-
The forum has been upgraded to support both light and dark themes. Click here for directions.
TEXAS ICE STORM
- Thread starter Mennoniteman
- Start date
dogghr
Well-Known Member
I do feel sorry for them even if we did just get heavy ice here last night. The worst I saw was downtown towers lit up while the pions just outside were without power in the dark. Hardly fair. Especially since no one is working in offices these days. Their power grid is unique in that it prepares for heavy use in heat of summer and many units are shutdown or not up to optimum this time of year due to low demand. As a result much of the apparatus is frozen up. Hope it ends for them soon.
They are getting beat up over there !!! Buddy in Austin been without power since Sunday, water line burst in attic flooding bedroom. They are told to boil water. Plumber told him 300 people ahead of him. That story is repeated all over. World class exercise in finger pointing
Not Texas but here in Oklahoma we still had those rolling blackouts...somehow our home ended up being in one of those grids they didn’t shut down. I know many others who did though...Father in laws apartment overhead sprinkler burst due to the blackout and trashed his apartment. Many others without water and burning candles under flower pots for heat. We were -23 two nights ago...
Drycreek
Well-Known Member
MM, some of us, (those who were prepared), are doing fine. We never lost power at our house, but if we had, the generator was ready to take over its duties. My son lost water, then power at his house in town, but they came and stayed with us a couple nights until they regained services. My water froze in the well house when one of my 100 watt bulbs bit the dust, but I put a propane deer blind heater in there and we had water about four hours later. I guess my setup wasn’t rated for subzero temps.
We have been feeding the hell out of the birds. Goldfinches, house wrens, ground doves, juncos, cardinals, blue jays, and yesterday the red wing blackbirds found us. I’ll bet we’ve fed 20 lb. of birdseed in the last week or so.
The grocery stores are out of milk and other perishable items because they lost power, the gas stations are out of gas. I don’t know why folks don’t prepare any better than they do, instead they all make a run on this type of stuff after the fact. I don’t need gas nor groceries, I just noticed this taking my son back to his house today. We only had a week or more warning that this storm was coming and it was gonna be severe
People here have never experienced extreme cold, don’t know how to safely drive on snow, and some of them can’t drive on dry pavement !
Still and all, I’m tired of the snow and ice and slush. Give me a good old tornado any time over this. It’s over much quicker and with any luck, it will miss us !
We have been feeding the hell out of the birds. Goldfinches, house wrens, ground doves, juncos, cardinals, blue jays, and yesterday the red wing blackbirds found us. I’ll bet we’ve fed 20 lb. of birdseed in the last week or so. The grocery stores are out of milk and other perishable items because they lost power, the gas stations are out of gas. I don’t know why folks don’t prepare any better than they do, instead they all make a run on this type of stuff after the fact. I don’t need gas nor groceries, I just noticed this taking my son back to his house today. We only had a week or more warning that this storm was coming and it was gonna be severe
People here have never experienced extreme cold, don’t know how to safely drive on snow, and some of them can’t drive on dry pavement !Still and all, I’m tired of the snow and ice and slush. Give me a good old tornado any time over this. It’s over much quicker and with any luck, it will miss us !
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
Although the first three weeks in January were mild after a big snow in December, we've had one ice and snow storm after the other in the last three weeks. But that's just a normal mid-atlantic winter, things slow down for a day and then it's business as usual.MM, some of us, (those who were prepared), are doing fine. We never lost power at our house, but if we had, the generator was ready to take over its duties. My son lost water, then power at his house in town, but they came and stayed with us a couple nights until they regained services. My water froze in the well house when one of my 100 watt bulbs bit the dust, but I put a propane deer blind heater in there and we had water about four hours later. I guess my setup wasn’t rated for subzero temps.
The grocery stores are out of milk and other perishable items because they lost power, the gas stations are out of gas. I don’t know why folks don’t prepare any better than they do, instead they all make a run on this type of stuff after the fact. I don’t need gas nor groceries, I just noticed this taking my son back to his house today. We only had a week or more warning that this storm was coming and it was gonna be severe
Still and all, I’m tired of the snow and ice and slush. Give me a good old tornado any time over this. It’s over much quicker and with any luck, it will miss us !
I agree, if you live close to the woods bird feeders are one of the often overlooked joys in life.
Glad to hear you are doing fine, and there's still responsible people who plan for the future and have a little set aside for an icy day. Events like this teach a whole new generation the hard way how, why, and when to be prepared to the unknown. Hopefully you get some sunshine and warmer temps to help some of those people out!
Allen
dogghr
Well-Known Member
Except for one weekend we've not seen the ground since wk before Christmas. Missed big snow this wk and only got ice. Rather have snow. Been great skiing year for me tho.
I keep several cans of gas on call when winter starts and generator ready to go. I've worked at farm thru all this, just dress for the crap. But I am dang tired of it. Longest winter we have had for a while. Sure hate it for those wo power anywhere. I'm responsible for all this as started building house in Dec. Been a slow go but it is framed and hopefully this warming week will get roof on. Every time contractor takes another check , it snows another foot. Good luck guys.
I keep several cans of gas on call when winter starts and generator ready to go. I've worked at farm thru all this, just dress for the crap. But I am dang tired of it. Longest winter we have had for a while. Sure hate it for those wo power anywhere. I'm responsible for all this as started building house in Dec. Been a slow go but it is framed and hopefully this warming week will get roof on. Every time contractor takes another check , it snows another foot. Good luck guys.
Learning the hard way is right. I don’t know how any adult in this country doesn’t have at least a small generator and a couple of gas cans. It should be the first thing you buy when you go out on your own. Having no power sucks. Maybe they’ll learn to prepare instead of blaming the government but I won’t hold my breath.
Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum
Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum
Mennoniteman
Well-Known Member
Talking about finger pointing, it's interesting how 5 ERCOT board members don't even live in Texas, including the Chairman and vice chairman. Why doesn't the average American have any faith in our political process?
We all have some dependency on the infrastructure and as we see all but a very few rely on the basics we take for granted. Generators are nice. But now they have cut the water off to many in Austin. Could last for days with reasons to bizarre for me to recant but something to the effect the reservoir has a leak???? Or something like that. Are we supposed to maintain personal water reserves? Where do preparations end and at what cost? And why do we pay taxes { We are all happy with how our taxes are spent aren't we? Infrastructure right?}
It was pretty bad here in North TX. The worst cold front since 1912, had temps below 0 for over 2 days. To see lakes and rivers freeze up is unheard of for this area. Like someone else mentioned, our grid isn’t prepared for this type of weather. It’s more tailored to handle the hot summers when it’s not uncommon to have 60-90 days of 100+ temps. They start to shut down power generators in September and honestly don’t winterize them. Many were without power for over 36 hours, which led to no water due to freezing pipes. Many are still without power, but it’s warming up quite a bit. It was pretty crazy, firewood became non-existent, grocery stores ran out of food, gas got hard to find in certain areas. Water treatment facilities were offline which led to having to boil water. Once power got restored, pipes began too rupture in its houses. Estimated damage is well into billions.
I don’t think not being prepared should be much of a discussion point, this is a 100 year event. What shocked me was how little the general public knows about getting by for a few days when the shit hit the fan. Letting food spoil, when all you had to do was stick in a cooler outside or in the snow. I mean it was below 20 for almost a week. Very little thinking outside the box. Not being able to boil water, not shutting off pipes, knowing where to find wood for heat, etc. The hunting and camping families fared much better.
I’m not throwing stones, many weren’t equipped and had inside home temps below 40 for many days. But there were some folks who were plenty capable of bettering their situation and acted helpless
We were lucky, our electric coop is very reliable and we kept power the entire time which helped the septic and well stay up and running. Tried to spend the time enjoying the snow and helping others who weren’t so lucky.
Lots of people with livestock had tanks that froze solid and had no power for water either. A lot of the exotic games ranches down in the southern part of the state suffered mass animal casualties of gemsbok, blackbuck, axis and many other species. Just a wild event. Our state is so large and diverse I terms of ecological regions, it’s the first time I can remember when an event like this plagued so much of the state. Usually we have hurricanes near the coast, ice up north, wildfires in the NW, but this deal was nearly statewide.
Very interesting article
https://www.chron.com/opinion/outlo...ers-from-Soviet-style-electricity-4301693.php
I heard this guy interviewed this week. He was an energy professor at the University of Houston. Back in 2013 he basically predicted this would happen at some point.
I don’t think not being prepared should be much of a discussion point, this is a 100 year event. What shocked me was how little the general public knows about getting by for a few days when the shit hit the fan. Letting food spoil, when all you had to do was stick in a cooler outside or in the snow. I mean it was below 20 for almost a week. Very little thinking outside the box. Not being able to boil water, not shutting off pipes, knowing where to find wood for heat, etc. The hunting and camping families fared much better.
I’m not throwing stones, many weren’t equipped and had inside home temps below 40 for many days. But there were some folks who were plenty capable of bettering their situation and acted helpless
We were lucky, our electric coop is very reliable and we kept power the entire time which helped the septic and well stay up and running. Tried to spend the time enjoying the snow and helping others who weren’t so lucky.
Lots of people with livestock had tanks that froze solid and had no power for water either. A lot of the exotic games ranches down in the southern part of the state suffered mass animal casualties of gemsbok, blackbuck, axis and many other species. Just a wild event. Our state is so large and diverse I terms of ecological regions, it’s the first time I can remember when an event like this plagued so much of the state. Usually we have hurricanes near the coast, ice up north, wildfires in the NW, but this deal was nearly statewide.
Very interesting article
https://www.chron.com/opinion/outlo...ers-from-Soviet-style-electricity-4301693.php
I heard this guy interviewed this week. He was an energy professor at the University of Houston. Back in 2013 he basically predicted this would happen at some point.
Last edited:
Well, we now get our meat from a store, our gas from a pump, or electricity from two holes in the wall, our pride from a tweet and our help from a government. We’re screwed.
Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum
Sent from my iPhone using Deer Hunter Forum
When I saw the notice of rolling blackouts we ran a large garden tub and another bathtub full of water in both bathrooms so we would have flushing type water...
I saw firewood in our totally wooded part of the state selling for $200 a rick. I had people texting me for wood and I even cut a few trees right around our home here and along with some wood I already had down gave away about 4 Rick at no charge to help some different folks out since we don’t have a way to burn wood yet but I am looking into it. Price gougers were out in force...
MarkDarvin
Well-Known Member
For the Texas guys, is there any truth to the rumor the federal department of energy forbid texas utilities from cranking out higher levels of power because of emissions caps? Supposedly the utilities asked for a waiver to the cap and it was denied.
