What does a coastal Texan in arctic weather do?

[almondbutterandjelly]

6 hours ago, RegGuheert said:

I Duck Duck Go'ed the Texas power outages just now and one of the things I found was recommendations from the power utility in Texas (called the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas or ERCOT) on how to save electricity during this emergency.  The first item on the list was this:

Really?!  Around here, we would have to turn the thermostat UP to get to 68 degrees.

It seems that there must be some (many?) Texans who run their houses cooler in summertime than they do in the wintertime!

If ERCOT really wants to save electricity, why aren't they recommending setting thermostats to 58 degrees instead of 68?

/rant

Okay, can we stop with the judgy-ness?  Do we rant at you all about how ridiculous you are when you guys freak out at 90 degree weather and oh no people are going to die?  C'mon.   Different climates cause people's bodies to react differently.  Plus houses are built according to local climates.  Knock it off.

[TexasProud]

Pictures of the road in front of my house and part of my driveway.  Unprecedented.  Snow is normally an every 3-4 year occurrence and it is gone in a day. I feel like I am in Colorado, but we have no sanding trucks or snow chains.  Plus I have a dirt shovel if I want to try to clear my driveway....

Edited February 16, 2021 by TexasProud

[fairfarmhand]

On 2/14/2021 at 9:38 PM, aggie96 said:

Re: School--It would be weird to me to have a Winter Break in February. For the past three years, I've planted tomatoes in February outside. Lol!

Re: Electricity being out--I hate that the power is out for y'all! I am praying ours stays. In the grand scheme of things, we'll be fine for quite a while with no electric. But the pool equipment will be extremely damaged without it. It's in freeze mode so the water features (waterfalls, bubblers, cleaner) and the spa continuously run to keep from freezing. The pumps and significant equipment are above ground and uncovered and full of water with no reasonable way to drain or cover. So for me, the risk is all abour the palm trees and the pool. Not life-threatening but big $$$$$$$ that home owners insurance won't cover.

I am thinking about the homeless (the shelters were full earlier today and calls for survival blankets were going out because people were going to be stuck out) and the animals. Lots of livestock grazing without shelter. People have spent last 2 days trying to capture stray domestics in their garages to shelter. It's been quite the scramble. I am praying there won't be human casualties due to exposure. That just breaks my heart.

 

ETA. For reference, it's 28 degrees but feels like 16 degrees. I suspect some animals would be OK, but most would not. Plus they aren't really acclimated , you know?

As long as cattle have enough to eat they are fine. They generate heat in their rumen. It’s funny, they’ll have ice and snow all over them and be just fine.

 

18 hours ago, Selkie said:

Oh no, I hope you can get enough water for your horses! We have harsh winters and I'm paranoid about making sure my horses drink enough, because impaction colic is such a risk. I hope your well is working again soon.

We lost a horse to that one year in February.

[TheReader]

just getting back to this....17-ish hours w/o power yesterday. Came back on about midnight-ish - it was 16* outside, 56* inside (apparently some in this thread would have me keep it there?? umm, no; we're working our way up to 65-68*, thanks, but conserving energy otherwise and as our furnace is gas w/electric assist, I feel okay doing that). 

the sleet/freezing rain froze our blankets onto our trees, making little igloos around them. Perhaps the peaches will survive. The town over from us has lost their water (the city well went out...?); we're in a MUD so our water is okay (Municipal Utility District; a TX thing).  More precipitation predicted for tomorrow....I'm waiting to hear if I'm expected to go to school or not tomorrow. 

Still 1.3 million w/o power just in the Houston area. MIL lost her power this morning, after having it on all day yesterday. She has a generator, which is good. Hopefully ours stays on. We shall see. 

I hope everyone is doing okay. 

[RegGuheert]

22 minutes ago, perky said:

Okay, can we stop with the judgy-ness?  Do we rant at you all about how ridiculous you are when you guys freak out at 90 degree weather and oh no people are going to die?  C'mon.   Different climates cause people's bodies to react differently.  Plus houses are built according to local climates.  Knock it off.

Feel free to turn the thermostat up to whatever you want!  In a power emergency I would think wearing more clothes in the house would be preferable to rolling blackouts.  For the power company to recommend 68F under the current emergency circumstances in unconscionable, IMO.

But that's just me...

[TheReader]

2 minutes ago, RegGuheert said:

Feel free to turn the thermostat up to whatever you want!  In a power emergency I would think wearing more clothes in the house would be preferable to rolling blackouts.  For the power company to recommend 68F under the current emergency circumstances in unconscionable, IMO.

But that's just me...

on that note, i will state that the recommendation for 68* came BEFORE the state of emergency; we got that suggestion (and followed it, for all the good it did us) on either Saturday night or Sunday morning. 

Then came the suggestion/email/announcement that there would have to be rolling blackouts to manage demand (and some cities were doing that, some apparently weren't, not sure if it mattered or not), and THEN came the state of emergency with the power just being.....not there. 

Other suggestions in the "help us prevent a state of emergency" were to unplug sleeping power pullers, not run anything that pulls a lot of power, particularly during peak hours, and take steps to help insulate your house/stop heat loss. Common sense stuff that isn't common sense when you don't deal with this but every few decades, if that. 

I don't know what the power companies may have said after the state of emergency....I'm just now back on, so....

[RegGuheert]

7 minutes ago, TheReader said:

on that note, i will state that the recommendation for 68* came BEFORE the state of emergency; we got that suggestion (and followed it, for all the good it did us) on either Saturday night or Sunday morning.

O.K. I get that, but the power company KNOWS how much total power each degree on the thermostat equates to for a given outdoor temperature.  They had the weather forecasts and they probably have a good idea of what percent of people will heed their warnings.

The point is that they blew it.  These rolling blackouts likely could have been avoided if they had given better advice.  68F is TOO HIGH for a recommendation for an emergency cold situation.

[TexasProud]

16 minutes ago, RegGuheert said:

Feel free to turn the thermostat up to whatever you want!  In a power emergency I would think wearing more clothes in the house would be preferable to rolling blackouts.  For the power company to recommend 68F under the current emergency circumstances in unconscionable, IMO.

But that's just me...

To Texans, that is cold. People think I'm crazy for setting ours at 62 on normal days at night.  But it is 69 in the house right now with the two fires and I still have long johns with sweats on top and my knit cap.  My heater hasn't run in a couple of days because of my wood stoves.  We really could not imagine 58 and like someone said, I doubt they knew the extent, but even then 50's means bundle up.  I call us Southern wimps.  We are much more used to our summers with over 100... had 58 days of that one year.

[TexasProud]

2 minutes ago, RegGuheert said:

 

The point is that they blew it.  These rolling blackouts likely could have been avoided if they had given better advice.  68F is TOO HIGH for a recommendation for an emergency cold situation.

This is the first time in my lifetime we have had something like this.  I doubt they had any idea because the people who work there have NEVER done that.  Summers with over 100 yes. This, no. They have NO EXOERIENCE.

[TheReader]

7 minutes ago, RegGuheert said:

O.K. I get that, but the power company KNOWS how much total power each degree on the thermostat equates to for a given outdoor temperature.  They had the weather forecasts and they probably have a good idea of what percent of people will heed their warnings.

The point is that they blew it.  These rolling blackouts likely could have been avoided if they had given better advice.  68F is TOO HIGH for a recommendation for an emergency cold situation.

Had a reply and it got eaten....

If they'd suggested 58* instead of 68* no one would have complied at all, which would mean even MORE people without power. 

Continuing to beat the dead horse of what ERCOT woulda, coulda, shoulda done is pointless and insensitive at this stage of the game. 

[TheReader]

5 minutes ago, TexasProud said:

This is the first time in my lifetime we have had something like this.  I doubt they had any idea because the people who work there have NEVER done that.  Summers with over 100 yes. This, no. They have NO EXOERIENCE.

exactly. The last time we had anything even remotely close to this in Houston was 1989, and they keep saying this had far MORE frozen precipitation, and temps closer to the record, which was set in 1895. 

NEVER in the history of TX, at all, has the ENTIRE STATE faced something like this ALL AT ONCE, though. Ever. 

 

[RegGuheert]

2 minutes ago, TexasProud said:

This is the first time in my lifetime we have had something like this.  I doubt they had any idea because the people who work there have NEVER done that.  Summers with over 100 yes. This, no. They have NO EXOERIENCE.

Well, they do NOW!  Their job is to keep the lights on, period.  Yes, the weather conditions are extreme, but they blew it.

Trust me when I say the power companies have extensive modelling capabilities to try to predict how their system will deal with various situations.  They run these models to predict what will happen when various things occur.

68F IS THE STANDARD NUMBER THAT IS GIVEN BY THE GOVERNMENT WHEN SUGGESTING WHERE TO SET YOUR THERMOSTAT TO SAVE POWER.  That number has been given out since the late 1970s under Jimmy Carter.  It is NOT a number which should be used when emergency conditions arise, IMO.

[RegGuheert]

5 minutes ago, TheReader said:

If they'd suggested 58* instead of 68* no one would have complied at all, which would mean even MORE people without power.

But that would make it YOUR fault, not theirs.

And I'm sure you are correct: people often have to experience the hardship before they are willing to take any action to avoid the emergency.

I expect the damage caused by these outages will be much more extensive than most people imagine.  Hopefully I am wrong.

[Sdel]

Well, I’m an optimist....looking at our weather update....and can’t help but think....it’s only supposed to get warmer from here on out.

[sheryl]

LOL!  No advice.  Just wanted to say the title and post brought a smile.  I actually like the snow (originally from Ohio) and wish y'all could have sent that to us here in NC.   Only the Ap mountains are getting snow this winter.  Hopefully we'll see some "white" before spring here but so far we've had so much rain!

[Shoeless]

8 hours ago, RegGuheert said:

I Duck Duck Go'ed the Texas power outages just now and one of the things I found was recommendations from the power utility in Texas (called the Electricity Reliability Council of Texas or ERCOT) on how to save electricity during this emergency.  The first item on the list was this:

Really?!  Around here, we would have to turn the thermostat UP to get to 68 degrees.

It seems that there must be some (many?) Texans who run their houses cooler in summertime than they do in the wintertime!

If ERCOT really wants to save electricity, why aren't they recommending setting thermostats to 58 degrees instead of 68?

/rant

First law of Southern Thermodynamics states that any temperature that is "Too hot!!!!" in the summer is also "Too cold!!!" in the winter.

Source: 10 years of arguments about the thermostat in Alabama and 8 years in Texas.

[Bootsie]

Our pool is now covered with a layer of ice! (and our pump is running continuously)  We are so lucky that we have not lost power. 

I am concerned about my mom, who is 80, in San Antonio, however.  She has been without power more than she has had it in the past 36 hours.  She keeps texting me and my sisters about what she is going to do when her phone runs out of battery (could you just stopped texting so much!!!)  She is going to go to her neighbors because they have a landline--not IF she needs to make a call, but so she WILL go there so that she can make a call if she needs to.  My sister recommended that instead she go sit in her car to warm up and charge her phone 😞  My mom already has a bad hip and some balance issues.  She does NOT need to be walking across a frozen parking lot to her car.  It will only INCREASE the chance she needs a phone.  

[ktgrok]

10 hours ago, RegGuheert said:

 

It seems that there must be some (many?) Texans who run their houses cooler in summertime than they do in the wintertime!

 

Wait - are you saying you think people keep their houses cooler than 68 in the summer? NO ONE who cares about power usage (or power bills) would set their AC that low in the summer in a hot state! Around here, we are advised to set at 78 in summer. DH prefers 75, and that means with him working from home it is often set there and I'm freezing and our bill is OUTRAGEOUS - like, 500 plus dollars a month! I can assure you that here in florida at least, we are not all keeping our homes at 68 or less in the summer. That anyone does blows my mind. 

 

[RegGuheert]

1 minute ago, ktgrok said:

Wait - are you saying you think people keep their houses cooler than 68 in the summer? NO ONE who cares about power usage (or power bills) would set their AC that low in the summer in a hot state! Around here, we are advised to set at 78 in summer. DH prefers 75, and that means with him working from home it is often set there and I'm freezing and our bill is OUTRAGEOUS - like, 500 plus dollars a month! I can assure you that here in florida at least, we are not all keeping our homes at 68 or less in the summer. That anyone does blows my mind.

No, I'm saying that almost no one in Texas runs their heaters at 68F in the wintertime.  If they did, there would be no such recommendation to set the thermostat DOWN to 68F.

So, you run your A/C at 75 in the summertime.  What temperature is your heater set to right now?

I will guarantee you that many, many people do exactly what I said above.

[RootAnn]

@RegGuheertI spun off a thermostat set point thread.

I hope conditions improve for those without power! I fear for the elderly and those who don't have resources to help during these conditions. (Plus, pandemic!)

[ktgrok]

1 hour ago, RegGuheert said:

No, I'm saying that almost no one in Texas runs their heaters at 68F in the wintertime.  If they did, there would be no such recommendation to set the thermostat DOWN to 68F.

So, you run your A/C at 75 in the summertime.  What temperature is your heater set to right now?

I will guarantee you that many, many people do exactly what I said above.

If it was up to my husband, who is the one that wants 75 in summer, it would be at 69 in winter. If it is up to me, who wants 77 or so in summer (but willing to do 78 to save money) it would be at 71 in winter (at night, willing to go to 70 or 69 during the day when we are all moving around more). 

[Halftime Hope]

15 hours ago, Terabith said:

The pandemic makes it much, much harder for churches to do this.  Most of the volunteers that they normally rely on for many of such things are elderly, and it's just very hard to figure out the logistics of housing lots of homeless in the middle of a pandemic.  I mean, it's hard anyway (many megachurches with space are in suburbs, not urban centers with the higher percentage of unhoused persons), but doing so in a pandemic?  It's a nightmare.  

This precisely.  The suburb (city government) debated and debated on whether to open the community rec center and other large spaces for community shelters.  During COVID, they just don't feel like they can open anything that puts people together under one roof.  So our church stepped up and said, we'll put people up all over our campus, just a few to a building, and those in the church who have had COVID already plus a few seniors who've had their two shots, are volunteering on campus.  We have a robust food distribution system, so that is taking care of the guests on our campus.  This combo is a nightmare. 

 

 

[Halftime Hope]

4 hours ago, RegGuheert said:

Well, they do NOW!  Their job is to keep the lights on, period.  Yes, the weather conditions are extreme, but they blew it.

Trust me when I say the power companies have extensive modelling capabilities to try to predict how their system will deal with various situations.  They run these models to predict what will happen when various things occur.

68F IS THE STANDARD NUMBER THAT IS GIVEN BY THE GOVERNMENT WHEN SUGGESTING WHERE TO SET YOUR THERMOSTAT TO SAVE POWER.  That number has been given out since the late 1970s under Jimmy Carter.  It is NOT a number which should be used when emergency conditions arise, IMO.

WFAA has a great article about this.  Basically every 15 -20 years there is extreme weather like this, commissions wring their hands afterward, and no one decides to appropriate the money to harden the infrastucture, and so the cycle continues.  The cost to harden for these outlier events is just too great, so nothing changes.  

Edited February 16, 2021 by Halftime Hope

[RegGuheert]

2 minutes ago, Halftime Hope said:

WFAA has a great article about this.  Basically every 15 -20 years there is extreme weather like this, commissions wring their hands afterward, and no one decides to appropriate the money to harden the infrastucture, and so the cylce continues.  The cost to harden for these outlier events is just too great, so nothing changes.  

Thanks!  I already commented on that article in the other thread:

Quote

One thing from the video that Janeway linked: The guy with the diplomas behind him asked the question (paraphrase) "Do we want to spend a lot of money to prevent a little bit of suffering?"

Frankly, I find that to be very presumptuous.  This emergency is still unfolding.  How does he know there will only be a little bit of suffering?  The answer is that he doesn't.  Let's hope and pray that's all there is, but that certainly is not the only possible outcome.

So I will ask you this:  How do you know that the cost is too great?  We don't even know what the costs of the current storm will be, yet.  Nor do we know how much the winterizing steps would have cost.

What we have here is the power companies externalizing their costs.  They are basically transferring some of their costs onto you so that they can increase their profits.  They can do this EVEN IF the total costs end up being greater than the value of the benefits.

[Bootsie]

1 minute ago, Halftime Hope said:

WFAA has a great article about this.  Basically every 15 -20 years there is extreme weather like this, commissions wring their hands afterward, and no one decides to appropriate the money to harden the infrastucture, and so the cylce continues.  The cost to harden for these outlier events is just too great, so nothing changes.  

The last time that I am seeing that it got down to -1 in the DFW was in January 1930 (although I see another source that says 1989) ; I do not ever remember a time in which the temperature did not rise above freezing for a solid week.  It certainly hasn't happened in the past 15-20 years.  

[Bensmom]

The missing stray cat showed up  last night. He had been out all day with windchills ranging from -3 to 3 degrees. Not sure where he went but he seemed awfully glad to be let in the garage when he came back. I was a wreck worried about him. Today has been a better day since all the fur babies I care for are safe and warm. 

[aggie96]

I made it back to post for a minute. Cellular has been dark for around 30 hours. No power for 34 hours. Just cam back on but subject to rolling blackouts. Had gas but once power came on lost gas. No water for 34 hours. Still no wAter, gas, cellular. Have internet because power on. 
 

Pool is toast. Drained equipment after lost power. Had to wait for daylight so that was about 2.5 hours. Ice in pumps and lines at that point. Spa is completely iced over. Pool has floating sheets of ice.

im sure all vegetation will be dead. Obviously heat sources were not on. 
 

Several large pane windows cracked. 
 

Our water not on but in the few sections it returned, 1 out of 2 houses have burst pipes in walls and many, many at main on outside of house. Everything that was accessible was wrapped.

Because gas is gone, HVAC won’t heat and fireplace gone (ours cant use wood). Fireplace wasn’t doing much but it was at least a heat source. Space heaters on now but if electric goes out again, no heat source.

We have tried to minimize storing food outside and bailing water from pool for toilets because it lets out too much precious heat. Lost food is the least of my worries. Refilling toilets sucks but is manageable. 
 

Our water company is private and sent a notice that they’ll send repair crews when roads clear tomorrow. Ground surface roads are tricky but drivable. Gasoline in short supply. Either pumps down due to no power, or stores inexplicably rationing (sheriff was called out in a couple of places). No one has reported running out of gasoline yet at stores. 
 

right now, we have about $20k in damages. Water not on yet for pipes. Praying no damage.

hardest part has been no water and blackout communication. We couldn’t go anywhere or get any information or even make a call. Lots of areas like this. One house burned down last night in neighboring subdivision.

it could always be worse, but it sure has sucked. I and many others would have prepared differently had we know ALL utilities would be gone. Especially the water. We were prepared for power. 
 

Just to add to conversation, we keep our thermostat at 71 degrees year round. On especially hot days 69-70 and especially cold days (50’s) 72. 😬

[4atHome]

11 minutes ago, aggie96 said:

I made it back to post for a minute. Cellular has been dark for around 30 hours. No power for 34 hours. Just cam back on but subject to rolling blackouts. Had gas but once power came on lost gas. No water for 34 hours. Still no wAter, gas, cellular. Have internet because power on. 
 

Pool is toast. Drained equipment after lost power. Had to wait for daylight so that was about 2.5 hours. Ice in pumps and lines at that point. Spa is completely iced over. Pool has floating sheets of ice.

im sure all vegetation will be dead. Obviously heat sources were not on. 
 

Several large pane windows cracked. 
 

Our water not on but in the few sections it returned, 1 out of 2 houses have burst pipes in walls and many, many at main on outside of house. Everything that was accessible was wrapped.

Because gas is gone, HVAC won’t heat and fireplace gone (ours cant use wood). Fireplace wasn’t doing much but it was at least a heat source. Space heaters on now but if electric goes out again, no heat source.

We have tried to minimize storing food outside and bailing water from pool for toilets because it lets out too much precious heat. Lost food is the least of my worries. Refilling toilets sucks but is manageable. 
 

Our water company is private and sent a notice that they’ll send repair crews when roads clear tomorrow. Ground surface roads are tricky but drivable. Gasoline in short supply. Either pumps down due to no power, or stores inexplicably rationing (sheriff was called out in a couple of places). No one has reported running out of gasoline yet at stores. 
 

right now, we have about $20k in damages. Water not on yet for pipes. Praying no damage.

hardest part has been no water and blackout communication. We couldn’t go anywhere or get any information or even make a call. Lots of areas like this. One house burned down last night in neighboring subdivision.

it could always be worse, but it sure has sucked. I and many others would have prepared differently had we know ALL utilities would be gone. Especially the water. We were prepared for power. 
 

Just to add to conversation, we keep our thermostat at 71 degrees year round. On especially hot days 69-70 and especially cold days (50’s) 72. 😬

That's too bad.

If you have no water, but have snow, you can melt snow when you have power/gas.

[aggie96]

We can always use pool for some water. It’s just not fun. Our house has come up from 54 to 59. I can feel warm air from hvac now do maybe gas back? I’ll check other appliances. My parents house was 42 but they had hot water so we showered there. It was chilly getting out of the tub!!!

people should have skipped the meat and gone for water. Lol! In all seriousness, I’m glad that we didn’t extra stock fridge because we would have been shuttling it outside losing what little heat we had. Again, it was meant as a funny observation. In the end, all our fridge food is pretty much ruined but there wasn’t much. Pantry items are aplenty. 

[Bootsie]

DD has a friend in Dallas who lives in a townhouse--the townhouse next door caught on fire, and so now she has to leave.  Another friend in Dallas has a flooded apartment.  A friend with a nine-month old has not had power for 2 1/2 days.  It is really a mess.

My mom lives in San Antonio in a retirement cottage; she has not had power for 48 hours.  The main retirement building, which is three stories does not have power either.  Many of the residents cannot safely take the stairs.  We have a several friends who live there who are over 95 and don't have any heat.  I am really concerned about them.  There is a nursing home on site that has heat.  I don't know if at some point they will try to cram everyone into that building.  

 

[mommyoffive]

1 hour ago, aggie96 said:

I made it back to post for a minute. Cellular has been dark for around 30 hours. No power for 34 hours. Just cam back on but subject to rolling blackouts. Had gas but once power came on lost gas. No water for 34 hours. Still no wAter, gas, cellular. Have internet because power on. 
 

Pool is toast. Drained equipment after lost power. Had to wait for daylight so that was about 2.5 hours. Ice in pumps and lines at that point. Spa is completely iced over. Pool has floating sheets of ice.

im sure all vegetation will be dead. Obviously heat sources were not on. 
 

Several large pane windows cracked. 
 

Our water not on but in the few sections it returned, 1 out of 2 houses have burst pipes in walls and many, many at main on outside of house. Everything that was accessible was wrapped.

Because gas is gone, HVAC won’t heat and fireplace gone (ours cant use wood). Fireplace wasn’t doing much but it was at least a heat source. Space heaters on now but if electric goes out again, no heat source.

We have tried to minimize storing food outside and bailing water from pool for toilets because it lets out too much precious heat. Lost food is the least of my worries. Refilling toilets sucks but is manageable. 
 

Our water company is private and sent a notice that they’ll send repair crews when roads clear tomorrow. Ground surface roads are tricky but drivable. Gasoline in short supply. Either pumps down due to no power, or stores inexplicably rationing (sheriff was called out in a couple of places). No one has reported running out of gasoline yet at stores. 
 

right now, we have about $20k in damages. Water not on yet for pipes. Praying no damage.

hardest part has been no water and blackout communication. We couldn’t go anywhere or get any information or even make a call. Lots of areas like this. One house burned down last night in neighboring subdivision.

it could always be worse, but it sure has sucked. I and many others would have prepared differently had we know ALL utilities would be gone. Especially the water. We were prepared for power. 
 

Just to add to conversation, we keep our thermostat at 71 degrees year round. On especially hot days 69-70 and especially cold days (50’s) 72. 😬

Oh my gosh.  I am so sorry.  What a nightmare.   

[Porridge]

Y’all- DD and I shoveled the driveway and walk with.... a dustpan. I feel like Hercules. 

[Porridge]

1 hour ago, aggie96 said:

I made it back to post for a minute. Cellular has been dark for around 30 hours. No power for 34 hours. Just cam back on but subject to rolling blackouts. Had gas but once power came on lost gas. No water for 34 hours. Still no wAter, gas, cellular. Have internet because power on. 
 

Pool is toast. Drained equipment after lost power. Had to wait for daylight so that was about 2.5 hours. Ice in pumps and lines at that point. Spa is completely iced over. Pool has floating sheets of ice.

im sure all vegetation will be dead. Obviously heat sources were not on. 
 

Several large pane windows cracked. 
 

Our water not on but in the few sections it returned, 1 out of 2 houses have burst pipes in walls and many, many at main on outside of house. Everything that was accessible was wrapped.

Because gas is gone, HVAC won’t heat and fireplace gone (ours cant use wood). Fireplace wasn’t doing much but it was at least a heat source. Space heaters on now but if electric goes out again, no heat source.

We have tried to minimize storing food outside and bailing water from pool for toilets because it lets out too much precious heat. Lost food is the least of my worries. Refilling toilets sucks but is manageable. 
 

Our water company is private and sent a notice that they’ll send repair crews when roads clear tomorrow. Ground surface roads are tricky but drivable. Gasoline in short supply. Either pumps down due to no power, or stores inexplicably rationing (sheriff was called out in a couple of places). No one has reported running out of gasoline yet at stores. 
 

right now, we have about $20k in damages. Water not on yet for pipes. Praying no damage.

hardest part has been no water and blackout communication. We couldn’t go anywhere or get any information or even make a call. Lots of areas like this. One house burned down last night in neighboring subdivision.

it could always be worse, but it sure has sucked. I and many others would have prepared differently had we know ALL utilities would be gone. Especially the water. We were prepared for power. 
 

Just to add to conversation, we keep our thermostat at 71 degrees year round. On especially hot days 69-70 and especially cold days (50’s) 72. 😬

Oh no!! I’m so sorry!!

[mommyoffive]

2 minutes ago, JHLWTM said:

Y’all- DD and I shoveled the driveway and walk with.... a dustpan. I feel like Hercules. 

Oh my gosh.  I couldn't figure out to give you a heart or a sad look.   Wow.  I don't know how many inches you had, but still that is amazing and crazy all at once.   My back would be yelling at me for that.  

[Porridge]

4 minutes ago, mommyoffive said:

Oh my gosh.  I couldn't figure out to give you a heart or a sad look.   Wow.  I don't know how many inches you had, but still that is amazing and crazy all at once.   My back would be yelling at me for that.  

It was strangely satisfying. I think we were feeling so cooped up inside. It was a way to be outside and actually feel hot instead of freezing 🙂 

[Kassia]

26 minutes ago, JHLWTM said:

Y’all- DD and I shoveled the driveway and walk with.... a dustpan. I feel like Hercules. 

That is amazing!  You are better than MacGyver! 

 

[wathe]

21 hours ago, goldenecho said:

First, if you don't have snow boots or anything else waterproof like rain boots, put on your socks and then wrap plastic wrap around them, sort of like a cast.   I took a trip to the mountains recently and forgot one of my snow boots (oops)...so I stopped at a small store, got some plastic wrap, and wrapped my other foot over the sock, them put my thin canvas tennis shoe over it.   We played for hours in 2 foot deep snow, and my foot never got wet.   It was just as warm as my foot in the boot too. 


 

We do a version of this with our cub scouts when they get their shoes/rainboots/snowboots wet at camps.  Change them into dry socks, put a plastic bag over each dry sock (grocery bag, bread bad, whatever is handy) then put wet footwear back on.  It keeps them warm and dry.  We do have to make sure they change their socks out regularly, because feet will get sweaty when encased in plastic bags of course.

Edited February 16, 2021 by wathe

[Shelydon]

My Texas friends are experiencing days of no electricity, not just rolling outages.  Two friends now have homes with inside temps in the 20s.  They will lose all their pipes inside. Pools are completely destroyed.  Damages estimated at $100K or more

 

[Kassia]

46 minutes ago, Shelydon said:

My Texas friends are experiencing days of no electricity, not just rolling outages.  Two friends now have homes with inside temps in the 20s.  They will lose all their pipes inside. Pools are completely destroyed.  Damages estimated at $100K or more

 

It's absolutely awful.  
 

My dd is a freshman on campus in TX and pipes are bursting everywhere and students are having to evacuate.  I don't know where they are going to put these kids.  😞  This whole situation is a nightmare.  I feel so bad for everyone going through this. 

[Tree Frog]

8 hours ago, Bootsie said:

Our pool is now covered with a layer of ice! (and our pump is running continuously)  We are so lucky that we have not lost power. 

I am concerned about my mom, who is 80, in San Antonio, however.  She has been without power more than she has had it in the past 36 hours.  She keeps texting me and my sisters about what she is going to do when her phone runs out of battery (could you just stopped texting so much!!!)  She is going to go to her neighbors because they have a landline--not IF she needs to make a call, but so she WILL go there so that she can make a call if she needs to.  My sister recommended that instead she go sit in her car to warm up and charge her phone 😞  My mom already has a bad hip and some balance issues.  She does NOT need to be walking across a frozen parking lot to her car.  It will only INCREASE the chance she needs a phone.  

I'm just now reading this thread. If your mom needs help or you'd like us to check on her at any point, please let me know. I would be glad to help her. Our landline is through our cable company and won't work without power. Hopefully her neighbor's landline doesn't require electricity.

I'll pm you my phone number because I am not reading here very much.

Edited February 17, 2021 by wilrunner

[Shoeless]

21 hours ago, KungFuPanda said:

Oh crap . . . I forgot about the wind turbines.  They have some here in the coldest part of Maryland, but I never even thought about how ice could effect them.  I can't imagine they'd have a reason to even own any de-icing equipment/supplies that exist.  Nobody needs this stress right now.  

There are wind turbines in Antarctica and they don't freeze. It's not the turbines that are causing this. 

[Tree Frog]

1 hour ago, Kassia said:

It's absolutely awful.  
 

My dd is a freshman on campus in TX and pipes are bursting everywhere and students are having to evacuate.  I don't know where they are going to put these kids.  😞  This whole situation is a nightmare.  I feel so bad for everyone going through this. 

If your dd is in College Station and needs a place to stay, I might know of one. I might also be able to arrange transportation. Let me know.

[Kassia]

Just now, Wilrunner3 said:

If your dd is in College Station and needs a place to stay, I might know of one. I might also be able to arrange transportation. Let me know.

Thank you!  That is so kind of you - it's hard to be far away (she's 1200 miles from us).  She's at UT Dallas and is okay so far.  No internet, limited cell service, but so far no pipes in her dorm have burst and they have power.  

 

[Tree Frog]

10 minutes ago, Kassia said:

Thank you!  That is so kind of you - it's hard to be far away (she's 1200 miles from us).  She's at UT Dallas and is okay so far.  No internet, limited cell service, but so far no pipes in her dorm have burst and they have power.  

 

My son would normally be in Alabama, but he drove to Houston last Thursday for the weekend (oh, to be young again!) and then decided to drive here on Sunday. I understand how hard it is to be so far away! He drives back to Huntsville this weekend. I'm really hoping the weather clears up for him!

If she continues to have problems in Dallas, I might know young people who could help out.

[mommyoffive]

2 hours ago, Shelydon said:

My Texas friends are experiencing days of no electricity, not just rolling outages.  Two friends now have homes with inside temps in the 20s.  They will lose all their pipes inside. Pools are completely destroyed.  Damages estimated at $100K or more

 

Wow.  I am just so sorry for everyone experiencing this.  I am sending so many prayers and hoping people are ok and make it through this.  My heart just goes out to everyone because having to go through something like this on top of Covid just seems so hard, I can't imagine the stress.  Praying the power comes on.  20s.  I just can't even imagine it. 

[Sdel]

FYI: the problem isn’t the power plants....the gas pipelines are frozen at the well site.  All the 7 flares near my house have gone dead....frozen over.

[KungFuPanda]

 

7 hours ago, aggie96 said:

I made it back to post for a minute. Cellular has been dark for around 30 hours. No power for 34 hours. Just cam back on but subject to rolling blackouts. Had gas but once power came on lost gas. No water for 34 hours. Still no wAter, gas, cellular. Have internet because power on. 
 

Pool is toast. Drained equipment after lost power. Had to wait for daylight so that was about 2.5 hours. Ice in pumps and lines at that point. Spa is completely iced over. Pool has floating sheets of ice.

im sure all vegetation will be dead. Obviously heat sources were not on. 
 

Several large pane windows cracked. 
 

Our water not on but in the few sections it returned, 1 out of 2 houses have burst pipes in walls and many, many at main on outside of house. Everything that was accessible was wrapped.

Because gas is gone, HVAC won’t heat and fireplace gone (ours cant use wood). Fireplace wasn’t doing much but it was at least a heat source. Space heaters on now but if electric goes out again, no heat source.

We have tried to minimize storing food outside and bailing water from pool for toilets because it lets out too much precious heat. Lost food is the least of my worries. Refilling toilets sucks but is manageable. 
 

Our water company is private and sent a notice that they’ll send repair crews when roads clear tomorrow. Ground surface roads are tricky but drivable. Gasoline in short supply. Either pumps down due to no power, or stores inexplicably rationing (sheriff was called out in a couple of places). No one has reported running out of gasoline yet at stores. 
 

right now, we have about $20k in damages. Water not on yet for pipes. Praying no damage.

hardest part has been no water and blackout communication. We couldn’t go anywhere or get any information or even make a call. Lots of areas like this. One house burned down last night in neighboring subdivision.

it could always be worse, but it sure has sucked. I and many others would have prepared differently had we know ALL utilities would be gone. Especially the water. We were prepared for power. 
 

Just to add to conversation, we keep our thermostat at 71 degrees year round. On especially hot days 69-70 and especially cold days (50’s) 72. 😬

 

6 hours ago, aggie96 said:

We can always use pool for some water. It’s just not fun. Our house has come up from 54 to 59. I can feel warm air from hvac now do maybe gas back? I’ll check other appliances. My parents house was 42 but they had hot water so we showered there. It was chilly getting out of the tub!!!

people should have skipped the meat and gone for water. Lol! In all seriousness, I’m glad that we didn’t extra stock fridge because we would have been shuttling it outside losing what little heat we had. Again, it was meant as a funny observation. In the end, all our fridge food is pretty much ruined but there wasn’t much. Pantry items are aplenty. 

I did NOT see cracked windows coming.  That's horrible.  If you hang quilts or plastic over your doorways you can minimize the amount of cold air that comes in when you go in and out of the house.  Also, if you have any containers or freezer bags you can collect ice from outside and use it to keep your fridge cold.

[aggie96]

yes, it's a nightmare mess all around! hello hive! power back for next couple of hours. gas low, but WATER IS BACK! No lines burst this round. Please, oh please, oh please let the water stay on! it's crazy cold in house still, but blankets and layers will suffice. Just.need.water.to.stay.on.

DD dance teacher, near and dear to our heart and many homeschoolers in area, lost every room and all ceilings to water damage. She is due to give birth in 2 weeks. They have a place to stay (I offered ours too-even with sketchy utilities). We will most definitely be helping do something for them as soon as the ice clears by this weekend. Just 2 more days until clean up can begin in earnest.

Good grief! This has been Harvey catastrophic. Houses burning down. Loss of life due to carbon-monoxide poisoning. At least water destroyed houses won't be molding at warp speed? It's been a bad one for sure. I think everyone knew it was going to be tough. Weather is is usually extreme. But non one expected no utilities for millions of people at once. The governor is calling for someone's head on a stick.

[aggie96]

Crap! Now a boil water notice! Grrrrrrrrr!

The weather worst of it was today. Tomorrow will see rain but above freezing. Roads will be rough overnight. Pipes will be rough as things thaw. Thank you for the tips from everyone!!!!! I didn't expect windows to crack either. They are double pane, and the outside panes cracked. That's a new one to me.

Honestly, my personal biggest financial lost was the pool and landscaping. Of course trees can be replanted, but the pool especially hurts. Plus almost every pool is damaged, so there will be a significant backlog. Great time to be in pool business in Texas! Business opportunity there!

I am so incredibly thankful no pipes have burst. A former neighbor that is still in our subdivision lost every room also to burst pipes. They are everywhere. My parents might be facing the same. The test is tomorrow.

I can take care of college kiddos in College Station and have awesome friends in DFW area that I can call on to help if you've got kiddos stuck at college!

Good night everyone! I'm crawling in bed with faucets dripping, blankets piled high, and hope that we have water and power stay on until in the morning!

PS. I saw a meme that showed the Houston highways under snow/ice and the same highways under Harvey water. It was captioned something like "Texas--where weather is an extreme sport." No doubt. No doubt.

[RegGuheert]

2 hours ago, aggie96 said:

I didn't expect windows to crack either. They are double pane, and the outside panes cracked. That's a new one to me.

That shocked me, as well!  I'm so sorry about all the damage you have experienced!