Author Topic: Massive winter storm prompts disaster declaration and could stress Texas' electricity grid  (Read 4660 times)

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Online mountaineer

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OH HOW HORRIBLE!  On our local news tonight 5 people locally have died from the cold. 4 died in their own houses that had had no electricity or heat for 3 days now.

This is just heart breaking....
I'm hearing people who are dependent on various types of medical machines are struggling, too, without electricity to run them. So sad.
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Offline GrouchoTex

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Late to the game here, due to the power and WiFi being out.

Lost power Monday morning @ 7am
Restored Wednesday evening @ 7 pm.
Stayed warm by dressing (and sleeping) in layers, multiple quilts on the bed when we slept.
Used charcoal grill to cook outside, when it wasn't raining/snowing.
Some frozen pipes, but no broken ones, thank God.
Found Gasoline on Thursday, fairly easily, no wait.
Worked Friday and today (Saturday).
I live in Sugar Land and work in Katy.
A little early morning ice on the commute both days, but mostly in puddles by the curbsides, not bad.
Haven't had to be on a boil water notice, but not taking chances.
Brushing teeth using bottled water, etc.

Wife went to the grocery store yesterday.
All frozen food gone, no meat yet.
Dairy and bread hard to come by.


Offline GrouchoTex

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Looks like the ceiling falling is what woke em up (sheets thrown over the rubble on the bed)... Praise God they weren't under it. Small favors, right? but at least they are still there to enact the repairs.

That happened in my Granddaughters room.
Thank God they were not home.
Granddaughter is 3 years old.
My son's ex-wife took our 2 grandkids to her boyfriends house.
He never lost power.
They came back to get more stuff and found the damage.

Offline GrouchoTex

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I think whole-home generator price and demand is going to skyrocket.
I know I am looking into it, but maybe not today.........

Offline Elderberry

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I went to the FiestaMart on Edgebrook day before yesterday. Produce was mostly full. No meat. No Bread. No Milk.

I went to the Food Town in Pasadena Yesterday. The whole store looked completely stocked except no 1% or 2% milk. Plenty of whole milk. I didn't go down the bread isle as I didn't need any. Meat was fully stocked.

Offline Elderberry

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People need to learn that if they leave their homes in a freeze to shut off the water and drain the pipes. At least shut off the water.

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People need to learn that if they leave their homes in a freeze to shut off the water and drain the pipes. At least shut off the water.

Many houses have a drain valve, to dump the water already in the pipes after the main is shut off.  My ex in-laws had a rental they owned like that, as were all the houses in that neighborhood.
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Online roamer_1

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Late to the game here, due to the power and WiFi being out.

Lost power Monday morning @ 7am
Restored Wednesday evening @ 7 pm.
Stayed warm by dressing (and sleeping) in layers, multiple quilts on the bed when we slept.
Used charcoal grill to cook outside, when it wasn't raining/snowing.
Some frozen pipes, but no broken ones, thank God.
Found Gasoline on Thursday, fairly easily, no wait.
Worked Friday and today (Saturday).
I live in Sugar Land and work in Katy.
A little early morning ice on the commute both days, but mostly in puddles by the curbsides, not bad.
Haven't had to be on a boil water notice, but not taking chances.
Brushing teeth using bottled water, etc.

Wife went to the grocery store yesterday.
All frozen food gone, no meat yet.
Dairy and bread hard to come by.

Glad to see you coming up for air @GrouchoTex   :seeya:

Are you plumb out of food or do you have fixins at home? If y'all have the flour and such, you can bake a loaf in that grill if you have a steel trivet  and dutch oven.

Online roamer_1

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That happened in my Granddaughters room.
Thank God they were not home.
Granddaughter is 3 years old.
My son's ex-wife took our 2 grandkids to her boyfriends house.
He never lost power.
They came back to get more stuff and found the damage.

It is a caution. Praise Yah your grand daughter was spared.

Offline GrouchoTex

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Glad to see you coming up for air @GrouchoTex   :seeya:

Are you plumb out of food or do you have fixins at home? If y'all have the flour and such, you can bake a loaf in that grill if you have a steel trivet  and dutch oven.

@roamer_1

No we are fine, thanks for asking.
Frozen stuff survived, we do have plenty of meat.

Lost some perishable but not all.
I did put perishables outside but made one error (live and learn).
I put them in a cooler, but did not put in ice, and shut the lid.
I should have (1) iced it or (2)left it open.
Iced being better, so critters (if some were out in the freeze) wouldn't get to it.

Still may have been okay, but the wife didn't want to chance it.
Maybe about 20.00 dollars worth, so not all bad.



Offline Idiot

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My niece who is in law school in the DFW area left her apartment to stay with a friend when the electricity went out.  She returned to her first floor apartment to find the entire apartment flooded.  Everything in it is ruined.  Water came through the ceiling from the apartments above.  The apartment complex has put her and the rest of the HUGE complex up in motels until all of this is fixed, which will be weeks to months.

Another friend here in town didn't have electricity for over 4 days.  Fortunately they had a fireplace, so they put a mattress by it and basically lived there for 5 days.  When the water came back on, it flooded their bedroom as their hot water heater was in the attic. 

This is going on all over town, it's going to be millions in damage in just our town.

I'm going shopping for wood stoves...lol.
« Last Edit: February 20, 2021, 06:13:34 pm by mrpotatohead »

Online roamer_1

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Many houses have a drain valve, to dump the water already in the pipes after the main is shut off.  My ex in-laws had a rental they owned like that, as were all the houses in that neighborhood.

I did that right. Go shut off the curb valve in the yard and open the other one, which shunts the main from the house into the foundation drain tile... then go open all the faucets to let it drain. All the pipes are on a grade, and it all just flows out. Only thing I did wrong was that I did not allow for the hot water heater to use that system, so I have to drain that with  garden hose by hand.

And don't forget pouring a little RV antifreeze down the sinks for the pea traps and in the toilet.

Offline GrouchoTex

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I went to the FiestaMart on Edgebrook day before yesterday. Produce was mostly full. No meat. No Bread. No Milk.

I went to the Food Town in Pasadena Yesterday. The whole store looked completely stocked except no 1% or 2% milk. Plenty of whole milk. I didn't go down the bread isle as I didn't need any. Meat was fully stocked.

That's good to know.
It was a Kroger on Sweetwater in Sugar Land, where my wife noticed the meat and frozen goods gone.
A co-worker in who lives Katy said he experienced the same thing at his local Kroger.

Weird, that I saw long lines on Wednesday, when I could venture out a little, where power was on, at gas stations pumps and outside the grocery stores.

Online roamer_1

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Lost some perishable but not all.
I did put perishables outside but made one error (live and learn).
I put them in a cooler, but did not put in ice, and shut the lid.
I should have (1) iced it or (2)left it open.
Iced being better, so critters (if some were out in the freeze) wouldn't get to it.

@GrouchoTex
It would be alright to leave it open a crack with something heavy on top.
Up in here it is quite common to see chest freezers on the porch - Simply because you don't need to run them for half the year.  And most of them have blocks on the corners to leave em open to the cold, and an auxiliary latch to keep it from opening. Just mainly a coon problem there, as nothing else would really climb it (well maybe some of the weasel family too), so a coon-proof latch or chain is enough till the bears wake up.

But yeah - you can haul the fridge out on the porch too in a pinch, but the problem there is that it tends to freeze eventually. So you have to put a hot water bottle in there once a day  :shrug:

Offline Elderberry

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That's good to know.
It was a Kroger on Sweetwater in Sugar Land, where my wife noticed the meat and frozen goods gone.
A co-worker in who lives Katy said he experienced the same thing at his local Kroger.

Weird, that I saw long lines on Wednesday, when I could venture out a little, where power was on, at gas stations pumps and outside the grocery stores.

There was a line at the Fiesta, but not at Food Town. I went to an Ace Hardware yesterday to get some bolts. I didn't even stop when I saw the long line outside.

Offline thackney

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Many houses have a drain valve, to dump the water already in the pipes after the main is shut off.  My ex in-laws had a rental they owned like that, as were all the houses in that neighborhood.

Since living in Texas (mostly) since 1989, I have not had a home that had a drain valve.  Many have had plumbing run under the slab making complete draining difficult.  Down to the hose level okay, but not below.

But this does give me an idea to make draining my barn water easier next time.
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Offline thackney

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Late to the game here, due to the power and WiFi being out.

Lost power Monday morning @ 7am
Restored Wednesday evening @ 7 pm.
Stayed warm by dressing (and sleeping) in layers, multiple quilts on the bed when we slept.
Used charcoal grill to cook outside, when it wasn't raining/snowing.
Some frozen pipes, but no broken ones, thank God.
Found Gasoline on Thursday, fairly easily, no wait.
Worked Friday and today (Saturday).
I live in Sugar Land and work in Katy.
A little early morning ice on the commute both days, but mostly in puddles by the curbsides, not bad.
Haven't had to be on a boil water notice, but not taking chances.
Brushing teeth using bottled water, etc.

Wife went to the grocery store yesterday.
All frozen food gone, no meat yet.
Dairy and bread hard to come by.

No broken pipes, congratulations.

We went to Walmart today in Angleton, checking for meat if available.  It is not often I get to see a meme in real life.



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Online mountaineer

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We went to Walmart today in Angleton, checking for meat if available.  It is not often I get to see a meme in real life.
:happyhappy:
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Offline libertybele

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Yikes. Well, I don't know what their inventory is right now, but you could order from the Kansas City Steak Company ( our order was delivered within 2 days) or Omaha Steak Company.  It's a little bit pricey.. but it beats plant based meat.  BTW if it's plant based why in the heck do they even call it meat??
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Offline catfish1957

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My thoughts are still with my fellow Texans further west. 

I was lucky.  2 rolling blackouts, totalling 3 hours.  Didn't lose water, and took freeze precautions, didn't bust (still fingers crossed) any pipes. 

Only negative, is we lost our largest pine tree.  Close to 5' in diameter. Ancient tree got iced down, and uprooted.   **nononono*

Out of my league with my chainsaw.  $1200 for removal. Still feel terribly lucky though.
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Online berdie

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All in all, I feel pretty blessed as well. No electric for 4 days, no water since last Tuesday. Fridge busted and flooded the kitchen TWICE, commodes...not functional. The appliance guy came yesterday and stopped the flooding (he is a story all by himself) and the plumbers came and determined that part of the house will have to be repiped...next Wed. 8888crybaby But I do have electricity now and cold boilable water. It was so cold in here the groceries in the fridge I have weren't affected. Things are looking up! happy77 Lots of people have it far worse than I. I'm going to heat water a little later and take a bird bath and wash my hair...or shave my head, lol.

My personal assessment of this...2020 brought the Covid nightmare. 2021 came along and said...you think all that was bad...hold muh beer Texas and watch  thishappy77