Tornadoes were seen in the Carolina's and frozen weather has damaged the energy infrastructure further south, leaving people without heat, electricity and even water in some cases.

But electrical grid operators in Texas were reporting Friday that power transmission had returned to normal, though some small outages remained.

The cascading crises of power outages across Texas due to winter weather lead to another problem - lack of clean water. "Blame will surely be assessed".

But for numerous state's residents stuck at home, the emergency meant boiling the tap water that trickled through their faucets, scouring stores for bottled water, or boiling icicles and snow on their stoves.

ERCOT CEO Bill Magness said Tuesday that the state was hit by "historic weather" in the form of single-digit temperatures, freezing rain and snow across the state that froze wind turbines, blanketed solar panels, and seized up natural gas production. She graduated from Baylor University where she majored in political science and minored in journalism.

He tweeted a photo of himself on the phone with Republican Gov. Greg Abbott of Texas. Half the state's population was under a "must-boil" order to ensure water is safe.

He said Thursday that power had been restored, and that restoring water service to health care facilities was a priority.

In many areas, water pressure dropped after lines froze and because people left faucets dripping to prevent pipes from icing, authorities said.

Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said residents will probably have to boil tap water in the fourth-largest USA city until Sunday or Monday. The Texas Restaurant Association was coordinating food donations to hospitals.

"The water came on for a slight moment I believe on Thursday".

Many Houstonians still remain with low water pressure and unsafe water.

The catastrophe risk modeller has now updated its insured loss estimate for winter storm Uri to $18 billion, reflecting the widespread and severe impacts caused by the storm in numerous parts of the country. Crews pumped water to refill city tanks but faced a shortage of chemicals for treatment because icy roads made it hard for distributors to deliver them, Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba said.

More than 30 storm-related deaths have been reported by media in the United States since the cold weather arrived last week, many in traffic accidents.

Meanwhile, crews worked throughout the night on Thursday to set up a mass bottled water distribution site at Houston's Delmar Stadium.

Before the wintry weather moved from Texas, the city of Del Rio along the U.S. -Mexico border, got almost 10 inches (25.4 cm) of snow on Thursday, surpassing the city's one-day record for snowfall.

The White House has been in touch with mayors in Texas cities, including Houston and Austin, and officials in Dallas and other counties, to make sure they were connected to FEMA and have access to federal government resources, an administration official said separately.

"Like everyone, we figured it would get cold and maybe a little outage and that's it", Neuman said.