Texas BS Thread

It’s almost like the lay person doesn’t realize a generation unit in Anchorage isn’t outfitted in the same way as one in, say, south Texas. What a crazy notion.

 

It’s a pretty crazy situation. Most people are without power. All the pipes are frozen.

What gets me is seeing Austin’s skyline lit up like nothing is happening and everyone else’s power cut out intentionally to conserve power.

 

Yeah, I’m one of those 4 million without power. I’ve been through 5 hurricanes in my time and am no stranger to lengthy power and water supply outages, but this is my first time with no power and it being less than 5 degrees outside for such a long period of time, and we’re supposed to get more snow tonight and tomorrow. I still have water and am letting it trickle to hopefully keep the pipes from freezing. I guess it could be worse, though. Our troops fought in 20 below temps for two weeks during the Battle of Chosin Reservoir. So I guess I shouldn’t complain. Just feel bad for the sick, the elderly and little kids having to go through this.

On the plus side, my Tundra has been awesome. Used it to take my wife to work and 4Hi worked great on icy roads as long as I drove slow and careful.

 

I m not in Texas, but I know what it s like to be cold. I reinlisted in the Corp in 1980, and they give a pretty good bonus, so I bought a 78 KZ 1000. Part of my reinlistment was a change in duty stations. My new one was Moutain Warfare Training Center in the Sierras, so being young and dumb, I decided to take 30 days leave and ride the bike from DC to Cali, cross country, in January Even taking the most sothernly route I could manage I still damn near lost my toes. At one point in my road trip I made my way through Amarillo, and stopped at a small cafe to get out of the weather. An older gal, probably the manager, saw my bike parked outside, and how cold I was. She moved a few tables, and set up a chair right over a big heater vent in the floor right in the middle of the place, and had me sit there for around an hour. I ll never forget that. Although I don t remember the name of the place, my hat s off to them. I eventually made it to MWTC. In hindsight I think that trip took a few years off my life.

 

My family moved to Midland, TX before I was a month old. I have no Lone Star memories, but here is my father out in front of the store and a billboard for the place my mom would take my sister and I while he worked.

 

Texas is on an island when it comes to their grid. That’s how they wanted it. They can’t get support from the east or west because they aren’t tied to them.
This very situation was addressed years ago and they failed to plan. Not good.
Good luck down there. Stay warm as best you can but be smart. I’ve been reading many are getting sick from Carbon monoxide.
It looks like the temps are going to swing in the next few days.

 

We are participating in the rolling blackouts albeit involuntary. I have alternative power and heat, but we lost water at the source and now we will most likely have broken pipes..

 

I am on day 3 with no power. We planned for an extended period of staying indoors, but we did not plan for an extended period of no power. We filled the frig and freezer full of food, but we can’t cook any of it. We are mostly living off of the dry goods in the pantry.

We moved the frig and freezer contents into coolers and placed them on back porch. Then we filled the rest of the space in the coolers with snow. With the low temperatures, the coolers are staying below 25 degrees. (We put thermometers in the coolers to track the temps).

Our next door neighbor let us borrow his generator (he went to stay with friends who have power) so we have been able to run a single space heater and charge all the batteries on all our devices including my cpap battery. The space heater raised the temperature in our living room from 49 degrees to 54 degrees. It’s not much, but it felt much warmer.

on the plus side, today will be in the 30’s instead of in the single digits, our pipes unfroze so we have water, the toilets work now, and, from what I can tell, none of our pipes broke.

Sunday will be in the 70’s. so, hopefully, we will have power by then.

 

We can get power from the eastern connection only, but the problem is that there’s outages/gas issues there as well so there’s no power to spare

 

Partially true. 90 percent of Texas is part of ERCOT and operate solely on the independent grid of Texas. This 90 percent includes most all of the infected area. It’s the way Texas wanted it. They wanted no part of federal regulations. Studies have proven they emphasize cheap power over reliability.
Either way, I feel for the ones struggling and I hope everyone gets power and water restored as soon as possible.

 

Well, you have some good things going for you. A working toilet is huge. Stay warm and hopefully your power is restored soon.

 

To all you guys and girls down there please remember to stay away from any streams or rivers when the temps go up in case or flooding .

 

I didn’t expect tidal water to freeze, since it’s always moving...

and my dog’s bowl inside the house after he broke through the ice to drink


this is pretty cool where the tide went out and left these shapes



We are 56hrs without power, and 20hrs without water (since a pipe burst in the ceiling between the 2nd and 3rd floors).
I opened the refrigerator and freezer since it’s colder in the house than the freezer. Lol.

 

Looking ahead for these warmer temps.

But also worried about what a disaster the grocery stores are going to be in the coming weeks. We’re running really low on food.

 

Indeed. My wife and I were talking about this yesterday. For us, it might mean more takeout and fast food. Of course, if restaurants are open.

 

You need to get shit straightened out down there, I'm supposed to be in that area for the next two weeks.
Most likely I will still be home patching up after this shit thaws.

 

Wow. Hats off to Ford for doing this. I’m impressed. https://people.com/human-interest/f...th-generators-power-outages-winter-snowstorm/

 

Trucks will start rolling again this weekend and early next week.
Hopefully have stores stocked up soon.

As @Netmonkey stated, we thought we prepared for this.
Firewood, groceries, water, full gas tanks in vehicles, and full propane tanks (for the grill), etc.
But we where not ready for 36 hours without power in single digit temps.

Went thru our firewood and then I went to Lowes and bought 25 2X4s @ $6 each.
Cut and doubled them up into 4X4s with finishing nails to make them burn longer.
Talk about a crackling fire...
Lowes and Walgreen were literally the only stores open.
Luckily had air in the 55 gal compressor for the nail gun and Dewalt 20v batteries charged up to cut it with the rip saw..



Couldn't leave the house with 3 dogs at home.
I heard hotels where booked and charging 3X the regular rates, like they for Katrina.

It all worked out, but it was an experience.
Without the fireplace I'm not sure what we would have done.
And thank God we have a gas water heater and gas starter in the fireplace.
We never did lose water or hot water.....

Kinda stupid of DR Horton to build a home that has gas with an electric kitchen stove/oven range..

 

And since this is the TEXAS BS thread, I'll throw some BS in...

My TEXAS pups didn’t mind the snow so much when it was soft.
But after developing a frozen crust on it overnight they didn’t want to walk on it.
No walking means no TT and poop grass..
So I made them pathways to the grass.



They’re happy and it gave me something to do today.
Since I'm not working this week, no way I'm driving a semi in this, I had to get out of the house.
Wife working from home and I don't want to get on her nerves.

Also I was the only one on my street that shoveled his driveway.
Twice this week...
Stay warm.

 

yup... we ended up going without power for 80 hours. In an all electric house, we could not cook any food and we did not have any hot water. At one point, the pipes froze and we lost water (which also means the toilets could not flush). Fortunately, we filled a bathtub and 3 large plastic storage bins with water. We used that water to flush the toilets. The pipes were only frozen for about 24 hours and, fortunately, we don't have any broken pipes. I also have a bunch of Milwaukee tools which use the interchangeable rechargeable batteries. I used all those batteries to power the Milwaukee work light when the house got dark. Borrowing that generator from my neighbor was a lifesaver. It was only a 2000 watt generator, but that was enough to power a single space heater and to keep all our rechargeable devices up with power (including the Milwaukee batteries). I have a small DC rechargeable battery specifically designed for cpap machines, but that battery only lasts 10 hours. So there was one night that I could not sleep because I did not have power for my cpap (this was before I had the generator).

Going forward, we are going to be better prepared for this kind of event. We are going to buy a generator, a larger backup battery, a gas stove, and other essentials.

I was looking at this generator:
Westinghouse iGen4500 4,500/3,700-Watt Gas Powered Inverter Generator with LED Display, Electric/Remote Start and RV-Ready Outlet-iGen4500 - The Home Depot
It is 3700 watts so it can power 2 space heaters and recharge all of our batteries. It is an inverter generator so it produces clean power for charging electronics and powering sensitive devices. It is also quieter and more efficient than larger, open framed generators (at full load, it will run for 9 hours using 3.4 gallons of gas). We could also power small, kitchen devices with it such as a coffee maker or a toaster oven.

I am also looking at this battery backup:
Westinghouse iGen600s 600/1200-Watt Pure Sine Wave Lithium-Ion Portable Power Station with Power Inverter, LED Display and Flashlight-iGen600s - The Home Depot
It can power a cpap for about 40 hours. Plus, we could use it to charge our phones and run my modem so that we can have internet during an outage.

This whole event was a big lesson in survival. We came out of it unscathed and we are going to be more prepared for the next event.

 

Glad you guys are finding ways to survive. It should get back to normal for you soon.
With some luck, the Texas grid will get a hard look and prevent this from happening again.
@1lowlife , your dogs have gotten soft. Make them play fetch with some snow balls.

 

Everyone in Texas will now be driving the new F150 with 7KW on board generator.
A very cool feature IMO.

 

Thanks for posting those.
I guess that would be enough to power a couple space heaters, TV, computer, microwave, coffee maker (wife needs her coffee), and charge up phones.

I'll look into it..

 

Definitely cool, but there’s nothing to stop anyone from building a portable power station with inverter that plugs into the trailer harness, or connects directly to the battery. I’ve built them out of 20mm ammo cans, including a battery and connection for a solar panel. Can probably save a bundle over Ford’s generator option. Portability is nice to move it from vehicle to vehicle. DIY is a great option for those willing to learn safe DC wiring, including sizing wire gauge, fuses, etc.

 

hope everyone in this great state is warm and safe. i was without power for about 24 hours in the houston area and feel VERY LUCKY!

and since this is a Texas bs thread...

@MogwaiBoogie i believe you may b the guy i chat w/ at red lights, wave as we pass on hwy 90 heading east towards hwy 6 each morning?? think your rear plates even have the marine logo??

my T is cement.

either way, Thank You For Your Service, and a great looking rig you've got there!

 

Still without power. ☹️