It's freezing in Texas

[Bernard]

For those of you who don't know, a winter storm has paralyzed Texas. I don't know how other states are managing right now, but they are more or less used to dealing with (and have infrastructure built to handle) these kinds of conditions. Texas... not so much.

The extreme cold has frozen pipes all over the state. Not just in residential properties (houses, apartments, condos), but even municipal pumping stations. Tons of people are dealing with burst pipes and water damage in their homes. Many folks who avoided burst pipes don't have any running water because the city pumps aren't working. Just about every municipality that is pumping water right now has issued a boil water notice. The water isn't safe. Great stuff for the c19 age.

In conjunction with water issues, tons of people are without power. Texas lost some power generation capability with wind turbines freezing up and pipes freezing/bursting at inadequately prepared power plants. The grid got overwhelmed by demand. Some areas of the state lost power completely. Some areas are experiencing rolling blackouts. A lot of people are suffering with near freezing temps inside their homes.

This is all happening while roadways (and especially bridges) are iced over and too dangerous to traverse. Central/Southern Texas isn't used to dealing with iced roads. Neither the citizens nor the public works peeps. One local municipality said they ran out of sand/salt to clear the roads a couple of days ago.

Two nights ago we got a break from sub freezing temps, but last night and tonight we get another round. It will like be a week or so before the full scope of deaths from this storm become known I think. I'm already seeing reports about kids and elderly dying from hypothermia.

We've been relatively lucky. We have running water, power and nat gas. We did lose internet access for a few days though. Our ISP must have lost the local substation. I could only access the net via my cell phone (4g cellular network) for a while there. Luckily I'm well stocked with sanitizers, paper plates and such to manage a week or so without potable water to wash/clean.

I have a brother that lives about 10 minutes away and he lost power and had pipes burst in his house. His power has been restored, but he's got a lot of work to do tearing out sheetrock, doing mold remediation and fixing the plumbing.

I have another brother that lives near Austin and he lost power and is completely iced in (can't drive out of the neighborhood). He's keeping warm and charging his cell phone with his car.

I hope all our CWE friends living around Texas are managing OK.

 

[Porkette]

Hi Bernard,

I'm so sorry to hear all that you and your family have been going through along with the others in Texas. I've seen it on
the news and I may be heading down you way to work in communications with the ham radio. I'm on stand by right now.
Tell your friends and family that if they still have running water to turn the cold water on and let it just drip, by doing that
the pipes won't freeze up. I live in a double wide home and that's what I have to do in the winter months when it gets really
cold.
Here in NY we have been hit with a couple of winter storms this past week along with cold temperatures. If you know of
anything I can do to help out let me know and I will get on the radio and let others know what needs to be sent down your
way to help everyone out.
I wish you and everyone in Texas only the Best and May God Bless All of You,

Sue

 

[CathyAnn31]

All of Texas has been effected somehow or another. I'm near Dallas and this whole thing has been so sad. The state had a winter storm blow thru over the weekend and bring blowing snow, ice with temps in the single digits or lower with another round yesterday.

Gas stations out of gas and some people can't even charge their phones. Desperate people using poor judgement trying to keep warm dying from carbon monoxide poisoning. Texas isn't built to handle all this. Millions all over Texas have no power, frozen or busted pipes and now no water. Officials say to limit power, water usage and natural gas if you have it. What happens to people with no power and/or no water to drip the faucets to keep the lines from freezing? Peoples homes are flooding. And rolling black outs my ass! Around me, ppl have been in the dark for 3 days or more. I've seen pics of ppl being able to see their own breath in their living room.

My family has been so lucky, we haven't had to go without anything yet 2 streets away families are suffering still. A few pipes of ours froze but easily fixed by my hair dryer. I don't understand the power grid stuff. Power is finally starting to be restored and Saturday is supposed to be above freezing finally. But this thing is far from being over. It's rumored that electricity rates will now skyrocket for all Texans.

Who should be held accountable for this? A lot more than Mother Nature I assure you. This is unacceptable! Texas is a disgrace and an embarrassment to the country as well as the butt of many jokes. To the folks who think it's funny, they can $&@! it.

Sorry, just had to vent.

 

[CathyAnn31]

Porkette- I've dripped my faucets the whole time, as well as keep the cabinets open. It didn't work for the ones that froze. We ended up using a small stream instead and it's worked well. I hate to think of what my water bill is going to be. Better than paying a plumber to fix busted pipes!

Grocery stores unstocked as trucks can't bring anything in, workers unable to get there. Cargo planes unable to bring outgoing mail to the post offices just to name a few. Our whole infrastructure has been affected.

It will be awhile before we recover. The whole state was in the winter storm warning. Take a look at the size of our state, even down in the southernmost tip close to Mexico saw a bit of the white stuff with freezing temps. It's only happened once or twice in the history of the area. Pictures of ice and snow along the gulf coast absolutely nuts!

 

[Porkette]

Hi CathyAnn,

I am very sorry for all that you are going through. FEMA should step in and help all of you out but they need to get moving fast.

If you know any ham radio operators in your area let them know that a bunch of ham radio operators are headed down your way
for both communications and we will be bringing supplies that have been donated by both stores and homes.

I wish you only the Best and May God Bless You!

Sue

 

[Bernard]

... Pictures of ice and snow along the gulf coast absolutely nuts!

I saw a report on the weather channel with video of a truck in a parking garage on Galveston Island that was completely encased in ice. It was parked under a water pipe that had burst. Wild.

 

[Bernard]

... a bunch of ham radio operators are headed down your way
for both communications and we will be bringing ...

Ham radio operators are awesome, but I'm not sure this is a wise plan. Everything is going to be thawed out by lunch time tomorrow. Biggest need is likely going to be plumbing parts (pvc pipe, connectors, caps, etc.), but folks with homeowners insurance likely need to buy from a store with reciepts if they want to get reimbursed.

 

[Porkette]

Hi Bernard,
A bunch of ham radio operators from all over are getting pipes, and plumbing supplies along with generators and non perishable
food and are headed down your way. Some of the supplies may be sent in through The Red Cross or Salvation Army but a lot
of ham radio operators and donating supplies or money to help everyone out down your way. If you know any ham radio operators
see if they can get on the radio to emergency communcations and they will be able to fill you in on what's going on.
Ham radio operators are allowed to leave their job to help out in emergency and we won't get docked time or pay.
I like using the radio instead of cell phones because I can do all of the same thing on the radio as a cell phone for free.

Keep your chin up and May God Bless You,

Sue

 

[CQ:)]

I had a friend in Philadelphia tell me how bad the snows been and seen other American friend post on FB about the snow.
Isn't this time of year usually near the end of winter for you guys?
So normally it would start warming up a bit.

For us in Australia we're in summer but that finishes next week, and we go into Autumn on 1st March.
Our summers are usually dry but this year has been a very wet summer with a lot of rain. Good for the farmers and anyone who likes mowing their lawns

Hope it warms up for you soon

 

[Bernard]

... Isn't this time of year usually near the end of winter for you guys? ...

Yes. It's not unusual to get a cold snap in March, but this storm saw temps drop to near all time record lows.

 

[valeriedl]

All of Texas has been effected somehow or another. I'm near Dallas and this whole thing has been so sad. The state had a winter storm blow thru over the weekend and bring blowing snow, ice with temps in the single digits or lower with another round yesterday.

Who should be held accountable for this? A lot more than Mother Nature I assure you. This is unacceptable! Texas is a disgrace and an embarrassment to the country as well as the butt of many jokes. To the folks who think it's funny, they can $&@! it.

Sorry, just had to vent.

Vent all you want too. I don't think it's funny, I think it's unbelievable! I know people what are saying all that about Texas but people don't realize that Texas isn't built for this type of weather. You never get snow storms, ice storms and everything else that's happening. I've seen pictures on the news and I just can't get over what's going on!

I live in PA where this type of weather happens. Power isn't lost, pipes don't freeze and everything else happening. Our roads get snow covered and ice covered. Their slick from that but we can usually get them back to pretty normal in a few hours because we have snow plow trucks and salt trucks which you don't have. My dad's plowing the snow off of our driveway right now with the snow plow that we own that I'm sure none of you do. It was even 9 degrees this past weekend.

 

[Cint]

My heart goes out to all you Texas folks. We had freezing temps last weekend, too, -8 degrees ( wind chill of - 20) here in the Denver area and a bit of snow. A few around here had frozen pipes and such and of course we are used to snow and have plenty of snow plows and sand trucks, especially good for our ski areas. We didn't loose power and our roads were clear within a few hours. I have a cousin near Winnsboro and saw his pics on FB. He said they were fortunate enough to not loose their power, but those around them weren't as fortunate. Like Valerie said, Texas planners didn't plan for FREEZING weather. Time to elect someone who will.
Keeping my fingers crossed for all of you.