public reporting and official sources linked above. Where reporting is preliminary, we say so.