Interviewee
Margarita LopezInterviewer
Pamela MoralesInterview Date
Nov 16, 2022Oral History Notes
00;00;00;09 - 00;00;25;07
Speaker 1
Okay. And then if you could speak into the microphone so that we can hear it clearly, it should be good. Okay. This is Pamela morales. Today is November 16th, 2022. I am interviewing at 2:19 p.m. and I am interviewing with Mrs. Ms..?
00;00;26;03-00;00;27;06
Speaker 2
Ms. Margarita Lopez
00;00;28;07-00;01;00;03
Speaker 1
Margarita Lopez. This interview is taking place at the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council Building in Weslaco, Texas. This interview is part of the Disaster Collection Oral History Project and will be submitted to the Museum Archives for future researchers. This interview will focus on the winter storm of 2021. So, the freeze 2021 last year, which took place in February 2021, in which city?
00;01;01;06-00;01;01;14
Speaker 2
I was in McAllen,
00;01;02;07-00;01;13;07
Speaker 1
In McAllen, Texas. And to note this interview with Margarita is a personal, a personal experience, and is not in any way affiliated with the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council.
00;01;14;15-00;01;17;06
Speaker 1
Okay. So can you please state your full name?
00;01;17;28-00;01;19;03
Speaker 2
Margarita Lopez.
00;01;19;22-00;01;22;04
Speaker 1
Can you please spell your full name?
00;01;22;17-00;01;27;05
Speaker 2
Can I? M a r g a r I t a L o p e z
00;01;28;03-00;01;30;19
Speaker 1
Perfect. And can you please tell us your date of birth?
00;01;31;0700;01;32;29
Speaker 2
10/27/71
00;01;33;15-00;01;36;09
Speaker 1
And can you please tell us where you grew up?
00;01;36;16-00;01;36;29
Speaker 2
Puerto Rico.
00;01;38;03-00;01;39;02
Speaker 1
Where in Puerto Rico?
00;01;39;17-00;01;40;07
Speaker 2
Arecibo. Puerto Rico.
00;01;41;03 - 00;01;50;06
Speaker 1
Perfect. Okay, So can you tell us your experience? You know, the exact location and any details about the winter storm of 2021?
00;01;51;05-00;02;44;28
Speaker 2
Definitely. I was in McAllen, Texas, and I was fortunate to be safe in my home. What I remember the most that impacted me the most was the amount of people who went without electricity. Also, the domino effect. Right. A lot of people get prepared with candles or flashlights in case you go without electricity. But to create a conscience about everything else that takes place when you go without power for so long. Like not having enough gasoline for the population that's at risk during that time. And so even if you get prepared at a personal level, for example, I have generators.
00;02;45;22 - 00;03;12;18
Speaker 2
I'm from Puerto Rico. I know that I need a generator in case of a hurricane or a freeze. However, if you don't have gasoline in storage, can you really use a generator? And so, one of the things that most impacted me was, although I had electricity, I was blessed to go where I only went without power, maybe for 2 hours. I was not able to help other people because I just had a generator sitting in my garage because no one had gasoline to use it either way. Not having banks for other things other than food. Right. A lot of people have access to food banks. Churches have food banks. Right. And then we have supermarkets who have plenty of food.
00;03;40;26 - 00;04;08;04
Speaker 2
And sometimes we say, well, they can give out the food. Why are they throwing away the food? But just knowing and teaching, educating the community to understand that food has an expiration time, not only an expiration date. And what does that mean? That if your refrigerator went without power for 8 hours more than likely, some of the food in there may not be good, which is what happens with supermarkets, and then they end up throwing away their food.
00;04;08;14 - 00;05;04;25
Speaker 2
So sitting back at the comfort of my home was also painful to see how we were not able to help each other and how we got rid of things because we waited too long, because we didn't know how long this was going to happen, where we went without power. I don't think the freeze itself was an issue. I don't think that it was just the natural disaster that impacted us. I think it was the lack of awareness of the extent of needs that one would go through if there's a freeze and there's no electricity. We weren't ready to tackle this at a macro level. And so people get educated on what they need to do at a personal level, but it goes a lot further than that. And so that was my experience and what impacted me the most from that event.
00;05;05;29 – 00;05;09;09
Speaker 1
Could you tell me a little bit about where exactly in McAllen?
00;05;09;13-00;05;37;12
Speaker 2
So, I live in north McAllen, just in the center of McAllen. I live close by DHR. And so maybe that's why I was fortunate enough. Maybe I'm part of their grid and have a big hospital out there. We're not going to be without power for too long. However, that wasn't the case for all hospitals either. So maybe that, you know, has something to do with me not going without power for too long.
00;05;38;04-00;06;20;04
Speaker 1
Yeah. And I live in McAllen, too. I live between 10th and second and close to Pecan where there's a teacher emergency room. And we didn't go with I mean; we didn't lose power. We did for like, you know, the 2 hours or whatever. But we think probably like, well, maybe because we're close by an emergency, you know, unit and maybe they need it open. Yeah. So, I mean, I don't know, maybe there's a theory to that. So but before, like obviously you know, this freeze, as you mentioned, that we weren't prepared. And even though you had a generator where you kind of sort of prepared for it to be that cold like where were the that again, you didn't...
00;06;18;17-00;07;16;04
Speaker 2
Like I said, I don't think the problem was that it was that cold. If you think about it, let's look at the nation. New York, It's cold. New Jersey, it gets cold. Alaska gets cold. Canada is cold. We don't have the situations that we went through just because it was cold. We went through the situation because we were not prepared at other levels. Because if the problem was just that it was cold, then everybody else in the nation that lives in relatively close, cold places would have the issues that we have. So no, I don't think it was the weather at all, and I don't think that it was people not being prepared at a personal level. I think it was more as a society, we were not ready to take care of that.
00;07;16;17-00;07;18;03
Perfect. Anything else you'd like to add?
00;07;19;02-00;07;22;00
No, that will be all. Thank you for your time.