Texas Weather

We were warned. In all fairness, we have been told over the years to expect snow and it just didn't happen. But it did this time! And then some more! Three winter storms in a row! Our third comes in overnight tonight. I have lived here since 1993. Seen on inch of snow one year and an ice storm another. Then one year we were coming back from a trip and saw frozen fog! That was pretty!
Many were not prepared. There are a lot of people online asking about fast food, food, wood, no water, no power. I'm used to going without these things. I was taught to just be prepared. Flashlights, wood, water jugs, canned food, batteries, lots of blankets, propane stove, coffee, tea, hot chocolate for the littles to warm the inner core. Extra clothes. A grill to cook with. Just make sure it's outside. Meds. I also have a solar charger. It's small but it can charge my phone and power some led lights. It floods here more than it snows, we have a small hard-shell kayak and an inflatable kayak.
How have we become so dependent on others and electronics? How have we forgotten to make sure to have what we need in case of an emergency such as this? After all the floods and tornadoes, you'd think people would have some kind of provisions right? What happened?? How could they have not had canned food? I am puzzled?
The stores closed? Why didn't they get a calculator and just accept cash? Blows my mind.

I feel like I may be missing something?

What do you keep for natural disasters such as this?

For those in Texas, what's going on in your area?

Luckily for us, knock on wood, we have stable electric and water. Sadly,oOthers haven't been so fortunate. I also keep all my emergency and travel provisions in my travel trailer.

We have gone to just in time delivery. When they scan that item it goes directly to the shipper and when it reaches a preset threshold new product is shipped. It's not as easy as getting a calculator. There would be no way for the store to keep track of inventory. It would be a huge mess on their end.

As for being prepared, there always have been and always will be those that are not.

Stay safe all those in Texas without power. I hope they get that whole mess straightened out soon.

We had about a 9 inch snow but things are back to normal today. No big deal really. Neighbors out snowblowing each other's drives clear. USPS didn't run yesterday. I guess neither rain nor sleet nor snow...well, maybe snow...

Stores could have reverted to paper receipts and entered it manually into the system when power was restored. Always a way.

We got 4 inches in our area. Today is a bit warmer. The roads are slushy and wet. But once the sun goes down, ,its going to freeze. And we are supposed to get 1-3n more inches tonight. Yikes!

Luckily there are people offering free water, wood and food to neighbors. I am so happy to see people coming together to help one another. They are posting what stores and gas stations are open. Some are offering their pool water for toilets. Very resourceful.

I hope everyone is ok. I hope everyone is safe and warm.

It depends. Some of the stores don't have any electricity, so no lighting inside and maybe not even a working door for the public to use. No refrigeration for their reefer, and as it gets colder stuff freezing ruining all the stuff like lettuce, tomatoes, etc. I don't really blame the individual stores, it's really more on ERCOT for not winterizing their power plants. Even if they were competent a big storm like that will push things past the breaking point. How many snowplows do the cities of Texas have? How many folks there have snow tires? Tire chains? Heck, how many have a snow shovel? Even the smarter, tougher folks up north find big blizzards to be a challenge, those poor Texas creampuffs are really gonna struggle!:devil: Just ribbin' those Texans, this is way outside of their experience so I can see why they're having so much trouble. Smoke sent! Hopefully ERCOT can extract noggin from posterior and get the power back on soon!

I'm not from Texas But I do live in Texas. Been here since 1993. I am used to the snow. But they were really caught off guard. You wouldn't believe how many times they have said snow on the way and ....nothing! In northern Texas, they have snow plows. We borrowed a couple here in the southern part. They also used some heavy equipment and frontloaders to scrape the ice from the roads. And for some odd reason, they used dirt on the roads instead of salt!?! OMG! They also have a deicing solution that has not ever worked.
As for ercot...ugh! Someone was just hired days ago. Lives in Michigan! Also, the wind turbines froze. The solar farms had snow and ice on them. And it was cloudy. Renewable energy is not yet sustainable for large populations.
Here in Texas we have many weather extremes. Flooding, droughts, tornadoes, ice, snow, hurricanes, tropical storms, an occasional earthquake, heavy and frozen fog. Being prepared is important. Canned food. Very important. Water. Need it. I always have canned food and gallons of water. I also always have firewood. The last snowstorm we had the power lines were pulled down because of the ice, and we were without electricity for about 24 hours. Our house one year was struck by lightning. Went without electricity for a while.
I dont know why people don't keep the minimal basics. Canned food, water jugs, wood, extra blankets.

You wouldn't believe how many times they have said snow on the way and ....nothing!

Oh, but we would. I live in Southern Indiana, and our snow forecasts are hit and miss here a lot. Sometimes they get it right but most often they do not. Usually runs along the lines of ," the snow will affect our southern viewing counties and we will see a dusting to one inch on the grass. And what we really get is 36" of heavy wet snow. OR "we are looking at 6-8" overnight and through rush hour tomorrow morning" and what we really see is -0-, nothing. Occasionally they get it right, or close to right, like we are seeing now. Most of Midwestern states was affected by the same system that hit Texas.

The big difference is we have the infrastructure (even a prepared infrastructure has failures) in place (thanks blizzard of '78). And the Road trucks, and people of a slightly older generation (anything above thirty something) who remembers coping with a big snow and the aftermath. In this area, the under thirty somethings are learning an important lesson right now about "what I shoulda done" or "I should have listened" some of them will take a few more similar circumstances like this for it to really sink in. I think a lot of us were that hard headed (or was it just disbelieving?) once upon a time.

I asked my son (25) if he was prepared. He said he thought so. I did tell them to keep their cell phones charged. I was shocked that the electricity and water went out. But I was prepared. I learned. I always have told my kids to be prepared. Their electricity was on and off over the last few days. I think their water was as well. I ended up giving them some canned food, a couple of sleeping bags, a gallon of water, a battery-operated lantern, a couple of candles, a small grill, and made them some bread. I do hope they learned their lesson.
I think as a parent, kids just look at us, roll their eyes and say " Ya, ok."

Eh, Colorado is heavy into renewable energy and it's a benefit to us.

https://www.9news.com/article/news/l...6-40a907ea8f1e

I know that I'm late to the picnic.but at least the ants don't have the crumbs yet.lol
I had it some where between somewhat difficult and somewhat east during the subzero temps and5 day power outage.i didn't have 1/5 of what I needed to stay plenty warm.but warm enough to be comfortable.the reason for that.is because I started to late at buying a propane heater n tanks.stores were sold out.i ended up buying the heater on line, along with some other items.like a fan for wood burning stoves.it work's great with the propane heater.and as far as most of my neighbors go.they weren't prepared for it at all.one neighbor used her gas stove top to say warm.the air in her apartment was very dry.another didn't do anything for heat at all.