There is a lot more to the Texas story including a power station that accidentally powered down instead of ramping up - that certainly didn't help. I was there in the big freeze around 2004 (hope I got my dates right?) when the country was frozen north to south. Had -21c in Chicago, woke up to our car covered in 1 meter of snow in Cleveland. Taos had 1 foot thick ice on all the town roads, it was a mess.
Texas was a white out with people stranded of freeways in ice storms. At that time it was just after the California quakes that brought down the freeways and followed by a devastating mud slide on the coast. It seems these events are getting more regular and more severe, you think there would now be contingencies for these situations by now being they have a strong survivalist mentality in most areas.