Those poor folks in Texas
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My sister live in Rowlett which is just E. of Dallas and was caught in the blackout thing but she lost no pipes thank goodness. My nephew lives in a older pier & beam house about a mile from me and it fixing pipes right now. Our youngest lives just outside of town in a very old pier & beam house but had no problems at all. Its a crapshoot here how well your house was built, how the wind hit it, how warm you managed to keep it etc.
We lived in the Panhandle for 4 years and had some really cold winters. They are used to it up there and build accordingly. We never had any pipes freeze although we lost power for 3 days with -0 temps.
Mikey is right this was a storm of the century. It was the first time ever that every county in Texas and Oklahoma was under a winter storm warning. You have to remember how big Texas is. Brownsville is about 850 miles south of the Oklahoma border and it was frigid the whole way.
About the 3 grid thing....we used to be told that Texas was split off the two other grids in WW II so that if either of the other areas were hit enough to loose power our Texas defense plants wouldn't be shut down. I haven't heard anyone say that lately so maybe it wasn't true but it made sense to me.
We lived in the Panhandle for 4 years and had some really cold winters. They are used to it up there and build accordingly. We never had any pipes freeze although we lost power for 3 days with -0 temps.
Mikey is right this was a storm of the century. It was the first time ever that every county in Texas and Oklahoma was under a winter storm warning. You have to remember how big Texas is. Brownsville is about 850 miles south of the Oklahoma border and it was frigid the whole way.
About the 3 grid thing....we used to be told that Texas was split off the two other grids in WW II so that if either of the other areas were hit enough to loose power our Texas defense plants wouldn't be shut down. I haven't heard anyone say that lately so maybe it wasn't true but it made sense to me.
Sharing power with the other grids wouldn't have made much difference. The adjoining states had the same weather as Texas.
Though there may have been a historical deal about the Texas grid being independent, in recent times it's been about not having federal regulation.
Though there may have been a historical deal about the Texas grid being independent, in recent times it's been about not having federal regulation.
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This if for Carmine, but for anyone that wishes to read it, this is a story of what Texas is all about. Having not been born there, "I got there as soon as I could".
I would still be there, if not for family needs here in Wisconsin.
Mikey
I would still be there, if not for family needs here in Wisconsin.
Mikey
Just read it. Interesting. Sounds like a great business and nice people. Truly concerned about their brethren. Thanks for sharing, Carmine.
A couple of things about HEB. Sometime last week, the power went off in one of their stores (this was after the initial power hit but things were still off and on). The store was full of customers. They had no way for the cash registers and debit card machines to work. The store just let everyone take what was in their cart free of charge.
There is one thing that HEB is criticized for. In central and south Texas, they have driven just about everyone except Walmart out of the grocery business. The very largest cities are an exception to that.
There is one thing that HEB is criticized for. In central and south Texas, they have driven just about everyone except Walmart out of the grocery business. The very largest cities are an exception to that.
Wow. What a great thing to do. Twice here in NY, they also profiled that gentlemen who owns the furniture store you mentioned and invited people into store to stay. Showed many sleeping on the couches and recliners. I couldn't believe I was seeing what we had just been talking about. Still many good people in the world left, Carmine.
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HEB seems to always comes through when we have a disaster large or small. We don't have one close enough to shop at or we would. There are other smaller companys that are the same way just on a lot smaller scale. Mikey is right Texas is different and we love it for its differences even if they aren't perfect.
Here is a story for ya. The old Texan listening to the lady from New York and she said "I'm not a Texan but my kids are since they were born here." He smiled and said "Lady just cause a cat has kittens in the oven don't make 'em biscuits"
That's kinda how we feel about folks from the left coast moving in and raising their kids like they are.
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Well in Weatherford we went 38 straight hours no power. It had cut off at 2:00 am Sunday morning. Came back on for 30 minutes then no power for 38 hours . I have a gas generator that I fired up. Power the heat lamp on my well head and ran a cord into the house. I have a electric patio heater that we used in the living room. We slept in the easy boys for 2 nights. We conserved on water for the toilets. I got 10 gallons of water from my neighbors frozen pool for the toilets. We had plenty of bottles of water.I even got my internet up. But I ran about 25 gallons of gas through my generator. Finally had power on Wednesday and slept in my own bed. On morning it was -3 on my back patio. I am ready for Spring.
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Before this storm hit Texas and created this mess, it hit here in Washington State. I got about 8-10 inches of snow in a day and a half. Then it started raining and warming up and the snow melted off the streets first then the rest melted. We had rain, but it was not freezing. All in all, not too bad. Nothing like Texas and the rest of the country. And no, my house does not have central AIR, but we do have central heat. We do not need the A/C in the summer, just ceiling fans.
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We get snow and ice every year in Texas. The problem was it SO cold, that some of the natural gas power plants froze, and ALL of the wind turbines froze. The only thing that didn't freeze were the nuclear plants. But, they couldn't keep up with the demand. It was below freezing for a entire week. THAT was the bad part. Our houses are built to keep you cool. They aren't built to keep you warm.
We were lucky. Our power was on for 30 minutes, then off for 30. That only lasted for two days. We have a fireplace, so our house was warm enough to not freeze the pipes.
It was -2, and a week later it was 72. That's Texas weather for you.
We were lucky. Our power was on for 30 minutes, then off for 30. That only lasted for two days. We have a fireplace, so our house was warm enough to not freeze the pipes.
It was -2, and a week later it was 72. That's Texas weather for you.
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I think the further south you were the worse the storm affected you. Not that it was colder just that even a 100 miles makes quite a difference in our average cold temperature so the average house down south is even less prepared than those of us only a few miles from Oklahoma. The panhandle gets nasty cold weather every year so they are better prepared than we are here in North Central Texas and didn't have as many problems. Its about 700 miles from the top of the panhandle to South Texas and it was nearly the same temp over the whole state. How well our houses are prepared also varies a lot. My nephew lives in a older house here and had a lot of broken pipes. They are still without hot water and have been working on it all week. So far they have found no insulation anywhere in the house. My son on the other hand lives in a even older house and it seems to be a lot better insulated. He had no issues at all.
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