It's Freakin' COLD!

Supp · 2021-02-08T01:30:18+00:00

It's going down to -41º tonight with a windchill of -51º 🤪

Weirfan

then you obviously know better.

Blackouts i was referring to them trying to move the power around in Texas so all could get some for some time but not all at once. I Cant recall having a planned blackout here , power outages yes....

the media does talks about rotating brown outs every summer though ....maybe to scare people into consuming less ? We do get power outages in summer here....maybe not grid management ? With no house AC, i do my part to keep demand low 😉

Toulon

California does rolling blackouts. The only difference is theirs don't cause suffering and death. --or, maybe, not.

NY Times:

As someone said today, it's going to be alarming once this ends and they see how many people they find dead in their residences. I'm hoping the author of that quote is wrong, but wouldn't be surprising if they find some people deceased.

Imagine you're elderly or disabled living alone and going through this? You might not come out the other side.

Toulon

Texas 2021:

1) Power shortage
2) Water shortage
3) Food shortage
4) Fuel shortage

Other than that, things are going great! Will be near 60 on Monday and in the 70's after that.

@livegolf Just saw a story on a woman who drove down from Minnesota to plow snow. She does it for a living back home. Has a big old truck with a plow on the front. Funny we need people to drive 1000 miles to plow our snow. She was having issues finding diesel around here due to fuel shortage.

Toulon

Greatest moment I've ever seen in local TV history.

Local reporter speaking to an Oncor spokesperson about why empty office buildings sit sucking power while people in homes are freezing? She replied: We can't narrow it down to individual addresses like that.

Reporter on voice over: No, that only happens when you don't pay your bill.

meagain

https://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/bette-midler-texas-outages-god-punishing-ted-cruz-john-cornyn

Toulon

meagain

That's just SICK. Demented commentary from a LOON.

She's on a roll and the wind beneath our wings:

Toulon

I wonder when I hear stories like this. Is it true? What is the full context of this statement?

If you hear the grid was "minutes from failing" and then told it would've meant months of repairs and people without power, it helps you accept the horror of the last few days.

Really hoping a transparent and honest report of what actually happened comes to light. If they really had no choice, then why did they have no choice? Did power plants take plants offline unpurpose for revenue issues?

Hearing this situation being compared to Katrina. It is something to deal with. Very thankful we got the rolling blackouts and not full loss of power like so many. Makes you feel guilty.

We're now back to hours of power before 15 minutes of downtime. It's been almost 3 hours since it last went out. Had been 90 minutes on 15 minutes off. Demand decreases at night, so perhaps we'll have shorter intervals tomorrow.

livegolf

Toulon Good your power is staying on. My company has a large office in DFW and so many people are losing power and having to visit family/friends just to try to work. These co workers have shared the same fuel shortages and water concerns mentioned in this thread.

I'll give a shout to Verizon as their cell service has been great in the region even with the outages.

johnnydoom

Toulon If you hear the grid was "minutes from failing" and then told it would've meant months of repairs and people without power, it helps you accept the horror of the last few days.

I'm not an electrical worker, but it is very difficult for me to imagine a generation or delivery sort of failure that would take "months" to repair if you are willing to throw money at it. The only things I can think of that should ever cause very long delays are natural disasters such as earthquake or hurricanes. Perhaps also if there were a very bad fuel shortage or the area is attacked in war.

Meltdowns and generator/transformer failures would be very expensive, but shouldn't take months to replace or repair unless contingency planning is extremely poor or nonexistent.

Toulon

livegolf

We were all pumped up around here celebrating the fact the power had been on for 4 uninterrupted hours. I had some food in the oven, and OUT went the power. You never know how long it will be off.

After the collective groan by everyone in this house, the power returned a minute later. Hoping we're about done with this now.

Heard tonight this situation will blow away Hurricane Harvey's Texas state record of 19 billion in damages.

Are you still in Lafayette? Florida sounds SO good right now.

Glad that cell service has held out for you. So important in these kinds of conditions. WFAA had a montage of desperate calls for help they played on their news tonight. Impossible not to have tears rolling down your face as you hear the fear and dread in the voices. One lady said her veteran husband was living in the car and was on the verge of death. She was beyond broken.

Just heard another story of someone walking to 7-11 in Austin and stumbled upon a frozen dead body before she got there.

Stay safe and warm! Safe travels back home, if you ever come back to this 3rd world country, I mean state. Heads are gonna roll. People pissed the executive board for ERCOT live out of state and one guy in another freaking country. They'll Texas-fy this when all is said and done.

LBlack14

Dufferman hope you feel better tomorrow.

LBlack14

livegolf

Toulon

Yes! Time for a baked pizza if it survived the freezer trama lol.

Yep here in Lafayette, LA working. Power on all day, cold rain and tons more Texas license plates in the hotel parking lot tonight. Selfishly, had a tasty pecan and bacon redfish dinner tonight. Yum.

Such a sad situation, life is tough enough when you feel well and don't have property damage going on. Mix in having to maybe oversee the interior of your house reconstructed and it will be aggravating for so many.

I'll also add that I don't think those outside of Texas truly understand how bad things are. Maybe not from a death toll which is good but the economic impact is incredible. This is a complete shutdown of four of America's largest cities with infrastructure cracking.

The power situation is awful but to have Dallas and Austin and Houston and San Antonio roads covered in snow for a week is unforgivable.

Toulon

livegolf

You're right. I don't think people do know. A buddy of mine texted me the other day and all he wanted to talk about was the snow and how it probably made me miss our old street we grew up on in Wisconsin and all those winters. He had no idea of anything else, but that was a couple of days ago.

Another buddy called me but he didn't really seem to get it. Then, he texted me tonight because he was watching CNN and couldn't believe what he was seeing. He was trying to tell me how it was here as if I was unaware. Always bizarre when that happens. Like talking with Sneak. This friend couldn't believe what was happening. I think he was having a hard time reconciling not getting when I was telling him about it last night and him actually seeing video on CNN. Big lightbulb went off. He was horrified.

Glad you had a nice dinner. We've been in survival mode just doing whatever to get by and protecting the pipes best we can. Baked some beer battered fish fillets tonight. Best I've eaten in a few days. Blessed to have food, shelter, and clean water and power.

Hoping for even better news tomorrow that sees everyone get their power back full-time. What an ordeal. That toll will be a long, long count from some huge number. I think we're all psychologically changed after something like this.

Weirfan

livegolf

glad you are ok and keeping yourself well fed 🙂

Toulon

johnnydoom

When I heard it, I didn't believe it, but it's been a common refrain. To me, it's the kind of thing you say to try to take the sting out of what did happen. You think that was bad? Well, it would've been much worse had we not shut off your power. Typical reframing of the issue that happens with everything these days.

ode

I'm not trying to make light of the situation, but this has to be a "once in a lifetime" kind of weather pattern. Do you guys who have lived in the south your whole life ever remember something like this?
Hopefully never again!

johnnydoom

ode Do you guys who have lived in the south your whole life ever remember something like this?

It is close to once in a lifetime. There have been about three or four times we've approached zero degrees in the winter in Memphis (in my 58 years), and usually only for one or two nights. For the week, this is the worst weather winter week in my memory with several days of lows in the single digits and compounded with snow and ice.

azgreg

ode
We seem to be having these "once in a lifetime" weather events pretty regularly lately.

Meanwhile..................

LBlack14

Par4QC

Not taking anything away from what's happening down South, but you know it's not a very good winter, or at the very least, Feb., when up here we are setting record lows. Coming out of it now, while the South still suffers, is screwed up, for sure.

Toulon

azgreg

Man has had the ability to control the weather for years. People don't have to believe it, but it's true.

We're going to see crazier and crazier things in the coming months and years.

https://www.nytimes.com/1976/04/17/archives/war-of-the-weathers.html

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