Entire state of TX Winter Storm warning 1st time ever

[nightrain]

Part of this is that houses are not built to withstand this kind of weather, just the opposite. 2021 is going to be a year of extreme weather from both sides and I don't know of too many regions that build houses to withstand both.

We've had a weather anomaly like this before but they're quick hitters and move on, we are not built to handle something that stays this long. With the constant temp under freezing and houses losing power and heat, perfect storm for freezing pipes.

Down here in the Hill Country, the problem is the pipes responsible for distributing the processed water to the pumping stations burst.

We've seen the importance of our first responders to a pandemic, down here we're seeing a new first responder and these poor people are flat worn out and some are just catching some shuteye when they're ordered to and they're right back at it. They know lives are in jeopardy and this is more frustrating to them than to us. We've moved on from frustrated to pissed and it didn't take us long to get there.

Now there's an additional problem of the Dying of Thirst Syndrome, gulping water. Only it's power and some peoples' homes are down in the 30's and it's going to take a lot of power to get it back to just tolerable and convincing people to walk it up slowly to conserve and keep it from going out again is no easy task. Especially since the stories are already circulating in Austin that the rich people didn't lose power. I do not know if that's fact or just part of how crazy the whole country has become but everyone I know in Austin is beyond angry and looking for an outlet.

As the stories unfold down here, that's when we'll need the well wishers from the area of the country used to this kind of weather. This is going to get really ugly. Take people in a bad mood already and subject them to this and the water isn't the only thing boiling.

On the frozen pipe front, shut the main water supply valve inside your home and crack open all of your faucets (H and C). This would help prevent an internal freeze-up. Unfortunately, it's too late for many. You wouldn't need to do this if you are able to keep heat up in your home.

 

[JIMMYBUFFETT]

This is why claiming you should not be prepared for infrequent events kind of dies in the face of real life.

We were fairly well prepared. I'm a big outdoorsman so it's been no problem boiling water on the Coleman stove and running lanterns. Plus I've got a Weber grill and a Blackstone griddle that run on propane. We've got plenty of down jackets and I had 1/2 a cord of wood stacked. I've been in our home for 14 years and burned the fireplace twice. I only use firewood for my BBQ pit, so I'm use to a 1/2 cord of wood lasting me years. That's the one thing I won't let happen again. One of our biggest issues has just been getting our pets in and out. They've never seen anything like this in their lives and don't really care for it at all. That and the filth. We haven't been able to do laundry, wash dishes, run the vacuum, or maintain our home properly. My house has a funk that's equal parts mesquite smoke and wet dog that's making me consistently hungry for BBQ.

 

[nobody]

Unfortunately even as most are receiving their power back the next debacle is our water. Hundreds of thousands are without and or had waterline bust and most if not all counties are under boil orders.

The water issues could go on for months. We know of several in this area alone who found themselves wading in freezing water in their house while the power was out.

We’ve had Winter Storms before but never without power so long. Not unless we had a hurricane .

And this is an area where not everyone has fireplaces and few with generators , etc to brave the subfreezing temperature. Being without power during warmer weather isn’t as life threatening unless your on oxygen or a dialysis which filled our hospitals.

My town is on emergency water rationing and may be out of water within 48 hours....but we don't have to boil it.

 

[CouchCoach]

My power situation was the first I've ever experienced. I am on Pedernales Coop and they maxed out with 35% of their customers being out. Mine went off at 1:30 Monday morning just as they planned and it was off for 6 hours and then it came up but for only 5 minutes at a time and then it would pop off for about 1 second and back up again. This went on for at least 24 hours and I was timing it out and then it began to lengthen to 6, then 7, then 9, 11 and 13 and I am sure it was being controlled by the main frame.

This would not allow the modem to come up or DirecTV but I was able to keep my cell plugged in and the lowest the temp got was 50. Ya know, 50 doesn't sound bad at all unless that's inside your home and it was just weird.

I don't know why they were doing it that way unless there's some kind of reset that happened every time they took it down. It was the strangest rolling kind of blackout I've ever experienced. I don't know jack about electricity, I still cover the outlets to keep it from escaping.

One year in Dallas, they did rolling blackouts when the temp was hanging at 110 everyday but they warned us and gave us the schedule of when we would be down and it ran just like clockwork.

From what I've heard about the rolling blackouts from the two Austin area providers is that it was all confusion with some out hours longer than they'd been told and some others not out at all. These people were intentionally lied to and that has only added to the problem.

 

[Diehardblues]

We were fairly well prepared. I'm a big outdoorsman so it's been no problem boiling water on the Coleman stove and running lanterns. Plus I've got a Weber grill and a Blackstone griddle that run on propane. We've got plenty of down jackets and I had 1/2 a cord of wood stacked. I've been in our home for 14 years and burned the fireplace twice. I only use firewood for my BBQ pit, so I'm use to a 1/2 cord of wood lasting me years. That's the one thing I won't let happen again. One of our biggest issues has just been getting our pets in and out. They've never seen anything like this in their lives and don't really care for it at all. That and the filth. We haven't been able to do laundry, wash dishes, run the vacuum, or maintain our home properly. My house has a funk that's equal parts mesquite smoke and wet dog that's making me consistently hungry for BBQ.

I’ve learned a valuable lesson and I’ll never be left this vulnerable again. I’ve never experienced a power outage more than a few hours due to thunderstorms or tornado knocking down power lines .

But under these conditions with frigid temperatures and unable to seek refuge elsewhere as we were snowed in , it was frightening.

First order of business is purchasing an Emergency supply including a portable generator, propane heaters , stoves and power storage for devices and TV.

If we didn’t have firewood to sleep by , candles, flashlights and charcoals to cook outside with it could have been detrimental to our health. I will never be this vulnerable again.

 

[Aviano90]

I have a generator that I didn't even use. Was only going to use it in an emergency situation and not to prevent "inconvenience". It got cold in here but nothing that extra layers and blankets couldn't deal with but I didn't want to waste our gas using the portable heater trying to prevent inconvenience and then not have it available if it were truly needed. We were getting to that point of using it but our power came back on on today. We were able to to cook on the grills and we can boil water with the propane turkey fryer. I am still not satisfied with how prepared we were. I would characterize it as unprepared, but managed through it while taking in my sister-in-laws family and caring for 4 additional people.

I'm really disappointed in Verizon. Was unable to use cellular data over the past few days. Could only access the internet during the early morning hours.

 

[Rockport]

The mild winters in Texas over the past few years have resulted in the insects being really bad in the summertime. This extended freeze has been sorely needed. The bug population should now be somewhat tolerable. Just trying to put a positive spin on the situation.

I’m at my Dad’s house now because he’s old and lost power and water. He lives in the country and has 2 yard cats that he feeds. They keep the snakes and mice population under control. They’re not pets and are semi-wild. They’re having a hard time coping. Not trying to put a downer on your positive take on the insects which is a great point and one I didn’t know about, but we need to take care of any other critters in our realm that we can.

 

[Rockport]

Man, agree with that. Saw skeeters last summer big enough to stand flat footed and make love to a turkey.

 

[Rockport]

Been above freezing for the last 2 days during the day down here in the southern Pineywoods region (I'm halfway between Lufkin and Beaumont). It's 34* now. I only lost power on Tuesday for about 9 hours but ran 4 space heaters off the generator and kept the fireplace stoked. I dropped to 67 at one point but by the time I got the fireplace roaring we got up to 70-71. Our low was 8* Monday morning which is when we lost power at 0430.

If anyone wants a layman's knowledge of generator running I got several methods I'm employing as i must run 2, one for my house and one for my pump 300' away. I've done this since Hurricane Rita when we were out of power for 3 weeks. I presently run a 15,000 watt Generac on the house (1st time using it) which is a salvage generator from my uncles barn from this summer. This a so called portable unit with a wheel kit. I need bigger wire and an outdoor wall mounted plug. Presently running a 6/3 wire through a wall conduit to my breaker box. At my well house I put my old 7000 watt Sam's Club Black Max which I used to run the house on. I will be upgrading my situation for convenience and easier use features before next hurricane season.

There are plenty of tables on the internet to help you size your generator(s).

Bob

That’s the old way of thinking. Generators do the job but they are costly to purchase, expensive to run (need fuel) and noisy as hell. A combination of solar and wind turbine would have been a better investment. JMHO

 

[catiii]

They admitted that they didn't inspect in person ANY of the generator plants before this winter and didn't require any minimum level of weather protection.

And the governor just now shut down any natural gas shipments going out of state. The operative words there are JUST NOW. Seems that nobody was watching anybody in this or requiring any kind of reporting.

You know what doesn't care about Don't Mess With Texas? A winter storm and this is not the first Vortex to drop down from Canada.

They're reporting out of Austin that the Chairperson of ERCOT, in Michigan, is refusing any contact for her and the board, she stated they're too busy working the problem. I think we are on the verge of ERCOTgate.

A blind basketball team couldn't drop this many balls. The best so far has been a spokesperson blaming the forecasters for missing the severity of the storm as the first mistake. Unbelievable.

We heard about natural gas (liquified) freezing at the wells and pipelines.....well...ALASKA uses natural gas too and their HIGHs in winter are around 0 on a normal day as they were all last week in Anchorage LOL (with lows -18) and they get by just fine.

 

[Turk]

We heard about natural gas (liquified) freezing at the wells and pipelines.....well...ALASKA uses natural gas too and their HIGHs in winter are around 0 on a normal day as they were all last week in Anchorage LOL (with lows -18) and they get by just fine.

Just another example of not putting sufficient money into infrastructure. That is the blame of both government and the companies.

 

[Hoofbite]

The more I hear about this the crazier it gets. Saw a picture of the plumbing aisle supposedly at Home Depot. Literally shoulder-to-shoulder.

Probably sucks even more because I doubt people have a lot of cold weather clothing to layer in an attempt to stay warm.

Hopefully it warms up soon.

 

[Cowpolk]

I’m at my Dad’s house now because he’s old and lost power and water. He lives in the country and has 2 yard cats that he feeds. They keep the snakes and mice population under control. They’re not pets and are semi-wild. They’re having a hard time coping. Not trying to put a downer on your positive take on the insects which is a great point and one I didn’t know about, but we need to take care of any other critters in our realm that we can.

I moved to Oklahoma from Texas adopted a lab pup (Bubba) he has adopted 2 Ferrell cats and 1 bobtail cat yes a big un I tamed all 3 of them They are sleeping on the front porch I dont let the bobtail in the house cause we have 2 chihuahuas and am afraid she might hurt them She snuggles up with Bubba like they are best friends

 

[Point-of-the-Star]

That’s the old way of thinking. Generators do the job but they are costly to purchase, expensive to run (need fuel) and noisy as hell. A combination of solar and wind turbine would have been a better investment. JMHO

Well Rocky, I've had one of these generators for 16 years. The other is 16 years old but I acquired it this past summer for free. Here in the woods neither wind nor sunshine will work well. Trees block both. (ever been in deep East Texas?) Now, they'll work out on the coastal plains some but the investment would be at least 10 times what I have in all these generators. So, I got one generator for free (salvage) and it took about $200 bucks to replace a circuit board, carb cleanup, oil change with filter. I burned 7.5 gallons of gas. Gas at $2 /gal. So $215 invested. Even the generator on my well I spent $900 on it in 2005. Decent sized generators that are pretty good are available for $500.

Tell me what a windmill, solar panels, and batteries would cost plus the auto switch to sell my extra juice back putting it in the grid. Now I need to run A/C's or space heaters, water heater, fridge, freezer. lights and miscellaneous appliances. I run all of those off my generators.

I'll give you the noise but bigger units are available that are less than 60 decibels. Noise is a small inconvenience.

The rest of your claims don't add up . . . not even close. My costs are relatively cheap to live with the convenience delivered. The green methods you mention won't do that at the costs or capacities.

You generally post good stuff but I know the approximate cost of a whole house solar system even without storage batteries. Turbines I don't know anything about. Both of these methods would have had issues with snow and ice storm we just had plus short cloudy days. Think I could have had my house powered for $1150 the other morning with the methods you claimed are better investments?

 

[kskboys]

I’ve learned a valuable lesson and I’ll never be left this vulnerable again. I’ve never experienced a power outage more than a few hours due to thunderstorms or tornado knocking down power lines .

But under these conditions with frigid temperatures and unable to seek refuge elsewhere as we were snowed in , it was frightening.

First order of business is purchasing an Emergency supply including a portable generator, propane heaters , stoves and power storage for devices and TV.

If we didn’t have firewood to sleep by , candles, flashlights and charcoals to cook outside with it could have been detrimental to our health. I will never be this vulnerable again.

And then educate yourself to the extreme on propane heaters and generators. Several people died who used them and didn't.

 

[kskboys]

We were fairly well prepared. I'm a big outdoorsman so it's been no problem boiling water on the Coleman stove and running lanterns. Plus I've got a Weber grill and a Blackstone griddle that run on propane. We've got plenty of down jackets and I had 1/2 a cord of wood stacked. I've been in our home for 14 years and burned the fireplace twice. I only use firewood for my BBQ pit, so I'm use to a 1/2 cord of wood lasting me years. That's the one thing I won't let happen again. One of our biggest issues has just been getting our pets in and out. They've never seen anything like this in their lives and don't really care for it at all. That and the filth. We haven't been able to do laundry, wash dishes, run the vacuum, or maintain our home properly. My house has a funk that's equal parts mesquite smoke and wet dog that's making me consistently hungry for BBQ.

The Chinese food place smells just like that!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[kskboys]

I’ve learned a valuable lesson and I’ll never be left this vulnerable again. I’ve never experienced a power outage more than a few hours due to thunderstorms or tornado knocking down power lines .

But under these conditions with frigid temperatures and unable to seek refuge elsewhere as we were snowed in , it was frightening.

First order of business is purchasing an Emergency supply including a portable generator, propane heaters , stoves and power storage for devices and TV.

If we didn’t have firewood to sleep by , candles, flashlights and charcoals to cook outside with it could have been detrimental to our health. I will never be this vulnerable again.

I took water to prolly 6 or 7 people that I knew during this cold spell. I have to admit, I was in shock at how many were so little prepared. And then watching these stupid little cars race all over wrecking and running off the road while I'm crawling everywhere in my big 4 wheel drive truck. Man, is society simply getting stupider right before our eyes or what?

 

[Runwildboys]

I took water to prolly 6 or 7 people that I knew during this cold spell. I have to admit, I was in shock at how many were so little prepared. And then watching these stupid little cars race all over wrecking and running off the road while I'm crawling everywhere in my big 4 wheel drive truck. Man, is society simply getting stupider right before our eyes or what?

Yes

 

[DanteEXT]

I took water to prolly 6 or 7 people that I knew during this cold spell. I have to admit, I was in shock at how many were so little prepared. And then watching these stupid little cars race all over wrecking and running off the road while I'm crawling everywhere in my big 4 wheel drive truck. Man, is society simply getting stupider right before our eyes or what?

Guessing if you generally don't deal with the weather like that you may not know what 1 and 2 are for (L and S in my car).

Here in Indiana when the SUV craze hit back in the 90's and people traded in their mini vans for Explorers you'd see them screaming down the street in the winter while I was crawling along in my front wheel drive car. So not sure society is any stupider than they were 25 years or so ago.

 

[Turk]

Guessing if you generally don't deal with the weather like that you may not know what 1 and 2 are for (L and S in my car).

Here in Indiana when the SUV craze hit back in the 90's and people traded in their mini vans for Explorers you'd see them screaming down the street in the winter while I was crawling along in my front wheel drive car. So not sure society is any stupider than they were 25 years or so ago.

I don't know about that. Seems like the percentage of dumb is higher now.