'It's a bigger disaster': Historian predicts Texas blackout will be Greg Abbott's Katrina
Presidential historian Douglas Brinkley was furious speaking with CNN's Don Lemon on Wednesday evening.
Speaking from his Austin, Texas home surrounded by flashlights and candles, Brinkley unleashed on Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and the mismanagement of the crisis.
"I wanted to help you guys and just tell you that it is a bigger disaster, this blackout than you are even reporting on the news," said Brinkley. "It is so widespread. It is creating a sense of depression and fear everywhere. Very few people have the privilege wealthy people do with generators. Just like the levies that faced Katrina, since 1935, ERCOT bucked Franklin D. Roosevelt and they want to control their own energy input and they have let it go down and down and down. It's a state and government filled with climate deniers and I see this as a climate event going on."
He went on to say that he does have a fireplace and that his family is making it, but that the rest of his neighbors, colleagues, students and friends are all beginning to lose hope.
"It kind of started slow and now it's just millions of people with frozen water pipes, having to turn off the water," Brinkley continued.
He then turned to discuss Gov. Abbott specifically, calling out his Fox News appearance in which he blamed New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez for the blackout in Texas.
"And they worry about exporting natural gas and they have shoddy facilities here and it is all frozen up!" Brinkley exclaimed. "And Abbott had the audacity to go on television and try to do that big 180-political thing. He went armored, he went military-like. He went after people instead of healing our state. He should be out there talking about his mistakes."
"I saw what happened in Katrina. Abbott is to blame ...and he's going on the airways trying to pretend like. He's a climate denier and he is refusing to recognize that."
If you want to do something to help those in Texas who need it, you can go to one of the places below:
The Austin Area Urban League's emergency donation drive, called the #LoveThyNeighborTX campaign.
Mutual Aid groups on VENMO
The Sunrise Navigation Center (South Austin) has an Amazon wishlist for purchasing hand warmers, hat, socks, underwear, etc. Items start at $11.
Solid Ground Ministry (a female-founded & run non-profit) has a $50,000 goal to raise funds for people experiencing homelessness during this winter storm.
Here are restaurants in Austin that are giving free food if you want to contribute to them directly.
The Coalition for the Homeless in Houston
The Genesis Women's Shelter in Dallas
See the full conversation with Brinkley below:
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