What happened?
The Texas Freeze, also known as the Texas power crisis, lasted for a two week and three day period from February 10 to 27th, 2021 when three winter storms, including a polar vortex, caused a massive electrical failure in Texas due to rare freezing temperatures.
"In real-time and the days that followed, people quickly turned to Twitter to participate in conversations of all kinds—they shared their experiences, emotions, fears, and asked for help as events unfolded," said Andrew Caravella, VP of Global Partnerships at Sprout Social. The power crisis led to major shortages in food, water, and heat leaving millions without power. Communities experienced burst pipes and water treatment failures, with an estimation of 700 lives lost (Utility Dive, 2021).
Let's take a closer look at what was happening as the conversation around the #TexasFreeze unfolded on Twitter using insights provided by Twitter Official Partner, Sprout Social.