Top board leaders of Texas' power grid operator said Tuesday they will resign following outrage over more than 4 million customers losing electricity last week during a deadly winter storm, including many whose frigid homes lacked heat for days in subfreezing temperatures. 

The resignations are effective Wednesday, one day before Texas lawmakers are expected to question grid managers and energy officials about the failures during hearings at the state Capitol.

All of the five board directors who are stepping down, including Chairwoman Sally Talberg, live outside of Texas, which only intensified criticism of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). 

The resignations are the first since the crisis began in Texas, and calls for wider firings remain in the aftermath of one of the worst power outages in U.S. history.

A $1-billion class action lawsuit was fired against Griddy Electric LLC of Houston for dramatically jacking up electricity prices during the recent blackouts and plunging temperatures, accusing it of cashing in on a natural disaster.

A ferocious winter storm last week knocked out power and disrupted heat and water to millions of Texans, and also sent wholesale electricity prices soaring.

Electricity customers like Khoury, who paid an average of less than $250 a month, received a $9,546 electricity bill for service between February 1 and 19.

The litigation against the company was brought by Lisa Khoury of Mount Belvieu, Texas, seeking compensatory and punitive damages for soaring electric bills, according to a copy of the complaint filed in state court.

Griddy said it passes along to customers wholesale electricity prices, which it said were ordered by utility regulators.

"We understand our customers' frustration," Lauren Valdes, senior manager for social media and content at Griddy, said in an email to Reuters. "The lawsuit is meritless and we plan to vigorously defend it."

Previously, Governor Greg Abbott said Sunday he expected all power to be fully restored to every house by Monday. But, as of Wednesday, there are still 11,538 customers are under power outages in Texas, according to data compiled by PowerOutage.us.

Meanwhile, over 7.9 million people in Texas still had issues with their water supply as of Monday evening.

"As of 6 p.m. Central Time Monday, more than 1,200 public water systems have reported disruptions in service due to the weather, many of them leading to Boil Water Notices. This is affecting more than 7.9 million people, in 202 Texas counties," a Texas Commission on Environmental Quality (TCEQ) spokesman said in an emailed statement.

Though power has been restored to most homes as the weather returned to normal, some people are having a hard time returning to their normal lives. 

Monica Ware, a mother of four, told CNN that the broken water pipes that flooded her Houston home last week have destroyed nearly all of the family's belongings.

"We used everything we had on a hotel this week," Ware said. "After this, it's like, where are we going to go?"

A more devastated mother, who lost her 11-year-old boy after they lost electricity and heat in their Texas mobile home, has filed a $100-million lawsuit against two power companies for gross negligence.

Maria Pineda said the ERCOT and Entergy Corp. are responsible for the death of her son Cristian, who was found unresponsive on the morning of February 16 at home, where he shared a bed with his 3-year-old brother.

The complaint filed on Saturday accused the defendants of ignoring a Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recommendation following a 2011 freeze to "winterize" the power grid, and were caught "wholly unprepared" when the grid failed last week.

Cristian froze to death "because grid wasn't a priority, and the energy provider made decisions based on profits," said the complaint filed in the Jefferson County District Court.

Catching up on the vaccines

From coast to coast, states were scrambling Tuesday to catch up on vaccinations a week after the winter storms battered a large swath of the U.S. and led to clinic closures, canceled appointments and shipment backlogs nationwide.

But limited supply of the two approved COVID-19 vaccines hampered the pace of vaccinations even before extreme weather delayed the delivery of about 6 million doses.

The White House promised on Tuesday that help is on the way.

States can expect about 14.5 million doses of the coronavirus vaccine this week, an almost 70-percent increase in distribution over the past month, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Tuesday. White House coronavirus coordinator Jeff Zients told governors that the number of doses sent directly to pharmacies will increase by about 100,000 this week, Psaki said.

Houston's federally funded vaccination site will open Wednesday at NRG Park, operating seven days a week for three weeks to distribute 126,000 first doses, before transitioning to second doses, officials said.

(With input from agencies)