are really getting pummeled big time by these storms. I've lived in the frozen tundra of the northeast my whole life, witnessed and experienced cold, but nothing like I saw on some news clips. I've never seen pipes freeze and break like that inside apts., homes. Huge mounds of ice were forming. Inside. Wow. Some homes in the high 20's temp. wise. No electricity. People sleeping in their cars. Small kids. If that isn't sad, nothing is. I must live in a sterile bubble because I never thought you would have snow or ice in Texas. Never. I think Alabama is also taking a good hit with weather they aren't use to. I know we have members in both states and I hope and pray that everyone stays safe, Carmine.
Those poor folks in Texas
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Story I get from my Texas connections is they "mothballed" a lot of older fossil fueled electric generation plants since the state has a lot of wind power. Guess those windmills froze up from the ice and/or just do not generate enough electricity to cover an unexpected high demand. I don't watch broadcast news anymore, so I don't know what they're saying, but my guess they won't cover that side of the story. Nevertheless, I'm sure this will be examined closely and won't happen again.
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Having lived there for almost 30 years, I only experienced one time where we had this kind of weather. Most of the problems are a result of building codes that do not require pipes to be buried 6 feet deep to avoid the frost line. Inside pipes are not insulated and most are in outside walls with little or poor insulation. It is hard to convince people to spend the $$$ for these things when it may happen once in a 50 year span. Most all of what has happened is a perfect storm of events, all never planned for.
We up north plan for the cold and freezing temps for long periods. Still many in my parts don't have AC in their homes. Try and find a home in Texas, built in the past 50 years that DOES NOT HAVE CENTRAL AC.
Mikey
We up north plan for the cold and freezing temps for long periods. Still many in my parts don't have AC in their homes. Try and find a home in Texas, built in the past 50 years that DOES NOT HAVE CENTRAL AC.
Mikey
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No one has mentioned how the solar panels survived the snow storm. I don't think they would be able to produce electricity with a foot of snow on top of them.
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It is definitely "fun" times. We haven`t been above freezing since Saturday. Lucky for me, our power company has still got power but are operating on rolling blackouts. Our power is on 32 minutes and off 32 minutes. Has been that way since late Sunday, early Monday morning. Fortunately our heat source is propane and not electric. Haven`t been on the computer much since it all started. We`ll survive but hate to see how many have frozen and busted water lines after it starts to thaw out, which won`t happen until Late Friday or into the weekend.
Terry
Terry
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I was just reading this as well. I have a great amount of hatred towards windmills, and i hope this sort of sticks with people.
a friend in Dallas got power back a day or two ago, and has a frozen pipe in the house.
its ashame that people prep for the zombie apocalypse, but lose sight things like this thinking they wont happen, and i do get it.
being from NEPA, this kind of nightmare can actually be a reality (and has) and im prepared for it. Other than a shotgun and a few shells, i am not prepared for zombies.
i saw a video of roads being plowed with a grader and loader. Good use of the tools at hand, but, yikes.
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Don`t believe everything you read about Texas or Texans on the internet. We will survive.
Terry
That's where enforced practical building codes come in. When not enforced, builders will go the easiest and cheapest way to maximize profits.
Really???
For the interested reader:
No, frozen wind turbines aren’t the main culprit for Texas’ power outages
I was without heat and scrambling to get it back on. Happened on the coldest night and after the stores were closed and was working against dropping temps to hoping to avoid having to drain the water lines. Verifying if I had lost my natural gas. What furnace component. Even have a generator but of is was of no use. Eventually got resolved and the heat back on. What a relief. Take care. Wish you the best.
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The worst part was buying food when getting ready for the bad weather, then having no power for some to cook with. Luckily we had some food to fix without having to have power and plus it is still coming on even if not for long enough to actually cook a meal. You just have to get creative.
Terry
Terry
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I remember in 2010, I was stationed in El Paso, and we had a relatively mild winter storm. It was only a few inches of snow, but as mentioned earlier, the water pipes were frozen. Ours didn’t burst (some did), but we had no water.
A few weeks before I had purchased a Harbor Freight heat gun for a small project. My wife griped and griped about buying a specific tool to do “one little thing.” I looked at the pipes outside running into the house, ran an extension cord and aimed the heat gun at a section of pipe. My wife shook her head like I was nuts. After several minutes-running water!
The net result? Harbor Freight had a huge run on their heat guns once everybody there in government quarters heard what I’d done. And my wife gripes at me a lot less about tool purchases. She still gripes. Just less 😊
A few weeks before I had purchased a Harbor Freight heat gun for a small project. My wife griped and griped about buying a specific tool to do “one little thing.” I looked at the pipes outside running into the house, ran an extension cord and aimed the heat gun at a section of pipe. My wife shook her head like I was nuts. After several minutes-running water!
The net result? Harbor Freight had a huge run on their heat guns once everybody there in government quarters heard what I’d done. And my wife gripes at me a lot less about tool purchases. She still gripes. Just less 😊
Thank you everyone for sharing your story. I'd like to say I enjoyed reading them, but when human tragedy and misfortune is involved, kind of takes the fun out of it. I prepare every winter for the cold, snow, ice, etc. We have fairly strict building codes. We are having a lot of snow this winter. You never know what you're going to get here. We very seldom have a tornado or someone thinks we did, and the occasional hurricane or tropical storm. Can't tell them apart. They are also rare. A few years ago, we had Hurricane Irene and loss power for 4 days. Had 22" of water in the finished basement. I promised that would never happen again and installed a Generac standby generator to power everything we needed on the first floor. The following year, Superstorm Sandy paid a visit. I never saw trees bend so far without breaking. Power was out for 5 days, but my generator ran flawlessly during that time. Allowed us to live in our own home. Just wondering how beneficial it might be to some in those hard hit area's, Carmine.
Other then the mountains, does it ever snow anyplace in California??, thanks, Carmine.
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When we built our house I installed a swing arm in the fireplace. Amazing what you can cook in a fireplace. If your grill is accessible during all of this you can cook on your grill. If the water supply is kaput, flushing toilets is a major issue but if you store water ahead of time you can fill the tank from a bucket and then flush away. If you have electricity, hang a bare light bulb near your water pipes. Keep a kerosene heater and white kerosene stored in the garage for heat. Roughing it isn't as fun as it used to be when I was younger but roughing it without preparations is bad on anyone at anytime. I really feel sorry for people in big cities when something like this happens. There are a lot of people who are suffering big time right now due to this winter storm.
On the electric power, lots of things went wrong not just one. We have "partially deregulated" retail marketing of electricity. It's brought prices down but lately they've been cutting corners a lot. If we're going to have "partial deregulation" what to regulate and how needs to be done better. Many of the marketing deals promise a certain content of "green power" and that's not working well either. An agency called ERCOT regulates the power grid. They have problems too, this is separate from the retail regulation. Texas' power grid is an island - power can't be sold or purchased across state lines.
Water lines don't need to be buried deep. Most of the pipes bursting are in attics or walls. Many of them could be insulated but aren't. And most wouldn't burst if the power hadn't gone out.
Water lines don't need to be buried deep. Most of the pipes bursting are in attics or walls. Many of them could be insulated but aren't. And most wouldn't burst if the power hadn't gone out.
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