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As the storm took down energy plants, Texas’s grid manager, ERCOT, has been implementing rolling blackouts to manage the supply of electricity until power is restored.

Carolyn Riley, a 31-year-old who lives in an apartment complex in Dallas, had only one hour of electricity per day on Monday and Tuesday. She scrambled to heat up food and take a warm shower during what she called “power hour.” She didn’t have an internet connection, which as a work-from-home employee at a freight logistics company meant she was losing income. In a cruel twist, the one place in her home insulated from the intense cold was her refrigerator; her food went bad despite the bags of snow she piled inside.

When it got too cold in her unit, she turned to her car for warmth.

“You’ll go into the garage and everyone’s kind of sitting in their cars,” she said. “That’s really the only place you go for heat.”

Riley has lived in Texas for most of her life, and she said she has never seen anything like this — from the winter storm to the power failure to the stunning lack of preparation from the government.

The weather emergency in Texas has affected residents across the board. Hourly workers are losing out on pay, and people have reported possible price gouging for hotels and basic supplies. A spike in wholesale electricity prices in Texas may also lead to an increase in electricity bills for consumers.

Experts and community organizers fear the impact of the storm will be worse in low-income neighborhoods, which will likely go longest without power, the New York Times reported. With poor infrastructure and fewer resources, low-income communities have historically waited longest to receive aid after a crisis; after Hurricane Harvey in 2017, for example, the government response in low-income, racially diverse neighborhoods was slower compared to whiter, wealthier communities.

For Texans who are already familiar with navigating disasters on their own with little help from the government, how local and city officials have responded to the storm so far is merely the latest chapter in a long pattern of neglect.

Some people who spoke to BuzzFeed News deemed government officials absent or unhelpful as the crisis unfolded. As millions lost power, Gov. Greg Abbott went on Fox News to decry the Green New Deal. On Thursday, Sen. Ted Cruz admitted to flying to Cancún, Mexico, with his family after being spotted at the airport the day before. Tim Boyd, the mayor of Colorado City, Texas — whose population is around 48% Latinx — resigned this week after backlash over his Facebook post telling people to “stop looking for a handout” during the cold.

“No one owes you [or] your family anything; nor is it the local government’s responsibility to support you during trying times like this! Sink or swim it’s your choice!” Boyd wrote. “The City and County, along with power providers or any other service owes you NOTHING!”

The first time the power in Alondra Chavez’s home in Pasadena went out was on Sunday at 2 a.m. It didn’t come back on until Tuesday afternoon — so when it did, Chavez, 23, and their family charged their devices and cranked the heat up, unsure of how long it would last. It went out again after six hours.

Their mom forked over $45 for three cases of water at a nearby corner store for their family after their pipes burst, cutting off their water supply. Although a case normally costs $1.99, it was the only place their mom found that had any bottled water left to sell.

“I was like, ‘Why did you do that?’” Chavez said. “And she was like, ‘Because we need water.’”

Chavez is no stranger to local officials who do not represent their community’s best interest; Pasadena — which is part of the Houston metro area — is a heavily segregated city, with a lower-income Latinx population living in one area and a white affluent population in another. Chavez said they have not received guidance from local agencies.

“They’re normally silent on every issue, I feel — whether it’s the hurricane, whether we’re having a very high heat index, and now during this weather,” Chavez, who works at a nonprofit that services the Houston area community, said. “The mayor of Houston has given some updates but I don’t think it’s been very helpful. It’s essentially been, ‘Hey, it’s cold, stay inside.’”

Chavez also expects their community to be one of the most impacted by the crisis. They pointed to how long it took low-income neighborhoods to receive aid after Hurricane Harvey.

“As a Texan, I don’t think I’m surprised, honestly,” Chavez said. “We’re seeing that again now.”