For more than a week, Texas, in the southern United States of America, has experienced a historic cold spell.

At least 58 people have died and millions no longer have access to drinking water or electricity.

President Joe Biden declared a state of major disaster on Saturday, and is expected to visit soon. 

Queues in front of stores, authorities asking to boil tap water to get rid of bacteria, pipes cracked by ice, wastewater treatment plants stopped: the cold and polar temperatures have considerably damaged the drinking water system in Texas.

This weekend, 14 million inhabitants did not have access to it.

For nearly a week, Texas, this state located in the south of the United States, and which runs along the border with Mexico, has been experiencing a historic cold wave.

The worst ever measured since 1909, noted our colleagues from 

Figaro. 

At least 58 dead, a dramatic situation in hospitals

And since the start of Storm Uri, which has hit most of the country since February 13, Texas has been counting its dead.

The leading daily across the Atlantic, the 

New York Times

, counted 58 on Saturday.

Among the victims, an eleven-year-old boy who succumbed in his sleep to hypothermia after his house was deprived of electricity. 

In hospitals, the situation is dramatic.

In the midst of the pandemic, patients had to be transferred to other establishments.

The nursing staff had to sleep there, sometimes with unusable sanitary facilities.

For the administrator of the US Emergency Aid Agency, the situation will remain precarious for several days.

"The temperatures will rise again and we expect to discover new damage to the pipes when the Texans will reopen their taps", he explains to the microphone of Europe 1. "Restoring the network will take time and a lot water will still have to be transported on site, "he warns. 

❄ 16 cm of snow fell on #Austin in #Texas, which had not happened for over 70 years!

We measured -13 ° C in the city, located at the same latitude as Cairo in Egypt!

More than 3 million inhabitants have been deprived of electricity.

(photo @britneyled) pic.twitter.com/qG4ULbzdJU

- Guillaume Séchet (@Meteovilles) February 16, 2021

Gradual return of electricity 

Gradually, the electricity also returns.

While more than two million households were plunged into darkness Wednesday, they were only 60,000 this Saturday.

"Operations have returned to normal, and we are no longer asking for an energy restriction," said Ercot, the public distributor in Texas, reported AFP.

Many solidarity operations are organized throughout the country: Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, elected from New York to Congress, collected four million dollars that she herself went to distribute to the victims on Saturday in Houston.

We just hit $ 4 million!



Reps.

Sylvia Garcia, Sheila Jackson Lee & Al Green of Houston are doing incredible work w / local relief organizations to get emergency relief to Texans.



Today we went to food distributions, water delivery sites, and home tours of impacted Texans.

pic.twitter.com/5QzIgYvz8L

- Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 20, 2021 State of natural disaster declared

Major disaster state declared by Joe Biden

In Washington, US President Joe Biden approved the declaration of major disaster for Texas, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, which is responsible for managing emergencies, said on Saturday.

"The federal government has sent generators, blankets, water and other essential supplies to Texas," the president tweeted, with a link to a page listing local initiatives to help people.

Joe Biden is himself expected in the coming days on the spot, when his coming will not be a burden for the teams on the ground, one explains on the side of the White House.