Texas deep freeze

ns503
Posts
4601
Joined
4/1/2008
Location
NS Toolies, CA
Edited Date/Time 4/22/2021 1:29am
Surprised no thread about this, unless I missed something. Looks like a whole world of hurt down there, yikes. How y'all doing? Heard from my cousin-in-law in Houston. They are rotating power 2 hours on 3 off, after being without for 2 days, and have had 2 other families move in with them because they have a fireplace.
1
|
sumdood
Posts
8968
Joined
3/11/2013
Location
San Clemente, CA, USA
Fantasy
2/18/2021 3:23am
Friend of mine from Carlsbad flew out there with his daughter for a soccer game. They’re stuck there. He posted this picture of downtown Austin 😳
2
Deja New
Posts
2784
Joined
11/22/2016
Location
AU
2/18/2021 4:04am
Looks like global warming
9
11
KMC440
Posts
7764
Joined
4/1/2008
Location
USA
2/18/2021 5:21am
Yeah it's bad down there ... sounds to me like a lot of questions to be answered by government officials.
2
Flatliner
Posts
4243
Joined
11/3/2009
Location
CA
2/18/2021 7:14am
It’s crazy how far that arctic air can travel. Central Canada has been in a cold snap for over a week, guess it made its way down.

The Shop

peelout
Posts
18384
Joined
1/6/2011
Location
Ogden, UT, USA
2/18/2021 7:55am
sumdood wrote:
Friend of mine from Carlsbad flew out there with his daughter for a soccer game. They’re stuck there. He posted this picture of downtown Austin 😳...
Friend of mine from Carlsbad flew out there with his daughter for a soccer game. They’re stuck there. He posted this picture of downtown Austin 😳
can't they just rent a car and get the hell out?

sucks to see, Texas has been getting nailed the last few years. hurricanes, arctic storms, etc. crazy.
APLMAN99
Posts
12653
Joined
4/1/2008
Location
Tualatin, OR, USA
Fantasy
2/18/2021 8:02am
sumdood wrote:
Friend of mine from Carlsbad flew out there with his daughter for a soccer game. They’re stuck there. He posted this picture of downtown Austin 😳...
Friend of mine from Carlsbad flew out there with his daughter for a soccer game. They’re stuck there. He posted this picture of downtown Austin 😳
peelout wrote:
can't they just rent a car and get the hell out? sucks to see, Texas has been getting nailed the last few years. hurricanes, arctic storms...
can't they just rent a car and get the hell out?

sucks to see, Texas has been getting nailed the last few years. hurricanes, arctic storms, etc. crazy.
If the power grid is as down as it sounds, there may be no electricity at the car rental stores, the gas stations, etc.

BMR179
Posts
510
Joined
4/1/2008
Location
East Texas, TX, USA
Fantasy
2/18/2021 8:04am
Power off and on, water from the city finally quit, icy roads, PVC pipe and fittings sold out, etc...

The extreme cold doesn't happen here very often, especially for more than a couple of days. There are a lot of people welcoming less fortunate folks into their homes to share heat and food and I have heard that there are shelters open, but it is a little difficult getting there because of the bad roads.

Extended cold weather does not suit me well, even without the power and water problems. I don't know how you folks up north stand it.

Stay safe and stay warm.
2
2/18/2021 8:15am
I’m in Round Rock, just north of Austin. It’s a complete shit show here. Luckily, thankfully we are on the hospitals grid so we haven’t lost power at all. Haven’t lost water but we are on a boil water notice. Grocery stores are fucked, again thankful we are stocked up. Roads are bulletproof ice theough the neighborhood. I might be the only house in my neighborhood that shoveled my driveway, sidewalk and walkway. All the neighbors are solid ice. Wife is an RN doen in south Austin. They have no water and partial heat. Crazy crazy shit!

Did get out and have a little fun yesterday!

The red dot is my house.







14
APLMAN99
Posts
12653
Joined
4/1/2008
Location
Tualatin, OR, USA
Fantasy
2/18/2021 8:20am
I'm a little bit surprised that the TX power grid would be in such dire shape. Maybe it isn't as bad as they are saying, though. I just figured that the TX power grids (at least the southern parts) would be practically rebuilt every decade or so because of hurricane damage repairs, etc. That part of the country takes a pretty big beating on the regular, so I figured everything would be practically new every 10-15 years.

One of the benefits of having our local PUDs are that we have quite a bit of redundancy in our grids so electricity isn't usually knocked out for very long, at least for most people. Without the need for every single connection to be a 'profitable connection', they are able to make decisions based more on overall service level than on what makes immediate financial sense. Not sure if PUDs are prevalent in that part of the country, but with all of the natural disasters it would certainly make sense to have them!
2/18/2021 8:38am
APLMAN99 wrote:
I'm a little bit surprised that the TX power grid would be in such dire shape. Maybe it isn't as bad as they are saying, though...
I'm a little bit surprised that the TX power grid would be in such dire shape. Maybe it isn't as bad as they are saying, though. I just figured that the TX power grids (at least the southern parts) would be practically rebuilt every decade or so because of hurricane damage repairs, etc. That part of the country takes a pretty big beating on the regular, so I figured everything would be practically new every 10-15 years.

One of the benefits of having our local PUDs are that we have quite a bit of redundancy in our grids so electricity isn't usually knocked out for very long, at least for most people. Without the need for every single connection to be a 'profitable connection', they are able to make decisions based more on overall service level than on what makes immediate financial sense. Not sure if PUDs are prevalent in that part of the country, but with all of the natural disasters it would certainly make sense to have them!
Uh, its pretty bad. The problem is this place is not built for this at all. We’re breaking all sorts of records. I’m pretty sure theres not 1 snowplow in the state.
1
2/18/2021 9:02am
Here we go again!




Falcon
Posts
12455
Joined
11/16/2011
Location
Menifee, CA, USA
2/18/2021 9:06am
You guys stay safe over there. I'm sure there are all kinds of problems that come out of the woodwork when the electricity doesn't work.
1
2/18/2021 9:54am
I was just watching this on the news. This may be a dumb question but what's the actual cause of the power outages?
Motox627!
Posts
747
Joined
5/16/2018
Location
P-ville, TX, USA
2/18/2021 9:58am
Power back on today for the first time since Sunday night. Been a long, cold few days. Finally started to thaw out, but now the real fun begins... Every plumber in Texas is about to be busy as shit!

We've lived in Texas for 13 years and never seen anything close to this! We are from the PNW, so we can adapt easily, but this place is not built for this shit at all!!
2
2/18/2021 9:59am
I was just watching this on the news. This may be a dumb question but what's the actual cause of the power outages?
Depends who you ask...
1
2/18/2021 10:23am
I was just watching this on the news. This may be a dumb question but what's the actual cause of the power outages?
Texas has it's own grid and many power houses have shut down from the cold.
Motox627!
Posts
747
Joined
5/16/2018
Location
P-ville, TX, USA
2/18/2021 10:27am
I was just watching this on the news. This may be a dumb question but what's the actual cause of the power outages?
Dirtydeeds wrote:
Depends who you ask...
Funny how that works huh? lol
2
2/18/2021 10:31am
I was just watching this on the news. This may be a dumb question but what's the actual cause of the power outages?
Dirtydeeds wrote:
Depends who you ask...
Motox627! wrote:
Funny how that works huh? lol
Haha yup!
2
2/18/2021 10:38am
I was just watching this on the news. This may be a dumb question but what's the actual cause of the power outages?
Dirtydeeds wrote:
Depends who you ask...
Fair enough!

Hope it get's sorted soon. Aint too much worse than a freezing cold house.
GrapeApe
Posts
8902
Joined
6/7/2010
Location
Mc Kinney, TX, USA
2/18/2021 11:52am
On the bright side we have a forecast high of 68 degrees on Wednesday
1
GrapeApe
Posts
8902
Joined
6/7/2010
Location
Mc Kinney, TX, USA
2/18/2021 12:12pm
I was just watching this on the news. This may be a dumb question but what's the actual cause of the power outages?
The short answer is unprecedented cold, ice and snow causing unprecedented demand for electricity (for this time of year) that far exceeds supply. We can't generate more supply because of a litany of short cuts and cost cutting measures by our energy providers combined with a very lazy watch dog organization.

6
JM485
Posts
5812
Joined
10/1/2013
Location
Davis, CA, USA
2/18/2021 12:24pm
From what I’ve seen Texas relies relatively heavily on wind and other renewable energy sources that have basically become completely useless due to the extreme cold, with windmills freezing and the like. Combine that with unprecedented power draws and you have yourself a crisis.
2
13
ns503
Posts
4601
Joined
4/1/2008
Location
NS Toolies, CA
2/18/2021 1:00pm
JM485 wrote:
From what I’ve seen Texas relies relatively heavily on wind and other renewable energy sources that have basically become completely useless due to the extreme cold...
From what I’ve seen Texas relies relatively heavily on wind and other renewable energy sources that have basically become completely useless due to the extreme cold, with windmills freezing and the like. Combine that with unprecedented power draws and you have yourself a crisis.
From what I read, it's the fossil side breaking down that has caused the most issues. Big problems when the gas stops flowing.
2
1
2/18/2021 1:30pm
All I see is pictures of winter in Ohio. Nobody’s dieing here. Y’all need to insulate your water pipes.
1
3
2/18/2021 1:31pm
ns503 wrote:
From what I read, it's the fossil side breaking down that has caused the most issues. Big problems when the gas stops flowing.
Don’t you know fossil fuel is the enemy right now.
3
1
GrapeApe
Posts
8902
Joined
6/7/2010
Location
Mc Kinney, TX, USA
2/18/2021 1:57pm
JM485 wrote:
From what I’ve seen Texas relies relatively heavily on wind and other renewable energy sources that have basically become completely useless due to the extreme cold...
From what I’ve seen Texas relies relatively heavily on wind and other renewable energy sources that have basically become completely useless due to the extreme cold, with windmills freezing and the like. Combine that with unprecedented power draws and you have yourself a crisis.
Natural gas is our main source to generate electricity, but apparently if you don't insulate the supply lines they freeze in the cold. From what I understand that is the biggest culprit. Most of the wind farms have also frozen but they wouldn't have done enough to prevent what happened. We also use coal, solar and nuclear, but we are rich in natural gas so that is primary.
1
APLMAN99
Posts
12653
Joined
4/1/2008
Location
Tualatin, OR, USA
Fantasy
2/18/2021 2:09pm
Dirtydeeds wrote:
Uh, its pretty bad. The problem is this place is not built for this at all. We’re breaking all sorts of records. I’m pretty sure theres...
Uh, its pretty bad. The problem is this place is not built for this at all. We’re breaking all sorts of records. I’m pretty sure theres not 1 snowplow in the state.
That was also a sort of big surprise for me when we were visiting our daughters in the Portland area this past weekend. I don't think of that area as being all that far away and such a different weather, other than they get a LOT more rain than we do. But there were practically zero snowplows out to plow roads, and I only actually saw 2 of them over the course of a 4 day weekend. There was some plowing done on some of the main roads, but damned if I ever saw them doing it.

Here in our area we don't get the most snow in the country, but on my 6-7 minute commute home in the evening I will see at least 5-10 private trucks with plows on them. I didn't see a single one of those in the Portland area. None.

It's pretty unreasonable to expect a city/county to spend hundreds of thousands or even millions on snow removal equipment that might only get used once every 10-20 years I suppose, and I certainly can't imagine most of the areas hit hardest in Texas to be as prepared for it as we are. Just doesn't make sense.

I am surprised that their electrical grid isn't at least as good as ours, though.
2/18/2021 2:57pm
Insert witty caption



3
2/18/2021 3:09pm
I live in a suburb of Houston and am a process operator at a petrochemical facility. Just got done living in for the past four days at work. They paid us well but we earned every penny.

My wife was at home with our boys and only lost hot water for a time. It was frustrating being at work and not being able to help especially when she texted me this😂


31
Titanium
Posts
471
Joined
12/5/2018
Location
USA
2/18/2021 3:32pm
I live in a suburb of Houston and am a process operator at a petrochemical facility. Just got done living in for the past four days...
I live in a suburb of Houston and am a process operator at a petrochemical facility. Just got done living in for the past four days at work. They paid us well but we earned every penny.

My wife was at home with our boys and only lost hot water for a time. It was frustrating being at work and not being able to help especially when she texted me this😂


Laughing Laughing Laughing

Post a reply to: Texas deep freeze

The Latest