Winter Chaos In Texas and Oklahoma

[rgk5]

This week's disaster on Okla. and Texas had me getting in touch with relatives and people I know. My older daughter in Edmond OK. weathered the storm fine as they have their own back-up generator as did my ex-wife. My ex's older sister in Dallas had their home ($1 million+) ruined by broken and flooding pipes. Ridiculous considering she and her husband are formerly from London Ont. and owned a home in Minneapolis for many years as her hubby was a VP at 3M. I guess their cold weather experience never registered. Another friend in Dallas, formerly from Hamilton, beat the cold by leaving her taps partially running, an old Canuck trick.
*
The Texas problem is nothing new. My last full winter in Okla., 1984-1985, saw the temperatures dip down to 5-10* F over a three week period from mid December/84 to early January/85. Pipes froze and split as far south as Houston. Obviously the Texas utility services ignored this earlier lesson from Mother Nature and their ill-fated decision to leave the national power grid left them alone and helpless for 2-3 days until the temperatures moderated.

[Chambokl]

It is a complete disaster . . . very sad . . .

[Ignatius Reilly]

A friend's nephew lives in Austin.

He sent her this pic of a big box grocery store yesterday.

Anyone hungry?

[4underthru9]

A friend's nephew lives in Austin.

He sent her this pic of a big box grocery store yesterday.

Anyone hungry?

Looks like empty freezers or fridges, did they dump the contents because of no power?
Can't imagine people buying frozen food with no power.at home.
Wait maybe store it outside instead,

[Mr22putt]

It is a complete disaster . . . very sad . . .

Supposedly will be worse than 2017 Hurricane Harvey that was pegged at $125B.

[Chambokl]

Supposedly will be worse than 2017 Hurricane Harvey that was pegged at $125B.

Wow . . . but they saved money by not winterized the installation . . . It also happen in 2011 . . .

[Bern]

I'm amazed people, building managers did not have the foresight to SHUT OFF THEIR WATER and drain their lines.

[Marty Canuck]

This week's disaster on Okla. and Texas had me getting in touch with relatives and people I know. My older daughter in Edmond OK. weathered the storm fine as they have their own back-up generator as did my ex-wife. My ex's older sister in Dallas had their home ($1 million+) ruined by broken and flooding pipes. Ridiculous considering she and her husband are formerly from London Ont. and owned a home in Minneapolis for many years as her hubby was a VP at 3M. I guess their cold weather experience never registered. Another friend in Dallas, formerly from Hamilton, beat the cold by leaving her taps partially running, an old Canuck trick.
*
The Texas problem is nothing new. My last full winter in Okla., 1984-1985, saw the temperatures dip down to 5-10* F over a three week period from mid December/84 to early January/85. Pipes froze and split as far south as Houston. Obviously the Texas utility services ignored this earlier lesson from Mother Nature and their ill-fated decision to leave the national power grid left them alone and helpless for 2-3 days until the temperatures moderated.

I do feel for the people there and yeah I do sorta know a few that live there. Terrible what they are going through and one in particular understands what we do about winter but was highlighting how foreign this is for Texans and how things are done there.

That said back in 2006 or so 3M tried to make hockey tape and made a failure in epic proportions out of it. Threw a ton of marketing money at it (muliti-7 figures more than anyone ever) and then put in the worst hockey tape anyone ever introduced to the market coast-to-coast at Canadian Tire. My own business was still fledgling and having 3M enter the market then scared the crud out of us until we saw the product and actually laughed. You aren’t supposed to do that even to a competitor but it was actually comical how terrible the tape they launched was.

That and they tried to sell this crazy rubber paint crud as an alternate tape or something to make your tape better (in their case maybe keep it on the stick for more than a shift) that one guy I know tried and 24 hours later it had not dried and was making a puddle at the toe in the dressing room. That wasn’t the worst. The first shipment of that product to CTC had WHIMIS labels (Workplace Hazardous Materials Info for the uninitiated) on the retail package that said “Potential carcinogen.”

It was almost too funny to believe. The morale of the story is that you don’t have to be that smart to be a VP at 3M.

[SeanAvery2point0]

Wow . . . but they saved money by not winterized the installation . . . It also happen in 2011 . . .

I wonder if the cost of winterizing the power grid and water services would exceed the (infrequent) damages caused by cold weather.

This was the coldest three day stretch on record in Texas, and shattered previous record low temperatures that occurred over 100 years ago. Not necessarily something you can fault policy makers and state officials for not preparing for or allocating dollars. Not much different than if we were to experience an extended period of extreme warm temperatures in Ontario that shattered records, our grid would unlikely be able to supply the energy necessary to keep all of the air cooling systems in the province running simultaneously - these types of energy shortfalls will only become more prevalent with less reliable energy sources like wind and solar, much like the rolling blackouts last year in California.

[ginrin]

Aren't these examples of climate change being so important in regards to our future. Stop the politics and profiteering and save the planet for our children.

[wlorcb]

You don't have to 'winterize' the system in Texas, but accepting Federal regulation and hooking up to the national grid might have helped.

[WWFS]

El Paso, which is not on the Texas grid, avoided the problems that most of the rest of the state suffered.

[ginrin]

I wonder if the cost of winterizing the power grid and water services would exceed the (infrequent) damages caused by cold weather.

This was the coldest three day stretch on record in Texas, and shattered previous record low temperatures that occurred over 100 years ago. Not necessarily something you can fault policy makers and state officials for not preparing for or allocating dollars. Not much different than if we were to experience an extended period of extreme warm temperatures in Ontario that shattered records, our grid would unlikely be able to supply the energy necessary to keep all of the air cooling systems in the province running simultaneously - these types of energy shortfalls will only become more prevalent with less reliable energy sources like wind and solar, much like the rolling blackouts last year in California.

That's like saying don't buy insurance as I don't plan on dying or having an accident.

[Marty Canuck]

I wonder if the cost of winterizing the power grid and water services would exceed the (infrequent) damages caused by cold weather.

This was the coldest three day stretch on record in Texas, and shattered previous record low temperatures that occurred over 100 years ago. Not necessarily something you can fault policy makers and state officials for not preparing for or allocating dollars. Not much different than if we were to experience an extended period of extreme warm temperatures in Ontario that shattered records, our grid would unlikely be able to supply the energy necessary to keep all of the air cooling systems in the province running simultaneously - these types of energy shortfalls will only become more prevalent with less reliable energy sources like wind and solar, much like the rolling blackouts last year in California.

Why don’t you ask the people in Texas what they think about that? Pro Tip - You’ll get wildly different answers.

But as has been pointed out already the problems go back to the 1930’s and all of it is a factor. Not one single little thing is “the” problem.
So go ask Texans if 90 years of cost-cutting was worth it?

[SeanAvery2point0]

That's like saying don't buy insurance as I don't plan on dying or having an accident.

No, it would be like saying don't buy earthquake insurance to somebody who lives in Florida.. it could happen, but it almost never does, and when it does happen, it usually isnt very severe. Telling that to somebody who lives in a state (or country) that is on the Pacific coast or the 'ring of fire', would be silly.