ERCOT Being Sued for One Million Dollars Over Winter Storm Death
The winter storm this past year was BRUTAL and several folks throughout the state were without power for days. Looks like one family is suing ERCOT for lying about how long the power would be shut off for.
This past February a winter freeze struck Texas killing 210 people, that number is from The Texas Department of State Health Services. One of those people that passed was Connie Mae Richey over in Austin. She was told that the power grid would be doing rolling blackouts. She was told several times that it would be around 40 minutes before her power was turned back on.
Well, that was not true. The power was off at Connie's house for four days. Connie Mae Richey, died from “a frozen urinary catheter" according to her daughter Colinda Meza who has filed the lawsuit. The lawsuit is asking for $1 million for “gross negligence and wrongful death for exemplary damages.” ERCOT declined to comment on pending litigation when reached out to a comment from KXAN.
We will see how this plays out in court because I am sure everyone wants to give ERCOT a piece of their mind. Even though everyone on the ERCOT board that made decisions that week has stepped down, it would be nice to see what was happening that day. ERCOT has stated if they didn't shutdown power that day, they were 4 minutes and 37 seconds away from total grid failure.
This would have crippled the power grid for weeks or maybe even months according to their analysts.