My Texas Story
We are home from spending the last 11 days in Texas. We traveled there after my husband's brother passed away. Little did we know what was in store when the winter storm hit Dallas on Sunday.
We were in tolerably good shape on the 4th floor of our hotel (heat rises). We were pretty warm, but every-30-minute rolling blackouts made for interesting shower, microwave, phone charging and laptop use scheduling. Most days there was little to no hot water, but we did have water (unlike many others).
The minor inconveniences we dealt with were NOTHING in comparison to what others in Texas are STILL suffering. Watching the news was heartbreaking. We had a spare bed in our room, which our daughter and her boyfriend ended up using. Their power was completely off since Monday at 2am and the temp in their apartment fell to 37 degrees. They tried to stick it out with their fireplace, but the situation just became untenable.
Texans doing their best to survive the conditions became frustrated as supplies ran out. City after city issued boil orders for their water supply. How are you supposed to boil water when you have no electricity and little to no wood? Folks turned to scooping snow into their bathtubs and sinks to flush toilets, to melt for drinking and cooking. People turned to government and agency officials who had few answers.
Grassroots organizations seemed to be helping the most, but when tens of millions are without power, heat, water, etc., those organizations' resources were stretched thin. Some grocery stores gave away food rather than throw it away. Others did not, choosing to throw out food rather than risk the liability. Food, water, firewood, gasoline, propane, milk and other necessities ran low.
People with electric medical devices in some cases did not fare well. One woman's oxygen-dependent husband had to sit in their running car in front of the house with his oxygen machine plugged into the auxiliary outlet. She despaired (in a phone call to the local news station) that the car was running out of gas and that her husband might die in the driveway.
Pipes bursting, water flooding out of windows and through ceilings. Snowplows don't plow residential streets in Dallas. They don't plow side streets or even main arteries. Only the freeways are plowed or sanded. Getting around was virtually impossible. With the rolling blackouts most restaurants could not operate. Lines at those that were open were LONG. We, fortunately, had stocked up on canned soup, deli meat and bread the day before the storm hit. I think it's going to be a while before I eat another ham and cheese sandwich.
Still, we fared very well, all things considered. We are VERY happy to be back home where, ironically, it was much colder, but our water and electricity pretty much stayed on throughout the cold snap.
It makes me wonder if the citizens of Texas are going to demand better performance from their government and energy agencies who pretty much guaranteed this would happen when they refused to winterize their power grid. And for the record, as we drove through OK and KS (where it was colder), the wind turbines were spinning like tops. So much for the "wind turbines don't work in the cold" excuse. Pray for Texas, please -- they're not out of the woods yet.
= new reply since forum marked as read
and helps us geezers too 
(I am in Texas)....great post, by the way
...that your daughter, boyfriend, and other relatives will be okay soon.
For Texas 
is! Thanks for your report.
Unfortunately, many of those who are now suffering will likely have very short memories of this, if past performance in TX is anything to go by.
I hope that I am wrong.