Sitting here in Austin, Texas one week ago, none of us Texans foresaw the ultimate extent of the damage this disastrous weather event inflicted on our communities. Over the past week, a gradual but then rapidly increasing succession of texts, calls and social media posts I received revealed an ongoing onslaught of state-wide utility failures and their effects on my friends: power out for days, no running water, using snow or pool water to enable basic sanitation. This week i