Texas man pleads for help after his family is left with just one piece of firewood

A Texas man has pleaded for help after his family was left with just one piece of firewood amid the state's ongoing cold weather front.

Chester Jones took to TikTok on Tuesday (February 16), under the account name @checkjones, to share a video of his four children sleeping in Dallas beneath many blankets.

He revealed in the caption that it was freezing outside and that the family had no power in their home, having been left with just one piece of firewood to get them through the night.

"Please help me," he pleaded to other TikTok users.

Watch the man's desperate plea for help below: 

As per the Independent, the video went viral after it provided people around the world with a sad insight into the suffering Texans are currently enduring after the cold weather brought mass power outages.

Texans faced days without power in freezing temperatures when a surge in usage overloaded the system and led to forced blackouts throughout the state.

Jones shared another TikTok of himself putting anything he had to hand on his fire: 

At the peak of the storm, The Independent reports that there were more than four million people without power in the state.

Texas has an independent electricity grid which means that the state cannot obtain power from elsewhere when there is a surge in demand, which is why many have been left without power for an extended period of time.

Credit: PA Images

The state was the only one in the US to operate on an independent grid.

The mass blackouts have resulted in a backlash against Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, and other GOP state leaders for failing to adequately prepare for the storm.

Dan Woodfin, the senior director of system operations at ERCOT, told the Associated Press, however, that the current storm is "well beyond the design parameters for a typical, or even an extreme, Texas winter that you would normally plan for."

The Red Cross commented on Jones' TikTok, saying: "Please stay safe! If you need somewhere to go for warmth, visit www.redcross.org/shelter to find an open shelter or warming center near you."