Millions of Texans remained without safe drinking water Sunday as state officials sought to ramp up bottled water distribution and calm residents whose electricity bills have spiked after a severe winter storm battered the state.

Boil-water notices were lifted for about 5 million of the 14.9 million people who were told that their water wasn't safe to drink two days ago, Toby Baker, executive director of the state Commission on Environmental Quality, said in a news conference Sunday.

Nearly 3.5 million bottles of water had been distributed by helicopter, airplane and truck across the state, Gov.

In Houston, officials said a boil-water notice that had been in place since Wednesday was lifted after tests found that the city's tap water met regulatory standards, while about a third of San Antonio's 1.5 million people remained under a boil-water order, Baker said.