A question for those whom have never known snow...

friend rescued, we even stopped at a 7-11 that was open on the way back and stocked up on junk food and wine so it's festive (as long as my power holds out). driving wasn't as bad as I thought (although still wildly unsafe, mostly due to people in SUVs and trucks that seem to think gunning it is the way to deal with not being able to get up an icy hill).

3/4 of my friends have been sitting in the dark and cold without power for over 24 hours now, all over the state. some of 'em have gas stoves so they can at least make coffee. stay warm everyone!

wonder how many tech workers who were planning on leaving California for Texas are reconsidering their plans rn ... 55F and partly cloudy ... it drizzled a bit the other day

or rather, to use the term from the place I lived where I did get to know snow -- it was "Providencing"

I'm also in Austin. My electricity has been out for over 36 hours and it looks like we are getting at least another night of this. This was clusterfuck I was not anticipating at all.

iving wasn't as bad as I thought (although still wildly unsafe, mostly due to people in SUVs and trucks that seem to think gunning it is the way to deal with not being able to get up an icy hill)

when i lived in north carolina it snowed a half-inch or so once or twice, and i still remember how all the cars that were spun out onto shoulders or into ditches were always the gigantic 4WD monster machines, apparently driven by people who had no idea how to actually use them in adverse driving conditions.

there's a main north-south artery here called Lamar Boulevard which has a curved incline between 24th and 29th streets, and it was just littered with spun out cars on the shoulders. and people were seeing the like eight beached cars and still not turning around! then a big truck came spinning down the southbound lane caroming off the cars scattered along the shoulders, that was enough to get everyone waiting for their attempt to crest the hill to say "fuck this" and turn around.

and yeah, Moodles... freezing rain coming after midnight until morning, that's going to turn the roads into complete chaos

We've had a ton of snow in WI as well, and it's been getting down to -10', but it's more or less business as usual here.

― change display name (Jordan), Tuesday, February 16, 2021 11:37 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

it was like 30 all January, I kinda figured we were gonna pay for it

every time it snows I lose 2 more inches off my driveway. I'm running out of room here

You Yankees should've seen me trying to kick the snow out of my driveway today. Then I got the (non-snow) shovel out, which was about as helpful as a tablespoon.

Finally, I got the big janitor's broom out, swept the snow off the Honda and called it a day.

Lost power at 5:30 PM, and it seems like afterwards that also happened to everyone I know on Facebook.

I spent two hours in Walmart getting an air mattress for my mom and as I was being rung up she called to say her power just came back on.

Complete hell on Earth in there, shocked I didn’t see anyone throw a punch about line cutting or anything.

The 11-year-old boy wanted to go to Home Depot to get a sled.

I think he was impressed by my vivid reply about "how are we going to get there?" and "do you really think they still have any sleds left back there?"

now have a nice layer of ice coating everything from a night of freezing rain... still have power and water though!

Got my power back a little while ago. I can see my breath inside!

I just shoveled out my long inclined driveway with a garden shovel

just spent hours digging in the ice and dirt to find the water shutoff valve for a unit in my condo complex with a burst pipe. watching a waterfall sprouting out of the side of my building was an unsettling feeling.

No water, shocked at how long it takes to melt a pot of snow.

Weirdly last night I dreamt I was in a house where pipes in the walls/ceiling were bursting and flooding shit.

Then this morning I read in the news somewhere this has been happening to some ppl.

Texas' lieutenant governor said older Texans should sacrifice themselves to the coronavirus to save the economy.

Rick Perry says Texans should be willing to freeze to death to preserve an unregulated power grid.

Texas politicians keep demanding human sacrifices and it's weird. https://t.co/C3i5nNOVwt

— Ashton Pittman (@ashtonpittman) February 17, 2021

Choosing an electric plan in Texas is the only shopping experience worse and more incomprehensible than picking an ACA plan.

No water, shocked at how long it takes to melt a pot of snow.

had one of those "i cant believe this is 2021 america" moments this morning reading a how-to article in the ny times about 'tips for more effectively melting snow to get drinking water'. (I guess the trick is to melt a small amount of snow and get it boiling and add more snow to the boiling water.)

The Dallas Morning News with its Letters to the Editor section... I'm sure all those cold Texan hearts will be warmed by this friendly missive from The Great White North:

Canadian sends advice

I am writing from Ottawa, Canada, with great sympathy for Texans struggling with the cold, topped off by power failures. Make sure to leave the taps in your house running at a trickle to prevent the water in the pipes from freezing and rupturing the pipes. Bundle up and stay together; you’re in our thoughts.

Our thoughts... and our prayers!

The pipes thing is decent advice, though. I wouldn't think pipes were in danger of freezing at the temps they've got in Texas, but then I don't know how the lack of insulation in the houses there would affect things, so it's worth being aware of.

CANADIAN SENDS ADVICE - three words guaranteed to make any texan sit up an take notice

(tbc i didnt mean my earlier post as snark lol ppl dont know how to melt snow, but amazed that usa citizens are so ill-served that national papers are running articles on how to get potable water)

xp to myself: never mind, I just saw some photos, pipes are definitely freezing.

Most houses have pipes in exterior walls here and no insulation at all. Nothing's buried very deeply either. "Freeze" usually means overnight temps drop to around 28-30 for a couple hours, not like the past 72 hours where it drops into the teens and stays there. We had single-digit temps on Monday and Tuesday... I've never seen that happen here ever.

When I was outside struggling with the burst pipes in our complex, the same thing was happening at two other complexes adjacent to mine. Once everything thaws all the buildings here are going to turn into sprinklers.

From what I've read, a lot of water lines run in attics in Texas too, which certainly doesn't help.

my power is back on. Just boiled up a bunch of water, but it sounds like the water treatment plants are back online, so hopefully the boil notice won't last long.

My main concern at the moment is that a pipe in the bathroom seems to be leaking, which caused a bunch of water to go into the adjacent closet. I'm doing what I can to dry out the carpet in the closet and not using the bathroom at this point. The water doesn't seem to be spreading beyond that, so it isn't clear how severe this is, but I'm at a loss for what else I can do to deal with it. As far as I can tell, no plumber is going to be available any time soon, and shutting off the water line seems like overkill.

if there's a leak you can't stop, I'd turn off your water line. even a small leak will cause major havoc if you let it go for a couple days.

the issue is that leaves me with no water indefinitely

as best as I can tell, no plumber is showing up until some time in March

yeah, no good choices... that sucks.

I obviously have no idea how your place it laid out Moodles, but any chance there is a shutoff just for that bathroom? Some houses have branch lines that can be turned off to isolate a bathroom without shutting down service for the whole place. But that's not the case everywhere and it might inaccessible, just a suggestion. If you can possible visually trace the line anywhere, you might find another shut off point.

read this as "sorrow" at first, and was really intrigued to see if anyone would identify as not having known sorrow

unfortunately there isn't anything obviously visible

Sorry, just a hopeful thought.

Water pipes on the exterior of buildings boggles my mind, and I live only one state over.

An Australian relative was telling me once how he was trying to figure out something with his pipes because they were on the west side of his house and his water got hot in the afternoons. I was all WHAT.

I don't know how water gets to my upstairs toilet – maybe some sort of paternoster system – but I know at least that it's not snaking up the side of my house.

Within the exterior walls, not actually on the outside of the wall. It usually doesn't get cold enough here for those "exterior" pipes to freeze, because you've still got the house's heating system overcoming the mild cold outside. This week we had a fatal combination of extended freezing temps far below what we usually see plus widespread power outages.

(also many homes here have electric heating only, no gas or oil except for maybe water heaters)

shutoff for the bathroom could be in the basement. i would call a plumber to see if they can tell you where it might be even if they can't come out right now. could save you a lot of trouble and $ in the future. like your bathtub falling through the ceiling as in breaking bad!

we don't have basements here! as f. hazel was saying, I believe the tub that is against the exterior wall is the culprit.

I've had frozen pipes in Georgia and Oregon and both times the problem was a pipe within an exterior, noninsulated wall

I worked on a gut and remodel of a Craftsman-style bungalow, when we got to tearing off the exterior walls, the insulation was torn up newspaper from the '20s.

Tons of houses like that in Houston and Dallas - in the Sun Belt boom areas, the situation is less dire with houses built later.

Yeah my house growing up in AU had external pipes, or at least exposed and in the garage.

Even we once had blocked pipes due to a freezing winter (about -10C). But only the once.

...and we're back to sunny and highs in the upper 60s. it's beautiful outside, which belies how deeply traumatized people are.

only a 60 degree shift in less than a week, no biggie. It is very strange how it's just gone, but there's a lot left to do to get back to fully functioning.

I think the rapid shifts increase the psychological weight - it happens every lesser winter storm, everyone is dazed for a few days because it so quickly ramps back into being nice. This time I'm seeing so many people with a thousand yard stare.

Yeah, and after a year of COVID a lot of people went into this with not much left in the tank. And having your own home turn into hostile territory after months of being your sole refuge just breaks your brain.

I checked my receipts, and it looks like I started planning for this on the 7th, I bought a bunch of firewood and placed a big HEB curbside order for the 10th. At the time it seemed like overkill, now I'm glad I did it since I ended up hosting a guest for four days. My hands are still all torn to shit from digging in the ice for water shutoff valves.

And this was a statewide disaster event, unlike a hurricane, which just pounds the coastal areas but generally falls apart into rain and minor wind incidents by the time they get to Austin or DFW.