First published February 23, 2021.
Cristian Pavon Pineda was 11 years old when he died at his family's mobile home in Conroe, Texas, north of Houston, on the morning of 16 February 2021, during the winter storm that knocked out power to millions of Texans. His family first believed he had frozen to death after their home lost electricity, and within days they filed a $100 million lawsuit against the state's grid operator and their power company.
That early account changed. In May 2021, Conroe police released autopsy results showing that Cristian died of carbon monoxide poisoning, not hypothermia. His story remains one of the most widely shared of the storm, and it highlights two dangers that killed many Texans that week: the cold itself, and the risky ways people tried to stay warm when the power went out.
What happened to Cristian
The family's home lost power during the coldest stretch of the storm, when temperatures in the Conroe area fell to around 10 to 12°F (about -12°C). To stay warm, the family gathered in one room. Cristian shared a bed with his younger brother, while his mother and stepfather slept nearby with the baby of the family. The next morning Cristian did not wake up. His family called 911 and tried CPR, but he had already died. His brother survived.
His mother told reporters that Cristian had no health problems that would have made him especially vulnerable to the cold. Relatives set up a GoFundMe appeal to send his body to Honduras, where the family has roots, saying he had wished to see his grandparents again. The appeal raised tens of thousands of dollars within days.
The autopsy finding
When the lawsuit was filed, the cause of death had not been determined. An autopsy had been carried out, but further tests were pending, and a carbon monoxide test inside the home had reportedly come back negative. In May 2021, the Conroe Police Department announced that the autopsy showed carbon monoxide poisoning. Police said the criminal investigation was closed and did not publicly identify the source of the gas.
Carbon monoxide is a colourless, odourless gas produced when fuel burns. It can build up quickly in small or closed spaces when people use generators, gas stoves, grills, car engines or fuel-burning heaters for warmth. During the February 2021 storm, Texas saw at least 300 reported carbon monoxide poisonings and at least 19 deaths from it, many of them in families who had lost power.
The $100 million lawsuit
On behalf of Cristian's family, Houston attorney Tony Buzbee's firm sued the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) and Entergy Texas, the utility serving the Conroe area, accusing them of gross negligence. The suit claimed they failed to warn the public of the danger and gave inaccurate and incomplete information to customers. Entergy said it could not comment because of the pending litigation.
It is worth being clear about two points that early coverage often blurred. First, ERCOT is not an energy company that sells power to households; it operates the grid that serves most of Texas and ordered the rolling outages to prevent a total collapse. Second, $100 million was the amount the family sought, not an award. A claim for damages does not on its own establish responsibility, and we could not find public reporting of a final outcome in this case. It was one of many storm-related lawsuits that were later grouped together in Texas courts.
How the Texas grid failed
The crisis ran from about 10 to 20 February 2021, across several waves of winter weather that included Winter Storm Uri. At the peak, more than 4.5 million homes and businesses lost power, some for several days. Water systems also failed: more than 12 million people were told to boil their water, and some communities lost water service entirely.
The main causes were well documented afterwards:
- Frozen equipment. Natural gas wells, pipelines and power plants were not built or prepared for prolonged extreme cold, and gas supply fell sharply just as demand for heating soared. Wind turbines also froze, but the shortfall from gas and other thermal plants was far larger.
- An isolated grid. Most of Texas runs on its own grid, which limits how much power it can import from neighbouring states in an emergency.
- Warnings not acted on. After a similar cold snap in 2011, federal regulators recommended winterising plants, but the recommendations were not mandatory.
Some households also faced huge bills. Wholesale electricity prices were held at the market cap of $9,000 per megawatt-hour for days, and customers on plans linked to wholesale prices, such as those of the retailer Griddy, received bills of thousands of dollars for just a few days of power.
Other families who lost loved ones
Cristian was one of many. In Sugar Land, southwest of Houston, a grandmother and three young children died in a house fire after the family had lost power and tried to stay warm. Their aunt, Vanessa Kon, said, as reported at the time: "If the power wasn't off, this wouldn't have happened."
Early counts in late February put the state's death toll at around 30. The final figure was much higher. In January 2022, the Texas Department of State Health Services confirmed 246 deaths across 77 counties, with victims ranging from under one year old to 102. Most died from hypothermia; others died in car crashes, falls, fires, from carbon monoxide, or after losing power to medical equipment such as oxygen machines. Some independent analyses estimated that the true toll was higher still.
The federal and state response
President Joe Biden approved an emergency declaration for Texas on 14 February and a major disaster declaration on 20 February, opening federal aid to affected households. The White House said he wanted to avoid pulling resources away from the response, and he visited Houston on 26 February. In Texas, the ERCOT board dismissed its chief executive, Bill Magness, and in June 2021 Governor Greg Abbott signed laws that reshaped ERCOT's board and required some power plants and gas facilities to prepare for extreme weather.
Staying safe when the power goes out in winter
The lessons of February 2021 can save lives in any cold-weather outage:
- Never run a generator, grill, camp stove or car engine inside a home, garage or enclosed space, even with a window open.
- Install battery-powered carbon monoxide alarms near sleeping areas and test them regularly.
- Know the warning signs of carbon monoxide poisoning: headache, dizziness, nausea, confusion and sleepiness. If several people in a home feel unwell at once, get everyone outside and call emergency services.
- Layer clothing and blankets, gather in one room with the doors closed, and seek a warming centre if your home becomes too cold.
- If you have health conditions or rely on medical equipment, talk to a doctor and your power company in advance about an emergency plan.
Cristian's family wanted his story to lead to change. Remembering how he died, and why, is part of making sure fewer families face the same loss.
Sources: KHOU: Conroe police say autopsy reveals 11-year-old died of carbon monoxide poisoning; KPRC 2: Lawsuit accuses ERCOT, Entergy of gross negligence; NPR, 3 January 2022: Texas puts final winter storm death toll at 246; Wikipedia: 2021 Texas power crisis; first shared via iHeartIntelligence.
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