Austin residents line up for supplies in bitter cold, snow outside area grocery stores
AUSTIN, Texas - A powerful and unprecedented winter storm has left millions in Texas without power and desperate for critical supplies amid record-breaking cold weather.
One video was posted on Twitter showing a long line of people waiting to get into a Sprouts grocery store located in Austin on Tuesday.
The line appeared to go all the way past the store and onto the next block as consumers, many likely without power, waited to get crucial items.
RELATED: Close to 40% of Austin residents without power amid winter storm
In all, more than 4 million customers in Texas still had no power a full day after single-digit temperatures created a surge in demand for electricity to warm up homes unaccustomed to such extreme lows.
The extreme cold and snow resulted in the buckling of the state’s power grid causing widespread blackouts.
Nearly 40% of Austin was without power on Monday afternoon.
KTBC reported on Tuesday that power outages in Austin could likely last through Tuesday night and possibly longer.
The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), which manages the state’s flow of electric power said Tuesday morning that it expected to be able to restore power to some customers later that afternoon.
RELATED: Austin power outages likely to last through Tues. night, possibly longer
Austin Energy provided an update on Twitter at 12:30 p.m. and said while conditions are improving, it is a dynamic situation and that conditions are changing throughout the day. You can see the latest on outages from Austin Energy here.
The astronomical rise in demand for electricity to warm homes not accustomed to the weather caused prices in Texas to skyrocket.
ERCOT has been asking consumers to reduce electricity use as much as possible through Tuesday, including closing shades to reduce the amount of heat lost through windows and avoiding the use of large appliances.
"We are experiencing record-breaking electric demand due to the extreme cold temperatures that have gripped Texas," said ERCOT President and CEO Bill Magness. "At the same time, we are dealing with higher-than-normal generation outages due to frozen wind turbines and limited natural gas supplies available to generating units."
Reuters reported on Monday that real-time wholesale market prices on the state’s power grid reached more than $9,000 per megawatt-hour late Monday morning
The Associated Press contributed to this story.