No heat, and no internet. Pipes bursting, houses flooding. And a scramble to get drinking water. That’s some of the challenges facing lawyers in Texas who spent this week hammered with power outages, record freezing temperatures and water shortages from an unprecedented winter storm.

“Yeah, we are basically writing off the full week,” wrote Robert Hilliard, of Hilliard Martinez Gonzales in Corpus Christi, in an email. “Courthouse closed. Mediations cancelled. Hearings cancelled. Seems like every pipe in Texas has burst.”

Burst pipes during the snow storm in San Antonio, TX. Courtesy of Hilliard Martinez Gonzalez