ERCOT board chair Sally Talberg: "Please be aware that there's a tremendous interest in getting answers to what happened..." regarding last week's outages during winter weather. #txlege #txwx "I want to acknowledge the pain and suffering of Texans during this tragedy that continued for many, even after the power was restored last week," ERCOT board chair Talberg says. #txlege #txwx

Happening now: DPS tells me a water leak in the Capitol caused the alarms to go off & initiating an evacuation. “The All-Clear signal has been given,” DPS tells me & all personnel are safe to return. #txlege Just bumped into a state lawmaker trying to get back into the Capitol after the all-clear. He told me this is the last thing we needed “after the week we had...”
I let him know what tripped the alarm and he let out an “UGH”
#txlege

ERCOT latest: rotating outages are over. Ongoing outages are now likely trees on power lines or broken equipment. #txlege #txwx "As difficult as they were," the outages "served a purpose," ERCOT leadership says. #txlege #txwx

About an hour away from @GovAbbott press conference updating Texas on power outages and storm response. #txlege #txwx
kxan.com/news/texas/gov… Press conference starting. Every agency “working around the clock” to bring back power you need & deserve, Abbott says. #txlege #txwx

In Thursday AM briefing, ERCOT leadership says "we're not out of the woods yet but we did make a great amount of progress overnight and into the morning hours" on getting power back on for Texans. #txwx #txlege "We're still in very cold conditions, so we're still seeing much higher than normal winter demand," ERCOT CEO Bill Magness says. Got thru AM peak without taking additional actions and hoping to get thru AM peak demand tomorrow the same. #txlege #txwx

In briefing, ERCOT: If power supply & demand too far out of balance it risks "cascading catastrophic blackout" not an outage that we can restore as soon as power plants work again, but blackout affecting entire ERCOT region, w/ "no kind of indeterminate end date" #txlege #txwx "As the weather begins to warm, then the demand comes down and as demand comes down, that's another way that you can establish that balance, but avoid the total catastrophic blackout that we're avoiding," ERCOT CEO says. #txlege #txwx

Inbox: @GovAbbott will host a press conference at 3p from one of the state operations centers to provide an update on TX response to winter weather and power outages. #txlege #txwx Press conference delayed until approx 3:30, I'm told.

NOW: @RoyceWestTX & @mjhegar appearing on @MSNBC.
#txlege #TXSEN Why is @RoyceWestTX best person to challenge @JohnCornyn in November?
West says ability to bring people together. Points to his record & endorsements.
#txlege #TXSEN

Gov @GregAbbott_TX doing round of noon TV interviews... first up he's live in East Texas where he's asked what keeps him up at night. Says it's that COVID-19 spreading more rapidly..main thing I need is to make sure people wear masks. "COVID is real, it hasn't gone away"
#txlege On law enf saying they won't enforce order- Abbott calls that "disappointing" as a Longview native... He understands it's "not top priority" compared to murders, rapists, criminals... But last thing any govt wants is for area to shut down...
#txlege #coronavirus #COVID19

In live TV interview, Gov @GregAbbott_TX tells San Antonio station his restrictions are "best practices" to slow spread. Data should be an "alarm bell" for anyone who is a "disbeliever" in the "rapid spread of #COVID19" in Texas.

#txlege #coronavirus #COVID19 On biz finding loopholes for Abbott's orders re" rafting etc, he says it's more the buses transporting ppl, not so much the actual acts of rafting. Says state will learn more about how casual raft use impacts cases based on his halting tubing for now
#txlege #coronavirus #COVID19

WATCH @GovAbbott's 2pm #COVID19 press conference with @TDEM @chiefkidd and @TexasDSHS Dr Hellerstedt here:
#txlege #coronavirus
kxan.com/coronavirus-2/… Latest #COVID19 numbers from @TexasDSHS:
-2,552 statewide cases
-34 deaths
-118 counties reporting cases
-25,483 tested
#txlege #coronavirus