HOUSTON—As Henry Nguyen reopened his hair salon in southwest Houston, half a dozen neighbors rushed in—not for haircuts, but to wash their hair. They had gone days without running water at home.
The winter freeze that cut power and water across much of America’s fourth-largest city had forced Mr. Nguyen to close his salon for four days as he scrambled to protect his home water pipes, wrestled with a lifeless generator and sent his three children to a friend’s house to escape the relentless cold. In the three decades since his arrival from Vietnam, Mr. Nguyen had only ever worried about heat and hurricanes in Houston.
“I wasn’t scared about winter, but now I know,” Mr. Nguyen said. “The ice storm took down the whole state.”
The hair stylist was among many residents and business owners emerging on Saturday to survey damage and begin returning to their normal routines following the fiercest winter storm to hit the city in decades. Around 4 million customers were out of power across Texas during the worst of the storm last week. On Saturday, that figure was down to less than 50,000, according to PowerOutage.US data. Access to safe drinking water remained a critical issue for millions in the state, after freezing temperatures caused pipes to burst and cities, including Houston were placed under boil water notices.
Mr. Nguyen was cutting hair again as cars darted along roads cleared of ice. The weather had turned warmer. Foot traffic resurfaced along the main thoroughfare of Sharpstown, the diverse neighborhood where Hair By Henry opened 19 years ago.
