the greed of these electrical companies and when will you go you know 63 year old army veteran scott willoughby was highlighted in the media over the weekend lives on social security payments he got hit according to new york times with a $16000.00 february electric bill because he's on what they call like the he buys like their electricity wholesale in the deregulated market of texas i mean that's $60000.00 you've got nicholas' mulattoes over received a $3000.00 bill he told the media quote everyone in texas is about deregulation and greedy as a whole so the company as a whole selector see provider is the most deregulated you can get and this just goes to show why regulation is important because sure in the short term it's great but them's the situations like this arise where it gets out of control and he i think brought up a good point as a customer saying look we love the romanticism of the deregulated perfectly running market but we know that. that doesn't exist no they don't these markets are below profit share and that's the end of the story and i think that democrats really need to push h

. >> reporter: but it could be too late for texans like scott willoughby, who signed up for griddy energy after they advertised wholesale prices, not knowing his rate could vary with the market so when the power supply went down from the storm, his typical $200 bill took off when it was all said and done, what was that damage >> $16,789, something like that. >> reporter: and this was not a bill this was withdrawn >> this was withdrawn straight from my account. >> reporter: by the time the vietnam vet could switch providers, he had already dipped into retirement savings. >> it's been a bad situation and the financial burden on top of it just compounded >> reporter: nbc news reached out to griddy for comment but has not heard back willoughby not alone, joining millions of texans in need of help in houston, some accepted water from senator ted cruz, who shared these photos just days after facing fierce backlash cancun mid-f one famous texan doing her part, beyonce,s who website now reads, "if you're in texas, you can apply for restored there >> kate, some hopeful news tonight. texas governor

joining me now is scott willoughby. >> what are you going to do with this bill?re is not much to do, it is paid, they get paid in advance. every day they took a little more, a little more, until when it was all said and done it was almost $17,000. >> all of your savings, you say is basically now gone because of this? >> not all, but a good majority is gone, yes. >> do you have any hope that you will get any of that money back? is it fair? you bought into this wholesale pricing which means most of the time you do pretty good. given the enormity of this crisis that you will get a good portion of that back? >> i'm hope the text legislature does something. i saw today they froze them from sending bills and from cutting off anyone's power. i'm hoping they do something to give us some relief. you know, you say that we have done pretty good overall, but i don't think anybody would have traded $7 or $8 a month here and there for a $17,000 bill. there was no disclosures or warnings. just advertisements saying sign up to save money. >> i'm presuming you didn't think the po

. >> reporter: it could be too late for texans like scott willoughby, who signed up for griddy energyer they advertised wholesale prices, not knowing his rate could vary with the market. so when power supply went down from the storm, his typically $200 bill took off. when it was all said and done what was the damage? >> $16,798, something like that. >> reporter: and this was not a bill. this was withdrawn. >> this was withdrawn, straight from my account. >> reporter: by the time the vietnam vet could switch providers, he had already dipped into retirement savings. >> it's been a bad situation. and the financial burden on top of it just compounds it. >> reporter: nbc news reached out to griddy for comment but has not heard back. >> yikes. >>> all right, texas senator ted cruz, meanwhile, is apparently in hot water once again for posting photos over the weekend of himself helping constituents along with #texasstrong. this comes days after the senator was seen flying to cancun with his family while his state suffered from the effects of that devastating winter storm. cruz quickly hustled

scott willoughby has the story now. how did this happen, scott? happened because the texas power grid wasn't regulated and no cap on the upper end of what you can pay. so we went from a normal 8 to 10 cents a kill watt hour to $900 a kilowatt hour. >> dana: that was automatically taken out of your account because it's how the company works? >> you pay in advance. had it set up to do $200 at a time. that would take most of a month to fill but when the power -- the prices surged it would refresh my account three, four, five, six times a day up to 15, 17 times a day at the height. >> bill: we're looking at a bill of $16,752.68. who is going to pay that? >> well, i've paid it. it has been taken out of my account. but the texas legislature and governor abbott had an emergency meeting saturday and they are looking at ways that they can help us. so i'm hopeful that they will eventually do that. >> dana: scott, i know that you have paid it and you had that money in your account thankfully for you to pay that. what is your concern for so many people in tex

. >> reporter: that's exactly what happened to scott willoughby, not knowing his bill could vary. when the power went down, the bill took off. what was the damage? >> $16,798, something like that. >> reporter: this was not a bill. this was withdrawn? >> straight from my account. >> reporter: by the time willoughby switched providers, he ended up paying 80 times more than the typical $200 bill. some well-known texanses now pitching in to help. beto o'rourke driving a truck of water from e flying back from cancun. even houston-born beyonce offering emergency funding on her website. texans looking out for their own, even on south padre island, where all those cold, stunned sea turtles were warmed up enough to return to sea. restoring power and water, not the only major concern. there's massive food concern across the state. we have seen those heartbreaking scenes of grocery store shelves that are still bear today. texas governor greg abbott loosened regulations to allow kitchens to prepare more meals to get them to texans in dire need. craig, we'll send it back to you. >> all right.