Mother Jones illustration; NYU Press

During the power outage following the winter storms of 2021—known in Texas as Winter Storm Uri—Rita, an Indigenous woman who lives with severe mental illness and congestive heart failure, tried with her then-partner to stay warm in brutal conditions in a tent on the streets of Austin with camp stoves and a propane heater. They survived, but at least six unhoused people did not.

In her new book Disabled Power, University of Texas at El Paso professor Angela Frederick details the challenges that disabled people faced when parts of the state’s power grid failed in February 2021. Frederick’s book outlines the unique challenges that disabled and chronically ill people face when they lose power, including the lack of resources among local governments to assist them during climate disasters.

“Their worlds shrunk in ways specific to disability, and they often negotiated
disability-related constraints as they strategized to survive,” Frederick wrote.

I spoke to Frederick about how policy decisions led to horrors during Winter Storm Uri, what it means to be an energy-dependent individual, and how there needs to be better planning to help disabled people survive climate disasters.

You write that Texas “is known for its exaggerated ideology of rugged individualism and its allergy to federal government intervention.” How did that lead to policy decisions that contributed to parts of the power grid failing during Uri?

I began this project thinking I was going to tell a story that was uniquely Texan. After all, we are the only........

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