Death Toll From Texas Winter Storm Continues to Rise

The death toll from the freezing winter weather that battered Texas and caused widespread power outages this year has risen by 59, bringing the total to 210, officials said.

The human loss — of young and old, in urban and rural communities — has devastated families across Texas. The Department of State Health Services, which released the latest data on Tuesday, said the numbers could rise as epidemiologists examine the causes of deaths reported from Feb. 11 to March 5.

“The majority of confirmed deaths were associated with hypothermia,” the department said in a report. Other deaths were caused by vehicle accidents, carbon monoxide poisoning, falls, fire, and exacerbation of chronic illnesses tied to the winter storm, it said.

The deaths took place across 60 counties, the data shows. The hardest hit were Harris County, with 43 confirmed storm deaths; Travis County, with 28; and Dallas, with 20.

Harris County, which includes Houston, is the state’s most populous county, with more than four million people, followed by Dallas County, with more than 2.6 million. Travis County, which includes Austin, the state capital, is the fifth most populous, with about 1.2 million people.

The winter storm swept across Texas in mid-February, plunging the state into freezing cold and pushing the power grid to the brink of collapse. Millions of residents were forced to boil water, use generators, huddle in idling cars for heat and scour for wood to feed fires during some of the most frigid weather recorded in state history.