Cold over there

[abunaitoo]

Just saw on the news how bad the snow storm is.
First time I've watched anything about it.
These days the news is just not worth watching much.
Texas seems to be hard hit.
There was a millennial yaking "This shouldn't happen. They need to do something. It's not fair"
Probably a transplant from kakafornia.
Looks like some other states have also been hit.
I hope our friends there are good.
Funny how when it hot, it's global warming, but with this, their calling it a climate change.

[Bloodman14]

Yep, not my idea of a good time. The older I get, the less fun it is (arthritis). Record setting temps. Come on, July!!

[ryanmattes]

We got about 8" of snow over 3 days just north of Dallas. My family in Wisconsin thinks that sounds like any Tuesday in February, but in Dallas, it's record-setting. It's been 126 years since all counties in Texas had snow. We've seen sleet and hail quite a bit, but not a good week-long deep freeze for quite a while. I think it was '89 the last time Dallas got this much snow. And we're not prepared for it.

We have some sand trucks, but snow plows are few and far between south of Abilene. No one has snow tires. Our power grid was built to withstand months of 100F+ heat, not being buried in ice and snow. Roofing here isn't designed to hold up a bunch of snow, it's designed to let heat escape.

It was uncomfortable, no doubt. A lot of people were far worse off than I was, since my heat is all gas and doesn't depend on electricity. Plumbers are going to be very busy in the next week, but I knew to keep cycling the water to keep it from freezing in the pipes, so I didn't have any plumbing issues. The power was a problem. We were 30 minutes on and 30 minutes of for a couple days there, but we're back on now.

All in all, my biggest complaint is that it was too cold to cast or load, since my garage isn't heated. I managed to buy a Kimber 1911, take it to a close indoor range, and coat some .45 acp I had already cast, though. Otherwise, I got to play in the snow a bit, miss a bit of work since I didn't have internet, and my biggest worries were finding a coffee shop open because I like an espresso with my pipe in the morning, but I haven't wanted to spend the money on a machine at home. Wouldn't have worked without power anyway.

Oh well. It'll be in the 50's on Saturday and by early next week it'll be in the 70's, so I'll be back to business as usual in no time.

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[David2011]

Just before Christmas in 1983 it got several degrees colder in the Houston area. IIRC it hit 9 degrees F. We had none of the power outage and water plant issues that this cold spell has brought. One thing I keep hearing is that third party power generation companies were allowed to build plants that aren’t designed to operate in freezing weather. Population growth has been staggering. The city where my parents live had a population of 5000 in 1981. Today it’s over 100,000. The entire Houston metro area has grown similarly. Semi-rural communities have disappeared and are deeply embedded in suburbia with miles of suburbs beyond them now. What was once prairie between Houston and Galveston is now fully developed everywhere that isn’t Galveston Bay marshland.

Houses are built with the plumbing uninsulated in the attics, vulnerable to freezing and breakage. People have designed homes for the oppressive heat with little consideration for the occasional winter storm. All of the public utilities suffer the same affliction.

The infrastructure can be updated to tolerate the cold. IMO it should be designed for somewhere between zero and 10 degrees F. Refitting homes, especially older ones, is more problematic simply due to the numbers of houses with water lines in the attics. My house was built such that some of the water lines are only accessible by opening up the drywall. It was custom designed for the original owner and has lots of tray and vaulted ceilings that block access to the perimeter plumbing. Had the builder made the insulation company just lay the insulation over the water pipes instead of under them, we wouldn’t have had any freezing issues. So far I’ve only had to fix one break but I fear that we may find more later today when the temperature gets to the predicted 46 degrees for a high. The average low on this date is 47. About 5 days before it got cold we were in the 70s which isn’t unusual for this time of year.

The duration of this cold spell is much longer than normal for the area, compounding the complications. My parents, both north of 85, were without electricity for 3 full days. Fortunately they have a gas fireplace and they never lost water pressure. We were unable to get to them because the bridges and many roads between our houses were closed.

One improvement was that the State of Texas passed legislation effective immediately that no rolling blackout ma have a duration exceeding 12 hours for any area. That’s still way too long. Three hour outages would keep homes warm, refrigerated food cold and safe and likely reduce the number of frozen pipes.

Common plumbing repair items are sold out across Texas and Louisiana. There are no food service businesses open due to a boil water order for most of the state. Water sold out everywhere. Grocery stores are limiting quantities like one loaf of bread. Many shelves are empty. Most businesses have been closed since Monday due to ice initially and then power and water outages. I hope the victims and observers of this event understand that this is what socialism would be like on a daily basis.

[rbuck351]

Here in MT we have had a very mild winter this year. Relative warm temp then last week it dropped down to 15/20 below at night which is not unusual for here. Montana weather does cause real problems when it hits in the south because no one and nothing is set up for cold. Here we have a 6.2 kw genset, two wood stoves ( one is cook stove), several aladdin lamps well insulated house, a backup outhouse, snow plow on the truck and 4 wheeler, private well and we are very well stocked with food, tp, gas, diesel, kerosene and everything else I can think up to last for months if needed with out the outside electricity.

Folks in the big cities don't seem to think about the possibility that there could be any type of disaster or govt mandate that could shut off there power or food supply.

When the fiasco is over, hopefully some folks will think a bit more about "what if" and be a bit more prepared. Mother nature can be a bad one but socialism/communism is for sure a bad one.

[ryanmattes]

Folks in the big cities don't seem to think about the possibility that there could be any type of disaster or govt mandate that could shut off there power or food supply.

Unfortunately, most homes here aren't equipped for it. I mean physically, they can't put in a wood stove because the house doesn't have the proper venting. They can't hook up a backup generator, because the local power company won't let them. There are too many houses too close together, so the local fire codes prohibit self-reliance. I'm moving outside of town as soon as I can, but it'll be a couple more years.

My family was fine because I've been through real winters up north before, and I camp so I have gas lamps and stoves and stuff like that, but most people don't even have the right clothes for it, let alone a backup generator. Hell, the stores here don't sell the right clothes. You can't find a set of snow tires or tire chains for any price. It's just a completely unanticipated need.

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[farmbif]

crazy how conditions in Texas make it look like a 3rd world country on news reports in one week--crazy
a lesson to be learned from, like Boy Scout be prepared, you never know what will come next.

[SSGOldfart]

Well being prepared only goes so far and I hope others learn from it.we have power now just hoping to get water back soon.I only stocked enough for a week. Gen set only works if one can get fuel. When the power goes out for more than three days most has stations can't pump fuel out of their tanks so they shut down.Same thing happened each time we get a hurricane.
Live and learn from it all I can say now.

[1hole]

Texas seems to be hard hit.
There was a millennial yaking "This shouldn't happen. They need to do something. It's not fair". Probably a transplant from kakafornia.

Yeah.

"Liberals" always want to know why government isn't solving all problems with a wave of their Big Daddy hand. By the time Libs learn government at any level is no big daddy there will be no individual liberty left and there'll be no way to regain it. And they'll still be vulnerable to the forces of nature.

Funny how when it hot, it's global warming, but with this, their calling it a climate change.

Yeah. Those highly eddicated innerlecshuls call it "climate change", not warming, simply because there is still no valid evidence that anything meaningful is changing at all. But, they're all quite sure something must be badly wrong, they just can't tell us for sure what it is without having a few trillion more "research" dollars being lavished on them each year. (Seems there is no room for common sense in the hollowed halls of modern climate religion ... I mean, science.)

Libs are sure the USA in general and political conservatives in particular are the cause of whatever it is happening to Earth so they wish we would let them and their loopy "experts" control our lives (not theirs of course) or "the sky will fall". (Now, where have I heard that "scientific" claim before???)

God, it must be some kind of pure hades to live in the head of a "liberal."

[Winger Ed.]

Just saw on the news how bad the snow storm is.

Too funny. Watching it on the news really is the best deal.
Both global cooling and warming have lost traction, that's why they have to call it 'climate change' now.
Personally, I don't think we could change the climate if we tried.
I used to know a Astro Physics professor at the University out there near you that was almost burned at the stake for even mentioning that.


We're about 70 miles SE of Dallas.
I keep a fair amount of bottled water, gas, and propane to feed a decent size generator for tornado season,
and when the power goes out when a truck or something takes out a power pole and they have to
bring in parts from Dallas or Ft. Worth. Or when the ground shifts and breaks a water main.

We never lost power, but the folks on the other side of the lake and our canal
who get their service from a different company lost theirs for 3 days.

In the 80s, I did emergency Plumbing work for a few years and learned how to save all our pipes & such.
Some others, and several 'weekender' homes had breaks and were flooded out.
Our water pressure is low since they haven't found all the busted pipes yet and shut off their meters yet.

With a combination of being blessed, lucky, and prepared:
The worst that happened to us was losing TV & internet for three days, and not being able to go to town and get a tomato.
I figure I can wait until the roads clear to go get a tomato.

Something that surprised me:
Our local Lowe's and others in East Texas have sold out of lumber. People bought it all for firewood.
I hope they know the fumes that burn off the pressure treated stuff are toxic.

[Ural Driver]

We got a total of six inches of very dry snow.
Temps mostly in the teens and below with a dip down to -2 degrees one night.
36 of those hours were without shore power with sporadic minor outages for a couple of days.
Winds were a bit dicey for a few days, but drifts never got more than 10-12 inches deep, so no real problems getting around on foot......mostly to take care of the neighbors horses......(they had run out of firewood and went into town).
By day one, both vehicles fully fueled and parked in the garage. Anything with a battery had already been on a charger/tender for 2 or 3 days, fluids checked, started and allowed to reach operating temps for 30 minutes and than parked in the shop building. The 10KW generator was loaded onto the carry-all on the tractor along with two five gallon fuel cans, ready if needed. I did remember to remove all the bottled water from my shop, so (unless I missed one) should have no issues with that type of a mess.
Bought this place 4 years ago and then converted it to gas. 500 gallon propane tank sitting out back for heat, hot water (tankless) and cookstove. Had originally purchased the generator to run my welder in the field.......but it will also power whatever I want/need inside the house. For now, that requires the use of extension cords, but that will only be until I get a transfer switch installed.
And thank God that someone told me to switch off the breaker to the pool pump when the power went out. I never had a pool before.....which means I never had a pool pump before.......which froze solid when the power went out for the aforementioned 36 hours. When I had the new furnace and water heater system installed, I told them to not hardwire them into the house. I wanted the ability to plug them into a wall outlet so, in the event of a power outage, I could run them from a generator. When I had a new pool pump system installed I did have them put in a freeze guard. But failed to realize I might need to have the ability to power this system from a generator.....lesson learned....that's on my list of things to do....the transfer switch should negate the need, but I'm gonna do it anyway.
Using some reclaimed barn tin, salvaged for another project, I clapped together a (fireproof) lean-to over the entire mechanism. Two heaters, and a small fan to circulate the warming air, had it thawed in about four hours.......only time will tell if there was damage to any components. With the water again circulating, the 1/2 inch of ice covering the pool was gone by this morning.
I was raised in the Midwest.....we just call this "Wintertime".

[mrmachinist]

I’m in SW LA. We had about an inch of snow / ice. We lost water for a day but never lost power. We have a wood fireplace and plenty of firewood thanks to hurricanes Laura and Delta. I got a couple days off work to play with my boys. Drug them with the SXS on a disc sled and they had a blast. I’m ready for 70 degrees next week. Lots of people have busted pipes but I fortunately haven’t had to deal with that.


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[Murphy]

I'm located in the far lower left corner of Oklahoma. I'm 15 miles from the Red River, and about 20 from the Arkansas state line. We've seen record breaking temperatures this week, it's caused a lot of havoc. We were most fortunate in the fact there wasn't any icing of the tree's. The snow in my area reached anywhere from 5 to 8 inches. Down in Texarkana, which sets on the Texas/Arkansas state line, a friend had a measure 16"s in his yard. I'm sure it'll set a new record. Travel all but came to a halt. Numerous store shelves emptied out (picture the toilet paper fiasco last year) on canned goods, etc. Milk? What's that? Bread? You gotta be kidding right? We keep the pantry stocked well enough there was no need to leave home, thank God.

Now the major problem for a lot is beginning, water. As things thaw out, leaks are popping up like never before. A plumber friend who is also a fire fighter, had 21 calls lined up to begin with when he left his fire station job this morning. He's got 48 hours before he has to be back on his next shift. Good thing he's young & healthy. The water department had to call on the fire department for help in turning off water meters to houses with broke lines. 150 calls in a 24 hour period. No telling how many others the home owners turned them off themselves. Add to that, broken water mains. The local plumbing supply house is bare, as is any hardware store. Some will be without water for weeks at the very least. As stated in an above post, this part of the country isn't built for cold weather like this. Some 20 years back, we had a record snow of 11" blanket the county. The local Dollar Store roof collapsed under the load and there wasn't an awning left in town to the best of my memory. The term 'Snow Load' is foreign language to 97% of the population here.

Thankfully, I'm blessed. About an hour ago, I turned off all the dripping faucets and made sure everything was filled up. A trip to the water meter in the front yards and thank GOD, no leaks.


Murphy

[blackthorn]

Quote "I did remember to remove all the bottled water from my shop, so (unless I missed one) should have no issues with that type of a mess."

If the water is in those thin plastic bottles, they do not break when frozen. I have a cabin in the BC mountains and I regularly leave bottled water there over the winter. I have never had so much as a leak from any of them. I also use plastic bottles from juice filled to within 1" of the top to freeze and then use them in my cooler instead of buying ice in the summer.

[Hossfly]

Never lost power or water, feel lucky and blessed living way out in the country, keeping horses and 2 orchid greenhouses going is a challenge. Only found 1 busted pipe when temps got up to 36* today. Got my truck stuck down at big shop trying to get heat and battery charger to tractor in barn. Fired up the 71 year old jeep and went home.

Been using tractor and rear blade to clear snow from my 1/4 mile driveway. Never had to do that before. Still have about 6” snow on roof that is melting fast.

[popper]

Rolling 20 min blackouts east of DFW. Shut off the water at the street and went to kids where he never lost power. Back home and so far all OK. Been through this stuff about 10 times, never get used to it. State is nutty, now want to spend money for grid battery backup. Consulting yrs ago on grid monitor/routing software. Don't think they ever got it right. Primary problem is shutting gas/coal units and depending on solar and wind. 20 something % of capacity but only 5% usable at any time - when you need it. SIL's dad had broken pipes in Houston. We got to -2F, Galveston had snow on the beach.

[SSGOldfart]

Winger Ed Sir please tell us old hillbillies how we should winter proof our weekend homes and trailer houses to avoid another freak winter strom.I've learned waterline in this part of Texas are only a few inches deep to start with.

[abunaitoo]

Kind of sad, but I'm sure the homeless problem has been lessened.
It's going to be a mess when the thaw happens.
Does no power mean no cell phones?????
Silver lining to a dark cloud.
Bet there were so many people, who were on the verge of a breakdown, without a cell phone.
Maybe it's global cooling now.
Another reason for the millienials to cry about.

[David2011]

We got through this mess better than lots of the homes in the greater Houston area. We paid attention and made a grocery store run in advance but still weren’t as prepared as we could have been. We didn’t expect to need the generator so we had to wait for the streets to clear enough to drive safely before I could get gas. Most convenience stores and other gasoline retailers were closed because they didn’t have electricity but I finally found one that was open. They were BUSY. Then I had to start a generator that hadn’t been run in over 10 years. Our rolling blackouts lasted 12-20 hours. SWMBO and I each had one before we got married. We sold mine that had never been started until putting it up for sale and kept hers, thinking the new one would bring a better price. Fortunately she had used Sta-Bil in the gas and it wasn’t too hard to start. I’ll run the pump gas out of it and put some av gas in it after I rebuild the carb. We got caught short on water but never ran out. We collected ice/snow and roof runoff for flushing because we hadn’t filled a bathtub. About 3 days ago we got additional gas that we ended up not needing, 10 20 ounce bottles of water and 2 20 pound bags of ice. A bottle of water was 99 cents. A 20 pound bag of ice, also 99 cents, melts to about 2.5 gallons. Our boil order was just lifted a few minutes ago and we still have plenty of water and ice left. Got to cool the beverages. We’ve made a long list of things to do to be better prepared.

Fortunately we only had one break in a water line and that was over the laundry room. It only supplied the washing machine so not critical for the short term. I could have repaired it if I could have gotten 2 couplers and a few inches of 1/2” copper pipe but got to pay the plumber $195 to crimp his repair sleeve on. I made a makeshift $9 cap from a copper adapter and a pipe plug to block off the break while waiting on the plumber.

Power has been stable here since Thursday morning and we’ve had water pressure since Wednesday. Full pressure came back yesterday evening.

We’re very thankful to have come through this as well as we did. It’s back to a seasonable 65 degrees today and headed for the low 70s by Wednesday.

[SSGOldfart]

Cell phones don't work in my part of Texas, We are in the sticks so to speak.
I do think the lack of internet connection might have been upsetting for some.
No mail for a week was different too????? I thought the mail always ran.