“Destructive Climate Change in Texas” story transcript
Monique Bedford: Imagine spending your whole life in a place that’s always hot. I mean even on the cold days it’s 70 degrees. You then receive a winter storm alert on your phone or your Apple watch, whatever you have. You laugh, you scoff it off, “Pshhh, that never happens here. We’ll be fine!” Then the next morning you wake up with piles of snow covering your front lawn, and basically holding your car hostage.
Hello everybody, I hope all is well. My name is Monique Bedford and this is “Memos with Mo.” If you’re a person who doesn’t like to read articles or watch the news, but you’re still curious about what’s going on in the world around you- you came to the right place. Today we will be discussing about Texas literally freezing over with the experience of one Texan, Ms. Corinna Alveya. She’s 29 years old, a special education teacher, loves to travel, and (for all you BTS fans out there) yes- she is a fellow Army. She’s lived in San Antonio, Texas her whole life and has never really experienced snow in Texas before.
Corinna Alveya: So it’s definitely something I’ve never experienced in my life. I’ve never experienced snow for a whole week in Texas, maybe flurries here and there, but never snow for a whole week. I think I have some pictures and videos of the snow on the very first day because, you know, it was super rare that I just kinda played outside in the snow all night. But I did not expect, you know, to wake up the next morning for it to be there. And then to wake up the next morning again and for it to still be there. And actually, like, work shut down for a whole week, because nobody in Texas knew what to do with snow.
MB: While Corinna and other Texans battled out the cold, one Texas Senator, Ted Cruz, took a flight to Cancun, Mexico. According to a Washington Post article he states he was “being a good father.” This didn’t sit too well with Texans.
CA: For example (he) knew the freeze was coming and he just kind of flew over to Mexico where it was warmer and then came back after the freeze.
MB: To add fuel to the fire, many people lost their homes and lives. The hardest part to Ms. Alveya was meeting, or hearing, that her students had to go through this.
CA: … helping some of my students cope, you know, I had two students who did lose their homes because they got flooded but, like, it froze and they had to go to the shelter. And it was a traumatic experience for them and for their parents. And I’m glad my mom reached out and, you know, I was just like “I don’t know how to judge the snow but I’ll get to you guys and we’ll find somewhere.” And thankfully there was, like, a family member that was able to get them and stuff but, hearing that or hearing some of the other students who lost family in Dallas, the pileup. Over the freezing because the road froze over and cars piled up.
MB: The sad thing about all of this is that there is a chance that this may happen again, according to an article from sanantonio.com.
CB: Yes, though, climate change is kinda scary. I don’t want to get stuck in a situation where I wasn’t prepared or, you know, I have to lose somebody because of one of those freak weather changes. Um and it’s just something that, you know, it’s a natural disaster that you can’t avoid.
MB: Well, that was the end of today’s episode. I hope you all found this informing, entertaining, as well as insightful.
I would like to take the time to thank Ms. Alveya for sharing her experience with us. It’s one thing to read about all these things but it’s a whole other thing to live through it.
With that being said, I want the viewer to take some time to reach out to that person you have contacted in a while, let them know you’re thinking about them. You never know when things could change, you know? Alright, I’ll see all you beautiful people in the next episode.
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