Texas winter storm reveals how power grid failures create life-threatening risks for disabled americans

When Winter Storm Uri devastated Texas in February 2021, the power grid’s collapse didn’t affect everyone equally. For disabled Americans who depend on electricity to power life-sustaining medical equipment, the outages became a matter of survival. University of Texas at El Paso professor Angela Frederick chronicles these harrowing experiences in her new book “Disabled Power,” revealing how current disaster planning systematically fails the disability community.

Frederick’s research exposes a troubling reality: even disabled individuals who followed official guidance—registering with utility companies as power-dependent customers and enrolling in state emergency registries—received no additional protection during the crisis. Many discovered that these registrations were essentially meaningless when rolling blackouts hit entire neighborhoods. The state’s deregulated energy market, originally championed by Enron in the 1990s, prioritized electricity as a commodity rather than a public good, contributing to the infrastructure failures that left millions without power.

The book highlights how “care webs”—informal networks where disabled and non-disabled people provide mutual support—became lifelines during the disaster. Deaf and blind communities organized to check on members and distribute essential supplies when government systems failed. Frederick argues that rather than relying solely on individual preparedness, communities must center disability perspectives in disaster planning to identify vulnerability gaps that, when addressed, benefit everyone.

As climate disasters intensify, Frederick’s work serves as both a warning and a roadmap, demonstrating that truly resilient infrastructure must treat power and water as essential public goods while ensuring emergency systems don’t exclude those who need them most.