A woman struggles to use portable oxygen tank, while a family sleeps in a car for warmth

The family, who reside in Euless, Texas, said they use their cars for warmth and to charge battery packs and phones, which Wilsey described as “their only lines of communication.”

Wilsey said the family is only using their phones to quickly look at the news and search for restaurants that may be open and serving food.

The family mostly lays “under covers in bed,” in their apartment, which is only heated by candles, Timothy said.

“We are keeping busy by going old school and reading books and playing board games,” Wilsey told CNN by text message.

In Irving, Texas, Kimberly Hampton and her family of five initially thought that they would be able to ride out the power outages from their home.

But Hampton said no amount of blankets could keep them warm. The family lost power at 3:30 a.m. Monday, and the home’s thermostat quickly fell to 36 degrees Fahrenheit.

Hampton said she was able to get some wood from Home Depot to start a fire and melt frozen breast milk in room temperature water for her 7-month-old baby and 3-year-old twins.

Kimberly Hampton’s child bundled up in a blanket.

On Tuesday, when asked how things went overnight, Hampton said it got worse and that it felt colder.

“We’re out of firewood and there is none available anywhere close by,” she told CNN. “My husband is going to have to go buy some formula because all my frozen milk is going bad. My other kids are miserable and don’t understand why it’s cold or why they can’t watch TV or have a warm meal.”

To help with the cold, Hampton said the family has “closed off our bedrooms and stuffed towels in the spaces of the doors and used blankets to cover all our windows the best we can.”

“We have a generator, but ran out of gas for it extremely quick, so gas stations are open nearby. The kids are all bundled up with three layers of clothes, jackets, and shoes. And we have all been basically laying on top of each other sharing body heat.”

Angel Garcia and her family in Killeen, Texas have been rationing oxygen tanks for their 5-month-old son, who was born with premature lungs. Garcia, a nurse, is watching him constantly, she said.

Angel Garcia shared a photo of her daughter, Jordan, watching the fire as her toys burned.

The family lost power to their home Monday night and was running out of wood, so they burned their 3-year-old daughter’s baby blocks in the fireplace, she said.

“A lot of people don’t know the severity of what’s going on. People are tearing down their fences to burn,” Garcia said in between tears. “We started burning my daughter’s little wooden blocks because it was just too cold.”

She says she hopes that people realize how bad the situation is, in a state where people are not accustomed to this type of cold weather.

“Not everyone has gas, but we waited in line about an hour and finally we were able to get some gas,” Garcia said. “There’s pretty much nowhere to go. Everyone in Texas is in the same boat. If they have electricity, there’s no water. If they have water, there’s no electricity.”

Some have burst pipes and flooded homes

Jesus Cortez and his three roommates were forced out of their college apartment on Tuesday when a sprinkler busted in one of the bedrooms causing the apartment to flood in San Marcos, Texas.

The students have been doing a mix of online learning and in-person classes — but with the current weather situation, those classes have been canceled, he said.

Cortez told CNN on Wednesday that he doesn’t know if they can return to the apartment, “since the roads are icy at the moment.”

Celing damage in Angelina Villarreal’s home in Houston, Texas.

Meanwhile, it got so cold inside the home Sandra Erickson rents with her husband in Friendswood, Texas, that she said the pipes burst. As a result, the ceiling in three different rooms collapsed.

“This is like a hurricane catastrophe,” she told CNN.  

Others have limited water or food

Philip Shelley, a Fort Worth, Texas, resident, told CNN that his family is struggling to keep everyone fed.

Shelley said he is trying to keep his pregnant wife, Amber, and his 11-month-old daughter, Ava, warm by keeping them bundled. Amber is pregnant and due on April 4.

“(Ava) is down to half a can of formula,” Philip said. “Stores are out if not extremely low on food. Most of our food in the refrigerator is spoiled. Freezer food is close to thawed but we have no way to heat it up.”

On Tuesday night, Philip said he had to drive across town to find an open restaurant. This morning, their power flickered on long enough that they were able to cook a meal before it went out, again.

While some are dealing with lack of food, others — like Eder Lemus, his wife, Claudia, and their three children — are dealing with a lack of water.

“As of now, we are using a neighbor’s faucet to refill a bucket of water to drain our toilets,” Lemus said. “When and if the lights come back on, we try to take showers and refill our drinking water gallons so that we can stay hydrated.”

In Austin, Smita Pande said her husband and their two friends visiting from New York took refuge with another friend because they had no power at their home.

They thought they were in the clear, but then a water main break nearby knocked out the water at the friend’s apartment.

“We didn’t anticipate the water to be shut off, but once it did, we assumed a ‘worst case scenario’ type of thing and just grabbed snow off the balcony and put into kettles and pots to use for drinking water in case we don’t get water back anytime soon,” Pande said. “If the power outage is any indication of how long that’ll be, then we are going to be boiling snow for a while.”

Right now, she said that everyone has one water bottle, so they shouldn’t need any of the “snow water” for some time. She currently estimates that they have enough food and water to last until Thursday afternoon.

In San Antonio, Texas, Brenda Aly said she is using pool water from a neighbor, in addition to snow, to fill their toilet tanks and do dishes after losing water Tuesday.

Aly said they are fortunate to have a gas stove and grill, and have been able to cook food. She estimates they have about two more days worth of rations left.

“Once we go through our bottled water, our only drinking water option will be snow, until our water comes back or the stores are able to open,” Aly said.

Some are facing health concerns

Two days ago, the San Antonio Fire Department (SAFD) started refilling resident’s oxygen bottles because they were calling 911 after running out and couldn’t get refills from their vendors, Joseph Arrington, SAFD spokesman, told CNN in a statement.

“Currently we have four SAFD vehicles responding city-wide to provide this service to as many folks as we can, as long as we have supply,” Arrington said. “As of (Wednesday) morning, we have provided this service at least 130 times, with many more waiting in the queue.”

John Henderson, of San Antonio, said his wife, who had a stroke last year, is among those who received a refill from SAFD.

His wife has one large tank that lasts 24 hours and two smaller ones. Fire department officials came by their house twice to refill his wife’s tanks, he said.

Amid the power outages, Henderson said he remains the most concerned about her health. She has been complaining that her throat hurts and having some trouble using portable oxygen tanks, he said.

“She’s got terrible breathing problems obviously,” he said. Without SAFD’s help, Henderson said they would have driven to the ER “even with the roads bad.”

“We’re making due and staying inside waiting on power,” he said. “We count ourselves as blessed nonetheless. There are a lot of folks worse off than us.”