Texas officials attributed dozen more deaths to the February winter storm, bringing the state’s death toll to 210.
The Department of State Health Services added 59 storm-related deaths to its total on Tuesday in its first update of data since late April. The toll increased from 11 to 20 in Dallas County and from three to nine in Tarrant County.
The casualties of the winter storm, which exposed millions of Texans to electricity, water and heat, are more than double the 103 deaths caused by Hurricane Harvey in 2017, according to the National Hurricane Center.
38 of the reported storm deaths occurred in North Texas: 20 in Dallas County, nine in Tarrant County, two each in Collin and Ellis Counties, and one each in Grayson, Hunt, Kaufman, Lamar and Parker Counties.
About a fifth of the state’s deaths – 43 – occurred in Harris County. 28 others were in Travis County.
The deaths occurred from February 11 to March 5, and most of them were due to hypothermia, according to State Health Services. Other causes included carbon monoxide poisoning, chronic illness exacerbation, falls, fires, and traffic accidents.
The state said its disaster epidemiologists continue to reconcile the causes of death, which means the death toll could keep rising.
There are three main ways that the state health department is informed of deaths related to disasters:
- Medical certifiers – doctors, coroners, or in some districts justices of the peace – submit a form to the state stating that a death is related to a disaster.
- Medical certifiers mark a death as disaster-related.
- State epidemiologists match news reports of disaster-related deaths with death certificates.
Determining the exact number of deaths caused by the storm is a tedious process, and in some cases it may be impossible to determine if the deaths were storm-related.
“We’ll likely never have a really accurate number,” said Jeffrey Barnard, Dallas County’s chief medical examiner.
Severe Weather-Related Deaths by County
Aransas County: 1
Armstrong County: 1
District of Bandera: 1
Bexar district: 14
Brazoria district: 1
Brooks County: Jan.
County Burnet: 1
Cass County: Jan.
Cherokee County: 1
Ton County: 1
Coleman County: 2
Collin County: 2
Culberson County: 4
Dallas County: Jan.
Ector County: 1
Ellis County: 2
County of Fayette: 1
Fort Bend County: 4
Freestone County: 1
County of Frio: 1
Galveston County: Jan.
Grayson County: Jan.
Hale County: 1
Harris County: 43
Henderson County: 3
Hill County: 2
Hopkins County: 1
Hunting district: 1
Jefferson County: Jan.
Kaufman County: 1
Kendall County: Jan.
District Kerr: 1
District of Lamar: 1
Lavaca County: 2
Lee County: 1
District Leon: 2
Limestone County: 1
McLennan County: 3
Milam district: 1
Montgomery County: 3
Nacogdoches county: 4
Parker County: 1
District Pecos: 1
Polk County: 1
Rusk district: 1
San Jacinto County: 1
San Saba County: 1
Schleicher Circle: 1
Sutton County: 1
Tarrant county: 9
Taylor County: Jan.
Travis County: Jan.
Trinity County: Jan.
Tyler County: 1
District of Uvalde: 1
Val Verde district: 1
District Webb: 1
Wharton County: 1
Wichita County: 3
Williamson County: 4
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