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It's cold AF, this southerner doesn't do cold. At 50 degrees it's fucking cold for me. I can count in one hand how many times I've seen snow at my home my entire life.
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It's been over 48 hours without power, it's fucking cold inside my house. I have a generator but no electric heaters. I've never felt the need to have them. Stores are wiped cleaned so can't find one either.
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It's so fucking cold that multiple pipes have already burst flooding my first floor. I didn't flood during Harvey and the 52 inches of rain that came with it but this freeze flooded my home.
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To the northerners that say oh that's just light sweater weather. Our infrastructure isn't designed to handle this cold. Kinda like where you're from, the infrastructure might not be able to handle 100+ degree weather for over two months straight, or 15 inches of rain in a single weekend. Our infrastructure is built for that, not prolonged subfreezing temperatures.
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Fuck ERCOT
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I'm "essential" so still have to work and do my best to take care of the family from work.
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I love Texas
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Trump is the legitimate president.
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Why am I making this post? Green energy is cool and all but it will never replace fossil fuels. To anyone that says solar and wind power are the future, just look at this fucking mess.
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I'm not waiting for the government to save me. My dad came over to my house and helped me clean and fix the pipes. My neighbors are helping me out with water, I'm helping them by letting them charge their phones and flashlights. I fired up the grill and my neighbor brought over deer meat that was going to go bad.
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Don't turn off my fucking gas centrepoint. The fireplace is the only heat that I have.
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Stay warm pedes, some of you have it way worse than I do.
Sorry I'm rambling.
if you're buried in snow no food should be going bad
put a plastic bin almost sideways in the snow and cover it around the sides, make a giant ice ball and put it in there, put the lid on and cover it with snow or throw a tarp or something reflective over it to keep sun off
next time, I guess
good luck man
LOL I was going to say this.
"Everything is covered in snow. Food is going to thaw and spoil." Wait a minute . . .
We had a major ice storm here years ago and people kept saying how all their food was spoiling and I was like HOW it's 10 degrees outside wtf lol
We had no power for the central heat, so we ended up blocking off the back rooms and only heating the main room with a wood heater. The back rooms were hanging at around 30 degrees, so that became my fridge :P
Even here on the Oregon coast with 50 degree temps my off-generator garage freezer kept everything frozen when the power was out for four days after a storm last year. Unless the ambient temperature is above 70 degrees, a full freezer kept closed should keep food frozen for at least a couple of days.
Yeah I did that to my food, I'm sure the neighbor did the same, but he has pounds and pounds of deer meat and a hungry neighborhood. Rumors of power not being restored for up to a week and maybe longer. Weather should be warmer by the weekend.
Sharing the meat and utilizing grills is an excellent way to keep the community warm and strong.
This is how you become a local leader. When the shit goes down, the people will come to you - and follow.
It's with a huge mix of excitement and fear I read your post and others in similar situations.
Excitement for the possibility to test whether ones survival skills are enough or if they need to be improved one way or another.
Fear of realizing that one may have totally missed some critical detail/s and now the cold might do me in.
Hang in there, fren! Don't be afraid to write more about your experiences. 😎👍
Was born in Texas, Killeen. Unfortunately, even the great State has commie shitbags running things like the ERCOT. Every state has their Commies.
We, as a community of Patriots, need to start getting these POS out of office and getting red blooded Americans to run the show.
Gotta love the outside fridge.
18 degrees here in WV - using a wicker table as a refrigerator expansion right now!
Ooh there’s gonna be a bunch of happy raccoons tonight if you don’t use something besides a simple plastic bin. Use a cooler and put cinder blocks/rocks on top, please
Well they are kinda bored so shooting the raccoons for fun and possible food. Two birds one stone.
This.
We have lots of racoons, possums, polecats, coyotes and all manner of sneaky shits around.
Saw a coon just last night.
Plastic bin on its side is just going to open the buffet.
Also the snow is quite dry and not really enough to do a whole lot with but enough to make it a pain in the ass.
You’re a Texan, you will survive. That’s what we do!
Fuck yeah!
It's the global warming making everywhere get colder.
Dallas-area pede here. Stay strong, fren. We'll get through this!
DFW area fren too.
No blackout, no pipe burst, water still running, room at 70F.
We've been lucky here. Other than not driving unless it's emergency, everything else is just normal.
North Dallas fren checking in! We’ve had power for 5 hours straight now. We feel like we won the socialism lottery today!
AMEN!
heads need to roll for this!
I read that ERCOT higher ups don't even live in TX! These bastards are making decisions for Texans and don't even live here.
They don't. The Chair, Sally Talberg, lives in Michigan. A good chunk of the Board of Directors don't list where they live, but for many of them, none of their schooling is in Texas which leads me to believe they live elsewhere. There's a few who went to Sul Ross, etc ... but they're the minority.
One lives in Germany tho not sure if American or German. Just know they are a lot of green weenies.
Posted this in another thread:
Apparently Sally Talberg was elected as Chair for ERCOT on February 9th and has been acting as an Unaffiliated Director since January 1st. Her previous position was Chairman of the Michigan Public Service Commission. She served on the Commission since 2013.
"Prior to the MPSC, Talberg worked as a senior consultant at Public Sector Consultants, most notably co-leading the development of Michigan Saves, a nonprofit green bank that has financed over $200 million in energy efficiency projects. She also helped staff the state's wind zone board and offshore wind council."
http://www.ercot.com/news/releases/show/224860
https://mi-psc.force.com/sfc/servlet.shepherd/version/download/068t0000005JfDbAAK
I'm also seeing Keith Emery on the Board of Directors for ERCOT who is Vice President of Origination for Tenaska Power Services. I remember there was a huge battle when they wanted to build a plant outside my hometown around 10 years ago. The biggest argument was that to build the plant, it would destroy a bunch of ranch and farmland, and I think people were worried that the water would be contaminated. Tenaska pushed for years, but finally gave up and moved elsewhere.
Thank you again. Got someone to direct anger toward. I heard on radio she was appointed originally. Will find out uf governor had anything to do with it.
I have heard it said by more than one person here in Florida, "if it does not get up to 70F my day is ruined
Some of us moved to Florida because we had enough of nine month long winters, sub zero temps, and 4' deep snow. It's nice down here.
That said, I have relatives who have a cattle ranch in Kansas, and they're going through hell right now. They have hundreds of pregnant and birthing cows who need shelter, food and 30-50 gallons of water every day. The cattle pond is frozen 4' deep, and the rolling blackouts are making the water troughs by the shelters freeze solid. By the time they truck pails of water out to the cattle, the water in the pails has frozen. Tractors don't want to move when diesel turns to glue. When they get them running they break in 100 different ways. No way to get enough hay to the cows. Snow and ice all over. Come home nearly frostbitten to warm up and find out power has been out for an hour and can't even make a hot cup of coffee -- and they have to deal with all the issues any homeowner faces in extreme weather.
No one can truly be prepared when your backyard turns into the Antarctic. You just cope the best you can, and hope warm weather returns soon. Then make plans to move to Florida. ;)
Hard times create strong men.
I've moved around a bit in my almost 50 years. But the two States I've spent the vast majority of my life in are California and Texas (I live in the latter now). The thing with California weather is it's what I call "boringly perfect all the time". It is, it's boring. You can count on it being essentially sunny and in the 70's every single fucking day. The thing I like about living in Texas is that the weather adds a little bit of excitement - sometimes even danger - to your life. I like rain. I like thunderstorms. I like hot summer days at the pool with the family and friends. I like some change in weather. California weather is boring. Not to mention the liberalism sucks too.
OMG! Do you know what happens when "northerners" move to Florida to stay warm? Our Backyards turn into the Artic!
My daughter has been living in Okinawa for 2 years now and she has acclimated to the hot weather. Now she says she's cold when it gets below 75. I'm over here saying, um, yeah I'll take a 75 degree day! That's perfect weather.
God bless you Texan pede! Stay strong for your family! Sounds like you got it all worked out!
They should be supplementary to fossil, hydo, thermal, and nuclear options, and the amount of gain from each source should be actively adjusted depending on the local climate conditions.
Example:
If things were peachy as fuck right now, solar and wind and hydro would generate the majority of the energy but we keep the fossil fuel plants and nuke plants on minimum to save as much fuel as possible.
When a shit storm like this hits, we fall back on the huge pile of reserves we saved during good times to get us through the bad.
Unfortunately, this sort of hands on, practical management evades dullards like government bureaucrats like bumper crops evade Soviet era annual farm yields.
On a sunny and/or windy day, the energy you get from solar panels and turbines is gravy. But you can't rely on it.
How many of the panels and turbines are broken now and have to be replaced? Why waste the money replacing any of those at this point?
I don't think I said that. But yeah, sure.
No, I’m just criticizing green energy for being a waste of everything.
Nuclear should replace all the fossil fuels, and wind solar to supplement.
here here, nuke plants are the way.
The more alternatives, the less you get of conventional capacity, PERIOD.
So you have a variable supply trying to meet variable demand. When all that capacity is conventional you can adjust. When only 80% is variable and the peak happens when the 20% is offline, you have a problem. There is no way to make up that deficit. This is the problem with having a large percentage of the grid as alternative without a way to store excess power.
No one is investing in a power plant that will only operate that one random winter day out of the year.
The power plant that operates one random day are diesel generators, and everyone invests in those
Why does wind get the winter off and fossil fuels have to go to school year round?
If we were serious about wind energy, we'd use this design from Japan (testing done in the Phillipines).
https://challenergy.ph/our-product/
We still need fossil fuel and nuclear back ups in cold weather, because our electricity storage tech doesn't let current flow in subzero temperature.
They have jet engine powered generators for peak demand handling.
"Green" energy is supplemental - it's not enough to rely on during epic storms... just too many variables to make it dependable on a large scale.
You can't just build generation facilities for back up power in the ERCOT market. The wholesale power cost structure will not support even the fixed costs. There was a time in Texas when G&T's built peaking plants for back up power to support extreme whether conditions such as what we are going through right now and also during extreme heat waves that cause the real time settlement prices to spike. The highly subsidized solar and wind projects are keeping peaking plants from ever being built. When subsidized wind farms can sell their power on the ERCOT for -$1 at a profit, how can a a fossil fuel peaking plant compete? They can't, and that's why Texas will experience more load shedding events like this in the future.
Perhaps the problem was stated before ERCOT came into being.
No one said correcting a mistake would be easy.
9. Green energy is not cool. It is extremely gay.
I think green energy is great when applied at the appropriate times. Solar panels are great for sunny summers. But green energy should not be the only choice. Good ol fashion hydrocarbons are the backbone and should always be ready for when the green energy just can't do the job.
This is a very ignorant and naive opinion. Renewable energy costs more money and hurts the poorest among us. The pretense being used for tax payers to pay for it is a scam. You just not pay much tax.
Thats great you and neighbors are helping each other out. Keep us updated how youre doing when you have time.
Hello, fellow H-town pede! Only 11% of Harris County is without power, according to PowerOutage.us. Don’t freeze, fren! There are hotels, grocery stores, and the like open and with power. I am on the south side, with power but no water. I would love to help you too, if I can! Let me know!
‘Bans born, Texas raised 🤙🏽
42% of Center point customers have power according to Center point as of 12:30pm.
https://poweroutage.us/area/county/1394
The site is updated every 10 minutes and is currently reporting that only 17% of the county now is suffering from an outage. It’s not bad compared to Brazoria and Galveston on Monday that was reporting 91%+ outages.
All us Texans are with you.
Northerners don’t understand that our homes are built to keep cool in the 90 straight days of over 100 degree weather. We don’t winterize our sprinklers and we live in homes that have north facing bathrooms with plumbing in that wall.
It’s very hilly in the Texas Hill Country. We don’t have snow plows or ice spreaders. Propane trucks can’t get here to refill the tanks. Pool plumbing is exploding. Add in the rolling (not really rolling) blackouts and people have been without electricity, heat, and water for over 72 hours in sub freezing temps. It’s quite dire. 😞
Thanks fellow Texan.
The schadenfreude at Texas expense is wearing a little thin.
The bulk of us will be fine, fix shit and carry on.
I feel bad for those stuck with fucktard liberal mayors and whatnot that are getting fucked with no power AND no water.
People are pissed, even in liberal cities. They don’t have power. Hopefully, this makes them realize their vote counts.
Northeastern pede here.
Really wish there was a way I could extend my home to folks in need of a warm home, food, bed, and plenty to drink.
Stay safe fren.
Houston area pede here. Finally got power back but a pipe burst and flooded my entire house. It's finally all cleaned up and we're living toasty now minus the rolling blackouts and water. Stay strong fren!
Same here with the burst pipe.
Plumbers, dry wall and electricians are going to be very busy next few months. Mold and water damage techs too.
Make sure you are giving the generator a break every now and then. Also, stay up on the oil changes. Stay strong, we are about to see "green energy" get a very big backlash.
Idk. I was certain that China was going to get a backlash after the bioattack and coup...
I second the fuck ERCOT point. I never knew before now that some committee of people most of whom aren't even Texan plan our fucking energy grid. This is a great example of creeping beauracracy and how every part of our lives is somehow touched and infected by the power of the state and I hope people wake up to it as we all have. I know a lot of angry people, maybe enough to fuel some actual signatures and calls to state reps to push for our government to stand up to leviathan and start working for the people of Texas. First we need to make sure that our reps know we demand energy independence, born and raised here and the lack of preparation by our powers that be is shocking and has me so angry I need to take action. I hope we can research ERCOT, and all the failures here, and get rid of this stain on our proud states history
News to me as well. I would never have thought otherwise.
I look at this as a test and we will fix what is broken and move on.
Stay strong, fren. Praying for ya.
When I pray for y’all, #10 is the focus of my prayers— that y’all have hearts for fellowship & charity with one another. You couldn’t get me to trust the govt for anything, but I’d bet my life on Texas hospitality. I’m so sorry for what y’all are going through right now. I pray y’all encourage & support one another right through it.
Thanks fren. Most of us will be alright.
We are trying to get help to friends, family and neighbors who need it.
I made a mistake too. I have a buddy I grew up playing Xbox with that's moving out of texas for some health reasons so I decided to take a trip in my car about 800 miles to hang out with him because once he moves he's going to be way farther away. Was going to buy some nice steaks, have a good time.
Well, turns out I left right when the storm was coming. It was an absolute disaster just getting here. Texas is great and all not including all the mask nazis in the big cities, but let me tell you, they can't drive in bad weather for shit 😂. It's so bad. Anyway, I finally got to his place and the power is was off. I didn't realize what was happening yet. So we don't have electricity, it's cold, and we spent 4 hours driving around yesterday just looking for something to eat. Had to hit up gas stations that were open. Packed nonetheless. Just to buy some chips and peanuts to eat.
I went from daydreaming about prime ribeyes after an 800 mile trip, to freezing and cooking white castles by candle flame I shit you not. The power turned on for a few hours yesterday before it turned off again lmao. Also, apparently tomorrow the weather might get bad again, which means I'm stuck in Texas until probably Saturday or longer when I was supposed to get here on Monday and stay for only two days. As dangerous as it was to get here, I probably shouldn't leave until the weather clears up and the roads get clear after the bad weather comes back in.
Quite a disaster let me tell you. What dissapointed me most is that if trump was president he would have been informing us about him keeping an eye on us. Just like he did every time a natural disaster happened when he was president. What do we get from biden? Literally nothing. Crickets. It's like he literally doesn't even care about us at all enough to even talk to his people to make sure shits being handled like it should. Like trump did every time there was a tornado or flood.
Me and my bud are fine though. We have a few days worth of junk food. Hopefully this is over soon so I can go to McDonald's or somewhere, anywhere tbh, without having to wait in line for 45 minutes just to get a cheeseburger.
Omg right when I finished that last part the power came back on 😭😭😭
We drive just fine in t-storms and hurricane weather. When its black ice people usually try to avoid it. Its not worth the car wreck for the few days of freezing weather in South Texas (north Texas is different).
Most people here have never seen this much snow in parts of Texas in their entire LIVES. Let that sink in.
Maybe chill with the "hurr durr" can't drive bullshit.
Thats the cut of beef you are driving to Texas for? wow. Are you a Yankee?
That's amazing, hope you get your thick steak soon!
Green energy should only be used as a complimentary energy source. The only way wind and solar would be sufficient, is if we got rid of about 60% of the population.
Virtual signalling liberal neighbors and relatives here in gulf coast love to agree that a portion of their power can come from renewable. I try to tell them it actualy costs more due to subsidies.
I never check that box bc I know it's a scam.
Yeah those people i hate. Probably have some FAGGOTy bumper sticker as well.
That's what the vaccine is for.
It's true. Sucks that they have forced people to be vaccinated, but the ones who willingly take it are liberals.
That could be an advantage. 😁
Baseline and Peaking - CANNOT DO baseline with wind or solar, solar only good for peaking power for AC in the summer. Wind is NEVER reliable.
Plug your stove into your generator. If you have a gas stove, plug your dryer into it, disconnect the hose and run it.
If the amperage of the generator isn't enough, even running hairdriers and a toaster/toaster oven in bathroom with the door closed is better than nothing.
Hang in there, Pede. We're praying for you.
be aware that hairdryers and toasters are not designed for prolonged use
yes please don't do this.
Yup. However, toasters and hair dryers are low cost appliances that can be ditched. Any heating element can be used. All you're trying to do is produce waste heat. Literally any electrical item does that easily.
run pc with load
Gaming to save grandma.
gaming4babushka
Max ASIC crypto mine
Awfully suspicious considering Great Reset, increasing interest and talk of Texit, Biden less than a month in office....
One of the big changes in modern home design that will eventually pay off is pex plumbing doesn't burst as easily due to freezing. It just swells into a football and releases when it thaws.
Maybe okay for water, awful for natural gas. Builders nailed through a pax gas line over friends daughter's room. Took a year to figure out she wasn't dying of mystery illness, she was being poisoned with carbon monoxide every night.
jesus murphy... that's awful.
if you have a gas kitchen range you can light the burners with a match or lighter, put cast iron frying pans on them, the heat won't hurt them, if no cast iron fill pots with water and let them boil it well generate heat and spread through your home, there isn't enough carbine in your gas to cause a problem, this is from a master plumber and heating contractor, each burner well generate about 6-10 thousand btu so if your running 4 of them you well get between 24-40 thousand btu and most furnaces generate 65-100 thousand btu so you'll be close but good
Survive this and once the snow is gone fight like a honey badger, demanding nuclear energy and the goddamn removal of every wind and solar energy green deal garbage from your state.
Those windmills in South and West Texas really are a fucking eyesore. Just wasted land really.
Having a heat in your home reeks of white privilege, especially if maybe there’s a person of color somewhere in Texas who is experiencing coldness. Or something.
I feel your pain, Brother!
I never lost power, but I've got a broken pipe and had to shut off the water on Tuesday. No telling if any underground pipes may have busted, as it froze again last night.
Renewables are cool for us 99% of the time, but we can't depend on them in these conditions AT ALL. This extreme weather just can't handle not having the extra boost. We need plants outside the big cities to add reactors. We may want to think about an interchange with the other grids to sell off surplus power when we don't need it and possibly get some when we do.
My uncle's generator caught fire last night and he has 2nd and 3rd degree burns from trying to put it out. 4 hours in the ER and he will likely need some skin grafts. All things considered, he's pretty lucky, as it definitely could've been worse.
Good luck and fight like hell to make sure they don’t make you join the National grid.
Grilling with your neighbors is great. When we had a hurricane knock our electric out for 8 days back in the 90s we got together with neighbors and friends who all had meat that would spoil, grilled it all up and shared evening meals together. We had a generator that could power our fridge and one fan, so we were able to keep our food chilled enough after it was cooked that it wouldn't spoil.
These are the times when people like us, conservatives, we pull ourselves up and find solutions to the problems at hand.
Good luck to you. I hope you're not without electricity for too long and know that you will be ok in the end.
Going soft on me Texan? lol. You got this, brother. Fight and fight hard.
Thank you for your report from Texas
The better chances are the power outage is the democrats / chinese showing they've got power over Texas from it seceding
what type of furnace? GAS? you can wire a gas furnace to the generator with an extension cord. I have done this with my forced air gas furnace, you need electricity to just to start up the blower. I am in PA and everything my be different in TX. hang in there .
Praying for you - only lost power for 28 hours here, finally back up but another storm system is rolling in (hoping for just snow)...
Wish there were more I could do from up here in WV, but it's all I got.
PrayersforTexas
I joined a prepper group many years ago. I learned a lot on how to prepare for moments like the good folks in Texas are experiencig. It is not all about the end of the world.
Been in Texas for three days and someone told me about ERCOT. I said that’s the problem right there: any “commission” anywhere is just there to grift off the government and fuck over citizens.
It’s about damn time to pay the members a visit, but it’s too bad half the board doesn’t even live in the area their decisions affect.
Im with you on the cold weather fren. In Louisiana and cold AF here to. Not used to cold like this. We’ve been blessed we haven’t had any problems. You guys have been in my prayers. Wish I could send you some heat 🔥.
Thanks Louisiana frens. Hope you stay safe and warm.
This is the future. The same as the past.
https://patriots.win/p/12hRV1WHIX/help-for-texas/
I just posted some freezing your ass off 101 tips for people that don't deal with this on a yearly basis.
Share around your neighborhood. God bless.
I do have to say, you must be prepared for all events, we had a heat wave today, this morning -2 degrees now blazing 15 degrees, try loosing power for 4 days in this temperature I have, and you probably never heard of it it effected 100,000 people on and off for a week, started with a heat wave thunder showers and the temp. dropped off while raining in January, took almost every line out, cause trees were heavy and aiding in taking out the lines went on for a week, so since I am rural I was last to be served
I saw somewhere that if you take a pan, light a candle on top of it then put a pot over the candle it makes for a decent space heater
Must be terracotta clay pots.
Never tried deer meat before... how is it?
If cooked correctly, in my opinion it's better than beef. You just have to remember there's no fat in the muscle, don't over cook. I've had more than 10 people tell me venison I cooked was the best meat they've ever had.
100% prefer venison burger from deer I’ve shot to anything else I’ve ever had.
Easy to make chilli with it too.
wrap it in bacon. :)
Second only to a nice ribeye steak
Natural.
Me at -20 degrees 😐.
I don't get the pipes bursting thing still. Doesn't make sense that your pipes would be any different
Praying!
Stay un-frosty.
they just need to invent a green energy generator using the cold! duh, drumphtard!
in fact, i'll invent it right now... we can use the cold weather to naturally cool a bunch of ASIC bitcoin miners that generates both home heating and money for electricity! problem solved in a green and technologically advanced solution. i should be president... or energy czar... or bill gates...
Exactly, I've made this point to multiple friends and family over the last few days. I live in a "cold" state, but I spent some time in OK in my youth. I remember what a half inch of snow can do to a state that isn't prepared for it, and can't justify the cost of being prepared for it since it so rarely happens.