A quick note, since we don’t know how long the power will last. The power comes on randomly, lasts for between 3-4 hours, and then goes off for about 4-6 hours. There doesn’t seem to be a schedule. They’ve repeatedly attempted to turn it on during last night, but something must’ve gone wrong because it kept turning off after a second or two.
Update: the power is now being turned off after about 45 minutes. This is my third stab at trying to finish this post.
The lows at night have been hovering around 9-12 degrees. About 6 inches of snow fell, and most of it is still here, covered with an icy crust. The city 25 minutes north of us lost their water supply because the power to their pumps failed. People in our city are burning their furniture to keep warm. Several Texans died. We don’t know when this will end.
This is outrageous. It’s five inches of snow and yes, the temperature is low, but it’s not like this is a massive freeze. The failure of Texas Power Reliability Council is catastrophic. Some people have been without power for 40 hours now. When they tried to do rolling blackouts, half of the fuses blew when the power was turned on. Yesterday I was outside with the dogs, and I heard artillery fire. Gordon used to be stationed at Ft. Sill, where field artillery is based, and that’s what it sounded like, except it wasn’t the artillery fire, it was likely transponders exploding.
Kid 2 so far hasn’t lost power, probably because she is near a children’s’ hospital. She spent the last three days in intense fear of the power going off, because she owns two lizards. Kid 1 is stuck in Florida. She had gone there with her boyfriend to see his family and can’t come back, because the airports are shut down.
Please don’t worry. We are okay. We’ve gone through blizzards in NC and winter storms in OK. We have a fireplace and Gordon, being a prudent man, advocated for the purchase of an extra cord of wood, which we planned to age over the summer. We are now using it to heat the house. The temperature at night drops to low fifties without power, so it is definitely bearable. Our stove is gas. Our neighbors are okay so far. We fed the feral cat who refuses to come inside and she is fine. We also fed the birds and the wildlife.
Sookie tried to commit suicide. The pool had frozen solid and while we were unloading the wood from the wheelbarrow, the idiot bulldog, who has never encountered a frozen over body of water, snuck out onto the ice. She weighs 80 lbs. She got about four feet in and went under. All of our dogs are trained to swim to the stairs, but the shock of the cold water must’ve been awful, because she panicked. I thought for sure we would have to jump in, but she responded to the voices and swam for the stairs, and as soon as I could reach her, I hauled her out. She was in the pool for about 8 seconds. She is fine now.
Texans come together in an emergency. Kid 2 had to leave the house because her boyfriend’s best friend’s cat was alone in his apartment for three days without food and with limited water. He called them in a panic, because he was in another city and couldn’t make it back since the roads were unpassable. So they decided to drive 3 miles to his apartment, so they could break in through the window to save the hell cat, who usually attacks them on sight when they visit. They got stuck right out of the driveway, and neighbors came out to push them out. They got stuck again at the apartment, having given the violent cat food and water without being too badly injured. A nice Hispanic lady with two small children who didn’t seem to speak any English tried to help, but the car was truly stuck despite the 4 wheel drive. Then a black lesbian couple emerged from the apartment, and they were like “Get in, we’ve got this.” And they pushed them right out.
Thank you, ladies. I don’t know the three of you but if we ever meet, dinner and drinks are on me.
I don’t know when we will be back online. Right now Gordon is trying to use the brief moment of power being on to run payroll and pay the bills. The worst thing is, we have written nothing. The power simply doesn’t stay long enough.
I am sorry you and your fellow Texans are going through this. I have to say when you wrote about the power, it almost sounded like how Tech and Magic would come and go in the KD world!
Glad you are all OK and weathering this storm!
Glad the pup made it out of the pool! We have had day time temps in the negatives this week. Windchill has been that way off and on for two weeks. Rolling blackouts because power company can’t handle it. And they say they may run out of fuel? Fortunately have a wood stove.
Hang in there!! My cousin on the other side of the state (El Paso) is at her kid’s house. Her house is out in the country and the pump is frozen, pipes burst and she’s also getting random power cycles with no backup heat source.
I live in Michigan’s Keweenaw Peninsula. We’ve had very cold temps (high of 0F) and about 6 feet of snow in the last 10 days. At this moment I’m sitting in my office, the snow is falling off the roof but the sun is shining and it’s a balmy 19 degrees out but power, water, heat are on. Last week Lake Superior was 6% frozen over, today it’s 37% frozen over. We get a lot of snow when the lake is open, but it doesn’t usually get very cold. Also, we seldom get power outages in the winter. Maybe we need to send some of our “guys” to Texas. With climate change, these things are going to be happening a lot more.
Good luck!! Stay warm! Be careful out there, slippery is worse when you live with people who have no idea how to drive in it.
Former Lake Linden/Trap Rock River valley resident here! I miss the snowplows the size of combines . . .
My dad and cousin went to college up there! They have great stories of making dorm room freezers by hollowing out ice caves outside their windows!
I’m east of Plano and a science teacher. I am currently hosting 5 extra enclosures of geckos, 3 from another science teacher and 3 from my daughter. I’m a gecko hotel!
So sorry! At least you are warmer than some of my friends since you have a fireplace and gas stove!
Praying for the warming trend to hurry it the h… up!
Stay safe and warm. Sending prayers your way
I”m glad you have the knowledge and ability to survive it, and the extra wood. I have friends in Houston and Austin and they are going through the same, some with better luck than others. We had an outdoor feral cat for 10 years. She would come in on the coldest nights and get angry when we shut the door! She’d hide under the couch. When she wanted out again, cold or not, she’d drag the curtains down off the door. There were many times she’d just stay outside. They are amazing survivors. We thought it might get that cold here in NM, but we escaped lucky. The coldest was about 16 degrees here. We have a small generator that will power a pellet stove or our gas furnace. Hang in there. We’re rooting for you and the millions of others who had to make it through the cold without power and some without water.
Sorry your power is having so many issues.
I keep on learning good homeowner considerations from you.
I’m in California and we’ve had our share of power issues due to wildfire. The air also becomes unbreathable. Time to start planning for this season’s issues.
I’m so glad you have alternative heat and a gas stove. Glad your kids are safe. Hoping all of the people affected by the storms are able to stay safe and get through it with their family and neighbors.
Wow, you guys. So glad to hear you’re okay. We’re praying for you! Glad you’re safe and your family also. I hope they get the power back on very soon. It’s unbelievable this is happening right now.
We’ve had the opposite issue out here in SLC. It’s the warmest, driest winter in living memory–so much so that if we get any snow at all, it’s brown. The wind picks up dust and salt from the Salt Flats and blows it everywhere, then it mixes with the tiny, tiny amount of snow we’ve received so far and voila! The dirt/salt residue it leaves behind sticks to EVERYTHING (cars, windows, solar panels, RVs, buildings, kids’ playsets) and it’s very hard to get off. Car washes here are making a mint right now because no one can see out their windshields, but summer is going to suck if it stays this dry. Cue the fires! Today was the first legit snowfall we’ve had all winter, and we’re all on our knees thanking God and praying for more. We need it desperately.
Grateful to hear you all are okay. We’re going through similar things here in Dallas. Our neighbors have all pulled together to make this easier than it might be otherwise. Thank goodness for that. Hope they get the power figured out sometime soon. For the time being, I’m just glad when we get some electricity – a window of opportunity to recharge devices and heat up the house a little. I worry more about frozen pipes (well, and frozen us too) right now.
Take good care.
Ice storms suck. I’ve been through a few and the only thing good about them is you can put your perishables in the cold air. Also brings people together but for the most part you look at the calendar and swear at the stupid groundhog for seeing it’s shadow and count the days to better weather. Hang in there.
Good luck to all of you and stay safe. Take care 🙂
Glad that you and the kids are safe, and that Gordon has a long eye for survival prep. May this be resolved soon.
I’m north of you in Kansas and can commiserate. Although it’s colder here, we are just having rolling blackouts.
Take care of yourselves and stay warm as you can.
Generator that runs on propane or natural gas, for the home, Cuddl Duds, least expensive from Walmart, but they have a more extensive web site for more choices, for people to wear(maybe child’s sizes for the dogs?). I know this information is too late for this time, but you never know when this could happen again. Hope you have water bottled, as heard that some under this storm are being asked to limit running water for more than short times. Here in frosted Colorado, we get this occurrence every few years.
Just some advice to keep your water pipes from freezing: run a trickle of water from both the hot and cold faucets in the area furthest away from the water heater. If you have multiple bathrooms, check the water faucets. You may need to open them too. Make sure the cabinets are open.
If the pipes are frozen, use a hair dryer or non flame heater to warm them back up. Make sure the faucets are open.
If you have outdoor spigots put a cover over it before the cold sets in.
Glad everyone is staying safe and warm. Now if only the electricity would come back on.
The power company in your area is making the news everywhere because they are so incompetent. Columbus, OH news reported on how they just can’t get things working at all, and really, that’s a general problem as well as theirs. When our power goes out, I immediately go through the whole house, turn off anything I can turn off to wait for the power to come back on, because the surges when power is pulled suddenly through dead equipment are what kill those transponders. Everything I truly care about is plugged into plugs with their own breakers so maybe my stuff won’t fry in the surge when power comes back, but with so many people leaving things turned on and the power company trying to send power, there are bound to be a lot of things left on to pull power when it comes back, and that’s a major issue for the entire grid. Our house is 100% electric, no gas at all, and I need things working when we have power. I’m too cheap to replace stuff killed in surges. Been there, done that, done with that.
At least you can cook, and you got Sookie dried and safe. Count your blessings.
You can’t write, but you can think about what to write, and I’m sure you’re doing that. Just take care of yourselves and when you can get back to it, you’ll have time for writing because you’ll be OK. Deadlines loom, but dead computers can’t work. Just knowing you’re doing as well as you are means a lot to us. Thank you.
Hey
That is weird about Columbus since my family did not report any outages. The power company there is usually very good about maintaining the grids and working to get it restored especially if there is bad weather. It does pay to live in the state capital.
OK, that was unclear. I’m sorry. When I typed it, it sounded right to me. Mea culpa and all that.
The news in Columbus reported that the power company in Texas was incompetent and that the problem was the power company in Texas’s as well as a general problem for the people in Texas. Columbus did not, as far as I know, have any outages.
I suspect that we are within about 30 miles of you. Our water froze at the meter, so we’ve been carrying water from a generous neighbor whose pipes didn’t freeze. No fireplace (unfortunately), but our rolling blackouts have been more like 15 mins on/20 mins off, which has been enough to keep our house at a reasonable temp if we don’t open the doors. Very thankful for our gas range and for my stock of ugly candles I didn’t throw away! We’ve been learning a new board game (Carcassonne) by candlelight; discovered how much we were missing when the power came on and we realized several tiles had been illegally played because we couldn’t see them well enough. I’m very thankful for my (teen and young adult) kids’ good attitudes, and that my oldest on campus in Houston got electricity back before she ran out of ready-to-eat food!
Wow! I’m so sorry to hear of the power outages there. I hope you guys continue to stay warm and safe! Don’t worry about the writing we all understand, it’s more important to take care of you and yours at this time! Hoping it will get better soon!!
Suggestion for those dealing with icy surfaces – asphalt roof shingles. They have a nice rough non skid surface, can be butted up against the front wheels if the car is stuck on ice, and are cheap if you find a building supply store with a broken bundle.
Good idea! I used cat litter and it worked too.
Yeah, it’s fugly up here in Austin. I’m hosting 2 climate refugee from West Austin, who haven’t had power since Sunday evening/Monday morning. Grateful to have the space.
So glad for your update, I’m glad you’re hanging in there and immense kudos for Gordon’s forethought!
Here in NJ we bought a whole house generator after Hurricane Sandy came through because just thinking about going through those kind of conditions (no power, heat, internet) again gives me anxiety flashbacks!
Stay warm!
I know this comment is likely coming too late, but have you considered investing in a generator? Like one that runs on diesel, so that regardless of the reason, you can have some back up power?
We’re up in Georgetown and finally have steady power but now the boil water issue so yeah. Infrastructure is just not prepared for worst case scenario. They were prepared for “everything is going great” scenario. Sigh. I’m glad the dog is okay ours would have done the same. Bless his heart. I hope y’all can stay warm. Next Tuesday is supposed to be 73 so we just have to hang on!!
Thoughts are definitely with everyone stranded because of the unusual weather. I live north of the border and I was *so cold* when our house’s heater broke back in October (when temperatures were definitely above freezing) so I can imagine, and I imagine it sucks, especially with power loss compounded on top of that. Hope the lizzes will be ok, and everyone else too of course!
I use to live where the power was dodgie during the winter and had lizards. I have used hand warmers taped to the top of a small cardboard box, for Lizards and baby chicks. Sometimes you got to get inventive !
I’m glad you are okay at home.
I’m glad someone is there to make you tea.
Texas and the south are freezing to death and having rolling power cuts, (or no power at all) as we out west have explosive fires that burn down entire towns, 100+ degree days that last for weeks and rolling power cuts that last for days…I think we may have a serious problem. Perhaps we need to invest in updating and expanding our power and infrastructure systems, and fast! Because those once in a century storms and weather conditions are now rolling in every 5/10 years. Stay safe and stay warm! 🙂
So happy your pup is ok!
We’ve been without power for 60 hours. Water has been intermittent. Electric stove. The power just can’t back on abt 10 minutes ago. Waiting to see if it stays on or not before I get too excited. Too many have it comeback on only to have it shut off 15 mins later.
So sorry to hear! Fingers crossed it’s here to stay.
This situation is terrible. I’m glad to hear you and your family are alright, I hope the situation gets resolved soon. Best of luck to everyone suffering in Texas right now.
We had the opposite problem in Northern California- rolling blackouts due to the excessive heat waves in the summer. Houses made of toothpicks with no insulation and definitely no air conditioning, and you’ve suddenly got people buying ice bags by the dozen to keep their refrigerator and medications in proper temperatures. Lots of older folks who were dependent on medical machinery at home, several of them died. Wildfires everywhere, hundreds of thousands evacuating. The outrage was definitely felt as well with our Pacific Gas & Electric company. It’s not as if they didn’t see this coming!
Love all these posts. We all need to be prepared for disasters, whether related to weather or otherwise. I visited Galveston not long after a hurricane (can’t even remember which one, but it was in the 1980’s) and it was devastating.
We live in the Pacific Northwest, near Portland Oregon, which is wonderful. But we are cold, covered in ice, etc. Power outages, internet loss, etc. We personally are prepared, but we have been helping neighbors. And oh my goodness! What a panic to be without internet! I ask myself, how did dependency to that level happen? I am a college professor, so not having internet during Covid is catastrophic. I’m trying to keep things in perspective. My students are patient, but still panicking. The calendar doesn’t stop, even though I’ve extended deadlines.
Anyway, love these posts. Gorden, Ilona, if you ever come this direction after Covid, we would be happy to host you. I’m sure you have thousands of offers, but still. LOVED your Zoom sessions. Totally awesome, keep them coming. You are both so… real. Thank you.
My husband retired from the main company that invented & makes transformers for the power companies. Some power companies have been buying cheap Chinese knockoffs instead so expect more of these artillerylike explosions as they fail.
Losing & getting power back can depend on how far “downstream” you are on the power grid and how well the company has maintained the lines, trimmed trees back, etc.
Many power companies and big new buildings downtown buy quality goods and newer sophisticated equipment for better reliability. Older lines, no money spent on maintenance, and offbrand cheaper equipment means you get the shocking sight of a lighted island in a sea of no power. Or, a dot of no power in a sea of light. Everyone in the US takes power for granted. Ain’t so in the rest of the world.
Oh, and totally relate to “hell cat” post, LOL! I would cat sit for our neighbors, who have since moved, one of whose cats was… totally bipolar. It took about 3 years for her to accept me. I was the only one besides the two owners she would approach. And even the owners she shredded. “mom” rescued her after she was returned to the rescue for the third time by a woman bleeding from her arm and afraid for her children. She was going to be put down. My neighbor, being a total softy, took her instead. Much blood, many scars, but they are doing relatively well. Oh well. Okay, enough from me.
Bwah ha ha ha. I was only vet tech “Felix” hadn’t bitten so when I left vet after 9 years to go back to school for my PhD, they gave me Felix. He survived to the age of 18 years. He bit at least 10 maintenance guys, ex husband, multiple boy friends, survived apartment building burning down…..
after Felix died I was gifted by my family with male aggressive German Shepherd. Only males he didn’t bite were Dad, BIL and firefighter neighbor who delivered hay. Female vet tech could paint his nails with out a muzzle but let one of males walk by table where he was patiently waiting on female tech to finish … chomp. ????
How awful it all sounds and as for the Texas Power Reliability Council – I’d campaign for the removal of the word ‘Reliability’ at the very least! Glad to hear the pets and the family are all OK. Keep safe, keep warm.
We Texans stand together. We are in Waco. No power. Cooking hot food in fireplace and just keeping warm. Rereading Hidden Legacy to pass the time. Love yall. Br safe
I am so sorry that you all are having to go through this. It is wonderful, though, when folks to come together in a crisis situation and help each other. We so need that always, but right now, even more so.
Love that your daughter put herself out to take care of the hell cat. It shows what she’s made of. Bless her heart. Glad that Sookie made it out of the pool without you having to jump in after her and that she seems to have suffered no ill effects from her ordeal. Poor baby. Take good care. Stay safe.
Kid 2’s awesome. Be safe. We love you all.
I am never so grateful to the my utility cooperative and to my water district. We have been experiencing rolling blackouts since Monday. Unlike Dallas and Fort Worth, we have had 40 to 50 minutes of power with 30 minutes of no power. Today we have had power for over an hour at a time. We have water. At least I can plan warm meals around our power times. The temps are slowly rising outside.
My oldest son lives in the city north of our authors. They are boiling their water and storing it. My daughter from Houston finally got her power on last night and it has stayed on. No water leaks for her so far.
I am just so glad you are ok. You are in our prayers, plus everyone in Texas!
+1
Oh wow. I remember days like that growing up. We were at a high elevation in the Sierra Nevadas of California near Yosemite National Park. Wishing you all the best! And a shout out to everyone supporting one another.
The power was off for 18 hours approx. Finally got power at 3:30am this morning. So far it’s stayed on. All the phone/tablet etc. things are charged, the dishwasher (that was full before this mess) has run, my kids got a load of laundry done to give grandkid 1 some warm pajamas, and the house is warm! Fingers crossed. And next week will be in the 70’s! ???? That’s Texas for you.
Thankfully, everyone in your family has warm, wool Bombas socks to wear!
????
Well, after 13 years of loadshedding, you get used to it. Hopefully you guys don’t walk the same road but if you do, here are some pro tips straight out of South Africa.
You can get a 4k ups that will give your 1k watt pc about 4 hours. Just make sure it’s a wall outlett and not a kettle cord.
If you do get a generator, go for at least 5.5kVa with AVR near to pure sine-wave. This will be good enough to run a couple of comforts and a small boiler, but not the AC.
It’s also a good idea to switch off your main switch after the power goes out, because your appliances haven’t been adapted to possible surges on the grid when it goes back online. The last thing you need is a damned broken fridge on top of everything else.
And also solar:
https://youtu.be/jSa1tvrrFZg
Good luck to you guys.
PS: doomsday preplers FTW
Have been watching some of this on the bbc. I’m sure that, however eagerly we are waiting for your next book, we all know that some things are more important/essential. Good luck and best wishes Hopefully the weather will break soon
I’m in the Dallas / Fort Worth area it’s just so, so horrible y’all.
I’m fortunate, we have power (I think we’re on a protected circuit because of proximity to medical services). And even if it goes, we have a wood burning fireplace, and plenty of wood. But it’s so cold, yesterday morning was -2F/-19C. We won’t start to thaw until briefly Friday where we might fr a few hours ‘just’ squeak over freezing.
I have a friend who has icicles forming inside his apartment. And so many more friends without power, or losing water, or who have frozen pipes but no means to try to thaw them, and are probably going to have busted pipes soon due to the lack of power.
So many are without power, and now without water. Because either power failed at the water pumps and none is in the line, water is frozen in the line, water mains have busted due to the pipes being frozen, or some have water but are on boil notices but don’t have power to boil the water. During this crisis the price hiked from Atmos energy for electricity: from 32.00 to 9000.00 (that’s a 28,025% increase) passed on to customers while folks literally are freezing to death. 🙁
The rage factor here in Texas is high whether you have power or not, we’re all upset by this absolutely unacceptable FUBAR situation. And as miserable as it is, I live in a city of about 40,000 folks. We have a community facebook page, and the act of love, support, care and crowdsourcing on there is the best of us. People with 4WD are picking up health are workers and driving them for their shifts in the hospitals. Louisiana may have a cajun navy, but Texans have our own posse of average day citizens just trying to make things a little easier. We even have someone who is knitting scarves and gifting them to people at the warming shelters in the broader area.
Someone yesterday bought dozens of hot fresh pizza from one of the few places open for pick up, and then went to areas where the power was out to give food. Local businesses with generators, realizing that while we have official warming shelters, are not always easy for folks to get to with the roads, are opening mini warming shelters all over. For folks to get something hot to drink, warm up, and charge their phones. People are donating spare wood to their neighbors, sharing other supplies, crowdsourcing where you can find certain items based on recent first hand knowledge. Finding food for pets (stores have been closed for days now). Absolutely strangers are inviting other strangers into their homes, or are taking in pets for boarding (especially some who will die if it goes under 60 degrees). The warming shelters will take people, but no pets. And all this in the setting of a pandemic.
As Mr. Rogers relayed, look for the helpers.
Stay warm and stay safe!
I agree. As one of the ones with no power, I can relate. One thing I shake my head over are the looks I get from people when I wear my winter gear. I dress like a weeble. Living in areas up north with these issues made me paranoid over time.
I have contingency plans on top of contingency plans. ???? I just bought a Yeti cooler for the next possible power outage.
I’m so sorry you have to go through this KC. Rest assured, several states away, I’m sending up prayers for power and water restoration. Keep bundled up! I hope you have good friends and neighbors for support also!
I personally use a generator for that purpose. A small one will handle your lights and computers. I wouldn’t recommend much else. I larger one will handle more, but, they take up more room and cost considerably more if you want to handle a whole house.
Some electrical knowledge would be helpful. Remember – If using a generator – cut off your main power until the generator is disconnected. I could give advise, if I saw your service and knew what you wanted to keep on.
If interested, an email and picture of your service (Main switch and breakers ) would help. Without that advise I would recommend extension cords to the computers and whichever lights you need to use. PS Use a surge suppressor on computers.
Not a fan of ice and cold. My son lives in Austin. His apartment complex has been without water and electricity for three days. He is told “they are working on it.” He is powering his phone by running the car long enough to charge it. To think I originally moved to Texas to get away from storms like this….Stay warm, dear Andrews—be safe.
I feel for you. I grew up where we often lost power in winter, the pump froze in the well etc but we had two wood stoves and were well supplied with wood and candles. Not expecting that sort of situation is entirely different. I also remember the transponders blowing all around us when Sandy hit here and honestly that was the worst part of the storm. Stay safe.