The Realist: The Texas 2021 Winter Storm

The following is a guest post from The Realist about his experience during the recent Texas winter storm and blackout, and lessons learned:

    We were lucky. We were only without power for twenty-eight hours during the two coldest days in several decades.

    The February winter storm that hit Texas like a ton of bricks was not a surprise. It was predicted. The highway department started doing what they could do in preparation for the storm the week before - spraying brine on the problem spots bridges, overpasses, and intersections before the storm. The Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) assured everybody they were prepared for the storm. I more-or-less continued on with regular life because the weather forecasts for upcoming winter storms always overstate the severity. Plus, I grew up in a Rocky Mountain state and know how to deal with winter weather.

    The fun and games really kicked off around 6 AM Thursday morning, February 11, with a 135 vehicle pile-up that killed six people. Below freezing temperatures combined with some spotty rain had caused a bridge/overpass on I-35W (just north of downtown Fort Worth) to ice over. The actual pile-up itself was in two channelized toll lanes - separated from the "free" lanes by concrete barriers. I never heard how it started, but I assume someone lost control, more people lost control of their vehicles as they tried to avoid the first person, and it cascaded from there.

    The snow and extreme cold hit Sunday (February 14).

Texas Winters

    Ignoring far west Texas and the panhandle, Texas winters are generally mild.

    Texas homes are optimized for cooling during the hot summers, and not heating during the usually mild winters. Similarly, peoples' wardrobes are optimized for mild and hot weather, not cold winter weather.

    Once every other year we will get an ice storm, where temperatures dip below freezing with precipitation consisting of freezing rain, wet snow, and/or sleet. It screws up the roads for a day or two before temperatures warm back up and everything melts. Local and state governments don't have a lot of snow removal equipment, beyond sand spreaders they can put on the back of dump trucks, because it would only rarely get used.

    Winter storms like we experienced in February are a once a decade event, and usually it doesn't get as cold as it got this time. The last time something like this happened was the week of Super Bowl XLV, in 2011, which was held at the then-new AT&T Stadium in Arlington, Texas. We had snow and ice all week, and temperatures in the 20s. There were not any widespread or prolonged blackouts. And, other than a lot of grumpy football fans who spent obscene amounts of money to attend the game and festivities, it was a fairly uneventful week.

My Situation

    I live in a suburban neighborhood in the middle of the Dallas-Fort Worth area - not out in the boonies. My house is a few hundred yards south of a major east-west Interstate highway. My house is all electric, with no natural gas in the neighborhood. My house is built on a concrete slab - no crawl space or basement. My neighborhood is built on the side of a hill, with my street going straight up the hill. While most of the plumbing is in the core of the house, the kitchen sink plumbing is on an outside north-facing wall, and there are two outside hose bibs.

    I had made preparations to protect the kitchen sink and the most vulnerable hose bib from the extreme cold by pointing 90 W spot lights at the interior walls to keep the pipes in the wall warm. Since the water meter box is very shallow and unusually low cold temperatures were forecast, I put a light bulb in the water meter box and stuffed some plastic shopping bags into the box for insulation to keep the water meter and related plumbing from freezing. Those preparations became moot once the power went out and stayed out.

    Sunday, we started getting snow. I went outside and shoveled the snow off my driveway and off the street in front of my driveway to make things easier for me Monday.

    At 1 AM Monday (February 15) morning, the power went out at my house. I was not surprised because rolling blackouts were predicted. About 45 minutes later, the power came back on - that's the way rolling blackouts are supposed to work.

    At 5 AM, the power went out at my house again. I was expecting it to come back on soon, so I didn't worry. But, the power did not come on 45 minutes later. It did not come on two hours later. It did not come on three hours later. Looking at the Oncor Electric Delivery outage maps, power was expected be restored in a few hours. I was annoyed, but not really worried. Those few hours later, checking the Oncor outage maps, power restoration estimates had become "unknown."

    I didn't go into work Monday because I didn't sleep well after the power went out the first time at 1 AM, and I hadn't had a shower. Cold showers are not my thing.

    The low Monday morning was a few degrees above zero.

    Mid-day Monday, I did go outside and shovel the additional snow that had fallen Sunday night off my driveway and the street in front of my house, and cleared the snow off my vehicle.

    There began to be boil-water notices being issued for various cities and parts of cities. These were issued because of equipment freezing up at water purification plants and from contamination caused by water main breaks.

    By Monday evening, the temperature inside our house had dropped to around 50 degrees. We stayed warm by bundling up in blankets and heavy clothing. Also, by Monday evening the pipes leading to the kitchen sink had frozen - I had neglected to leave the kitchen sink faucet dripping.

    I had a small catalytic propane heater, intended to heat a tent or small room. I set in front of the kitchen sink in the hope of keeping the situation for that plumbing from getting worse.

    Monday evening, after dark, I went outside and could see plenty of lights on the north side of the Interstate, including lights illuminating large billboards - not everybody was without power.

    I slept reasonably well Monday night under extra blankets. I kept most of my clothes on, only removing my shoes, and I wore a stocking cap to reduce heat loss through my head.

    We have an elderly cat with arthritis in some of her joints. In the middle of the night she started moaning - I assume from the cold affecting her joints. I pulled her under the blankets with me, and once she figured out I was a source of heat, she settled down and slept the rest of the night.

    The Tuesday (February 16) morning low was -2 degrees. This tied a record low set in 1949.

    By Tuesday morning, the temperature inside our house had dropped to around 45 degrees.

    Tuesday, I still hadn't had a shower, but decided to go into work mid-morning. The Interstate highways were passable, with one lane each way completely clear of snow. The side streets had not been plowed, major intersections had not been sanded, and the stop lights were out. My workplace never lost power. It is near a couple of major professional sports venues that are considered high-priority facilities.

    At around 9:30, my wife texted me to let me know our power had come back on. It went out for a few minutes a couple hours later, but returned and stayed on.

    After the power came back on, we were able to start warming up the house. Tuesday night, the pipes to the kitchen sink thawed. Fortunately, no pipes in our home burst.

    For the rest of the week, I overheard reports of coworkers discussing their experiences. Some ended up being without power for five days and were dealing with frozen pipe issues. Others were without water.

    My oldest son, who lives in an apartment just west of downtown Dallas, was without power for three days. He had water the first couple days, but eventually lost water for a couple more days. He proudly showed me a picture of a hole he'd chipped through the ice covering the swimming pool at his apartment complex so he could get water to flush his toilet.

    Friday (February 19), I went to a nearby Target store to get a few things. There was virtually no frozen food, and no dairy products. I don't know if it was all sold to panicked shoppers before the storm, or if it had to be discarded because the store lost power and they couldn't keep it cold. The gas station were I normally get gasoline was out. The ATMs were out of cash. The Sam's Club seemed reasonably well stocked, and they were restocking the perishable refrigerated goods when I visited - they were well enough stocked that I wondered if they had shut down completely for most of the week.

    By the next Monday (February 22), things were beginning to return to normal. My gas station had gasoline. The ATMs finally had cash. The stores were beginning to restock.

    The power looses were spotty. Some neighborhoods lost power for several days to a week, while others never lost power.

The Situation of Others

    Several people in my neighborhood lost water due to freezing pipes. And, from the flow of water down the gutter, and least one person had the pipe in their meter box burst.

    I saw one neighbor start his car in his driveway and run it for several hours to get warm and get some warm sleep.

    One person in the neighborhood apparently had several members of his extended family living with him. He fired up his outdoor grill to cook meals for his family.

    When I came home from work Wednesday, the side streets were still covered in snow and ice. A neighbor and his wife were at the end of the street at the bottom of the hill shoveling ice and snow off the end of the street to make it safer. I went down, met these neighbors, and helped shovel snow and ice for a couple hours. He grew up in Colorado, so he also had adequate winter clothing.

    Most people I saw running around outside lacked adequate footwear for the winter conditions.

Things We Did Right

    I have always tried to keep winter clothing in my wardrobe, including winter boots. We had plenty of blankets. A few years ago, I had purchased a balaclava but never used it. The balaclava made the entire snow shoveling experience much more comfortable.

    We had plenty of flashlights and small electric lanterns, along with plenty of spare batteries, to provide light after dark.

    We had plenty of no-preparation-required finger food - things like Clif Bars.

    We kept our cell phones and tablets going by recharging them from small, and not so small, external battery packs intended for charging cell phones and tablets. We were using our cell phones for internet access to keep up on what was happening in the world and to keep up with the power outages. We burned through the smaller battery packs the first day, and started using the larger ones. One of my recent acquisitions was a lithium battery pack intended to jump start a vehicle. It also has a couple 5 volt USB outputs for charging. We tapped into it, too.

    Last October, in anticipation of a possible BidenApocalypse, I purchased a new Toyota 4Runner with four-wheel drive. While 4WD was not a mandatory feature, I considered it a nice-to-have feature. Four-wheel drive was very nice to have running around and climbing the hill to my house during the storm.

Things We Did Wrong

    Normalcy bias. I kept expecting the power to come on at any time - remember, we were told to expect rolling blackouts. I did not try to use emergency supplies I would have utilized if I'd known we were going to be without power for 28 hours. I didn't dig out a propane stove to cook hot meals. I didn't try to start a fire in the fireplace for additional heat. I didn't try to get the generator going.

    I did not turn on the kitchen sink faucet to drip as soon as the power went out. That oversight could have turned into an expensive mess, and made my ordeal far worse if the pipes had burst.

    I did not have adequate emergency heat sources. A small catalytic propane heater and a small stack of firewood is not enough.

    I did not drink enough water and became somewhat dehydrated. In the past, I had become too dehydrated from not drinking enough water in cold weather and developed kidney stones - not an experience I want to repeat.

Things We Need To Do

    At the top of my list is to get a larger heat source that can at least keep the central portion of our house, including our kitchen, somewhat warm. I never imagined we would suffer such a prolonged power outage during such cold weather.

    I want to find a wider variety of no-preparation-required non-snack finger foods. (Yes, I've got Datrex emergency ration bars, but I'd prefer to not use those while sitting at home.) The no-preparation-required foods would serve to bridge the first few hours or days of an at-home emergency without having to fully drop into the full emergency food preparation mode.

    We were fortunate to have running water throughout our entire ordeal, but we might not be so lucky next time. We need to procure a reasonable supply of emergency hygiene supplies, such as baby wipes, to help keep clean. (We already have a lot of bottle water stored to help handle water disruption events. We also have disposable plates and spoons to reduce the need to wash dishes during a water disruption event.)

Conclusion

    We were lucky. We were only without power for 28 hours and didn't suffer any significant losses.

    The 2021 Texas winter storm presented a confluence of events that that turned what would have otherwise been just an inconvenience into a full blown emergency. Either just the power loss or just the cold weather would have only been inconvenient.

    My preps and prior cold weather experience certainly helped me cope with this emergency better than many other people. At the same time, normalcy bias stopped me from taking actions that would have made the emergency less unpleasant.

    I'm afraid energy disruptions are going to be more common in the future. First, lots of people are leaving blue hell-holes and moving to Texas, which is already taxing our infrastructure. Second, the communist regime in Washington is pursuing polices that could easily turn the United States into a failed state like Venezuela. Third, prophesy warns us that interesting times are coming.