The power was out, the pipes had frozen and burst. Even if doctors could have cared for patients in the dark, it wouldn’t have been possible: The snow was so deep they couldn’t get into the buildings. For the staff at VCare Clinics – a nonprofit provider, founded by the Texas International Institute of Health Professions, that cares for the most vulnerable patients in the Houston and Dallas areas – Winter Storm Fern wasn’t just an inconvenience. It was reason to worry gravely about their patients. “If we are closed, they don’t have anywhere to go,” said Dr. Maqsood Ahmed, a program director at VCare. One patient who urgently needed insulin came to a VCare clinic on January 26, only to find the parking lot snowed in and a “Closed” sign on the door. “I was stranded without my medications,” they told providers. When VCare was able to open three days later, “I practically ran to the clinic with lethargy, sweating, shaking, and shivering,” the patient recalled, “and there you were, ready to help.” Dr.…