How Texans have coped without water in US heat wave

Woman posing for a photo

Over 160,000 people in the Texas city of Odessa have been without water for two days as temperatures topped 36C (97F). How are they coping?

In the middle of a scorching heat wave, Cheryl Castillo-Moore is thankful for her hot tub.

Along with hundreds of thousands of her neighbours, she and her husband have been out of water for days, after a major water line broke. The line was over 60 years old.

Since her backyard hot tub was full at the time of the outage, she has had enough water to do things like flush her toilet – something many residents have been unable to do.

Ms Castillo-Moore has been more than happy to help others and told neighbours not to knock, “just walk in there, get your water”.

The water outage could not come at a worst time, as the city – like many cities across the country – is experiencing a blistering heat wave.

Meteorologists are calling this weather pattern a “ring of fire” phenomenon, which is contributing to the extreme heat Odessa is experiencing.
Areas under this high pressure dome will be hot and muggy while areas near the edge of the dome see more thunderstorms. Large sections of the continental US is affected in some way by this weather pattern – other parts of the south and Midwest are facing dangerous heat, too.

 

 

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