Thinking of our Friends in Texas

We just got hammered by about a foot of snow where I live, but in Oregon, like down south, Salem, Milwaukee, Silverton got hit by freezing rain and ice that completely destroyed the power grid for 3 days. Some are still without power. Some people’s houses got smashed by falling trees. Crazy weather. We have had fatalities due to traffic accidents and house fires.

All my exes live in Texas. youtube.com/watch?v=QuJroujjYDk

I hope that all of the flashoholics in Texas have plenty of power on earth, and plenty of power from Heaven, too.

Power out for 30,000 homes here for a while. Out of 153,000.
Getting better now. Friends in Stanton just got it back after almost 24 hours.
Lots of buildings downtown have burst pipes and water cascading down the floors.
Including city hall.
Went to the food store today. Totally a frenzy. Had plenty of stores at home but needed bread and milk.
Idiots not wearing masks. Somewhere Darwin is laughing.
Texas drivers have no clue how to drive on ice.
My wife building had no heat. Not sure about power.
I’ll be replacng UPS batteries for a bunch of clients next week.
And yes, I have a crap- ton of liths charged and ready to power stuff.
Been advising friends about how to deal with frozen pipes without havng a blowout.
Lots of wind turbines out here but not designed for this level of cold.
Brrrr
All the Best,
Jeff

On another note. Looked out the window and someone I don’t know shoveled my front walk.
Did the neighbors too. No idea. Who it was .
Texas is a special place…

All those people are suffering because the phoney politicians sold them green windmills that stop working when ice develops on them. Meanwhile the energy tzar is flying around in his own jet.

It’s a sad situation.

Temperature this morning INSIDE my home was 35F we endured 36 hours without power the most useful light was the Zanflare T1 lantern that I could take and hang from the fan cord and light up the room.

We also used Zebralight, Sofirn, Emisar, Fireflies, BLF Q8 during the outage, Good thing I had charged ALL my batteries in 3 chargers I had, and a couple of 20,000 mah powerbanks. Also had a dozen emergency candles.

The problem was the electricity to power the furnace, but managed using the LP Gas stove to somewhat heat the home when I could monitor it (Wish I had ordered the Fireplace when I built the home)

Today the power was restored for 4 hours then we lost it for 3 hours, now its back again. but you never know.

I am mad at the incompetence of the people in charge and the hypocrisy to tell us to conserve energy while they have us in the dark but the big empty buildings downtown all lit up like Christmas trees. I hope heads roll over this fiasco!

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Good to see !! :smiley:
Yep, after Katrina we , wife and 4 adult kids 2 x chain saws, loaded in our old ford truck and for weeks we cut trees and cleared strangers drive ways and roads. At the end of the day we took showers outside in swim wear, using a kitchen pot, with water I filled in a 14ft aluminum boat, then ate MRE’s and went to bed.
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When times are tough, you get tougher. :wink:
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It is a sad situation but your characterization is fundamentally dishonest. For one thing Texas has one of the least regulated power grids in the country. I used to be in the Utility industry and it is a complex problem. Blaming it on the politicians and windmills is not only dishonest but just plain wrong.

If you actually look at the amount and type of power off line saying that the problem is frozen windmills is just silly.

FWIW, windmills up here work in far more cold than what Texas is going through. Not sure if the economics make sense for Texas but you can be sure that will be looked at for the future. Lots of trade offs in making such an amazingly complex system work. I have been using wind generated power this last week that was made in below zero weather. It is done but that doesn’t mean that anyone thought that it was wise to spend the money to have systems like that in Texas.

People have no clue what an amazing human achievement the power grid is. I still remember a storm 35 years ago that took out about 2/3 of our system. I walked the lines from sun up to sun down and then spend the evening getting screamed at for being such a terrible company. As if we could control the weather. We could have probably built a system that could have withstood most of that but no one would be able to afford to hook into it so what would have been the point?

Hoping for the best for everyone in Texas.

And the power is off again… :rage:

You guys should be up to the mid 60’s by saturday.

Yeh, someone on this block has a snowblower or at least electric shovel, and does a quick walk up’n’down the block clearing a path. Rather nice, I think.

Yeah, just wait ’til the greenies have the whole country “electrified”. Not enough power in “green” California to avoid rolling blackouts and the like, but yeah, let’s ban gas/diesel cars and shove battery cars on everyone. Hell, even gasoline lawnmowers and generators will be banned nationwide, too. Wheee!

Your “powerwall” might keep your house going a few days if you’re lucky, but then what? Lose power for weeks, and no hot water, no heat, no nothing. No (legal) generator or (legal) fuel to run it, after all.

Man, I feel sorry for all those deaths that’ll result. Oh, but it’ll be the powerco’s fault, right? After all, they should bury all the powerlines underground yet keep rates down. Guess some save-the-earth types will volunteer to do all that work for free, eh?

I’m telling ya, prepare now. Buy those gennies while they’re still legal. And lots and lots of fuel.

Yeh, that little critter’s a hoot, ain’t it? Had that for light over our Christmas blackout.

Inside didn’t get that cold, only the 50s, but then again ConEd kicked ass and worked around the clock to get power back on in something like 20hrs.

It was especially cold and windy that day and night, though. One more day and it probably would’ve been down in the 30s inside, too.

No candles (but I know I got a bunch of ’em in the basement), but same. All cells topped off by default, buncha powerbanks to supplement.

Tried the stove trick, didn’t really work beyond the kitchen. :laughing:

Wondering if the furnace can take DC instead of AC from the transformer. 12V or 24V, I forgot. That should be a decent backup, just in case. Have house heat, too.

That’s a relief, if they can hang on a bit longer.

Must feel like a “Twilight Zone” episode out there…

Basic math is that about 10% of the problem is from “green” energy problems. It is actually the dirty fossil fuel plants that are failing much more significantly and predictably. But it sure sounds better to ignore the actual math and blame the green boogie man. Deliberate and successful manipulation of facts to promote fossil fuels. Who is going to actually look at generation tables and do the math anyway? Who is going to actually read the ercot reports? Certainly the problem is mostly just from frozen wind turbans. Never mind the actual numbers don’t back that up.

I hope everyone in Texas can do their best by this weekend, when this terrible weather should be over.

It's a very sad situation.

Hang in there, Texas!

I’m saying the electric grid itself is already strained and near maximum capacity. Upgrades were put off year after yer after year ’cause ratepayers didn’t want to spring for the cost. Line are above ground ’cause it’s cheaper and easier and faster to string cables along poles vs digging trenches and burying cables.

Point being, transformers are blowing up on hot summer days when demand peaks, ice-storms and winds and falling trees knock down cables, and so on. Nothing to do with wind “turbans” or solar panels or coal-burning powerplants, but the infrastructure itself.

That’s an assload of eggs in one crumbling antiquated basket, that all the greenies are pushing to overload even more with everyone driving Teslas and Bolts, and houses being heated exclusively by electricity.

Even here (not sure if this is law yet, but it’s definitely in the works), but new construction of private houses is being forbidden the use of oil or propane or NG for heat, ie, electricity only. Are they retarded?

I had a blackout, yet was still able to cook and have hot water for a good long hot soak to warm up. If everything were all electricity, I’d have nothing, zero. I wouldn’t even be able to make coffee for myself. What am I supposed to do, crack open a bag of Kingsford and heat water on a hibachi indoors? I can imagine how many fires and cases of CO poisoning would result…

Point being, I’m not “blaming” turbines or solar panels (or coal-fired plants or nuke plants, for that matter). I’m blaming the greenies who are just technically and scientifically illiterate, pushing these feelgood ideas without thinking them through, or just plain without thinking. It’s like routing a fully-loaded 50-car freight train over the Cassandra Crossing. It just ain’t able to handle it. The infrastructure is not there. And what is there is inadequate.

Oh, and I can just imagine a directed cyberattack on the grid… right at times like this when the entire country’s seeing record cold (or heat).

Ho boy…

Yep, don’t mess with Texas. Says so right in the Bible…

They should put some heating system on the wind turbines.It can be self powered

I dont live in Teaxas. I am going by what they say on the news. Its not one news site, its all of them that say the same story.