He's not making this up you know.

Revisions definitely need to occur. Power outages suck, but we got to -11 real temp and never had water problems.
Now apartment buildings losing power and pipes freezing are a different thing though.
Gas stove and heat sure are life savers too.

None of you would like to repeat history. Many have suffered more.

That a cool painting, but if you think they were standing up going across that frozen river, not gonna happen.

Yup; metro folks chose to live there

Mic drop.

All the Yankees that have moved here are just as unprepared or less prepared than native Texans. Those yankees are used to snow plows, good infrastructure that doesn't lose power, heating methods that don't require electricity, and buildings that are built for the most part with insulating properties designed for the cold.

Cochise, while my post was mostly tongue in cheek, i think we can all agree the ones orepared are the ones prepared and the ones not are the ones not. This isnt going to change regardless of where people are from. I know plenty of native texans that were left holding their hands out empty while plenty were not. Its a personal preparedness thing that has nothing to do with state of origin.

Feel happy you know (of) at least one “yankee” that was plenty prepare for this mess on all accounts.

I knew you were a damn yankee - It's all in good fun man. I've got a few buckeyes in the family from up north (married in) and I give them crap also (and they give it in return).

And I agree - prepared is prepared - doesn't matter where you're from.

No buckeyes in my family

I can't stand the modern PC BS of SCOUTS, but I am grateful for learning the importance of preparedness from BOY Scouts of America. I am not a 'prepper' per se, but I was prepared for something along the lines of '83. We had plenty of water to get us through, gas for generators when needed and were able to open our home to neighbors that weren't ready for this. Admittedly, I am on my last four logs of wood, so there is room for improvement there, but the electricity is back on and we are up and running as normal now. I am going to cut more wood as soon as I can get to the ranch.

I turned 41 during this storm, and am in awe of those younger than me with better resources than me that were absolutely blindsided by this event.

I just wish we had fewer whiners and more doers in this world.

I understand this is a once-in-a-generation event, but what happened to being self-reliant and responsible for one's own brood?

Bingo. Our society has gotten soft and expects someone else to be there to take care of them, whether it is in the food dept, water dept, heat dept, etc....everything is someone else’s job, my job is to just live and surf the internet (as i type on the internet). I did not put my son in scouts, i was raised in scouts. Be prepared. The funny thing is we had a thread about shtf just a couple weeks ago, wonder how many folks were ready for this and how many are now adjusting their plans and preps.

Preparedness is a mindset, it isnt having everything needed to survive, its about the ability to adapt to whatever is thrown your way, having some meager means to make your equipment work, and having the will.

Good on you for being as ready as you could be. Had the energy grid actually gone bust and we were out for months we would have seen a real zombie apocalypse. People need to rake heed to this and realize how close texas was to a real disaster. What happened just now was a mere eye opener.

A couple of tanks of gas and you can be somewhere warm............why do people just sit in their hole as it collapses around them. Quit digging and start baling.

People had 2 weeks notice of this cold approaching.

I'm right there with you. I'm 62 and haven't missed a minute of work. Got 3 people that work for me, all about half my age, and you'd think it was the end of the world if you listened to them. This week I've adjusted and been helping our maintenance crew deal with the busted pipes, clearing snow and ice from the parking lots, picking up staff and bringing them to work and then taking them home, worked with the HVAC guys to get one of our units back online, and then had to troubleshoot the fire alarm system when it went schitzo yesterday. And what do I normally do? IT.

Absolutely 100%. If my mom had not had power in town, there’s no way in hell I would have sat in a 45 degree house for 3 days. That’s stupid. Miami will be 81 degrees today.

That just helped me realize the 'upside' to COVID. Hotel occupancy in warmer environments is well below normal. Plenty of rooms to rent!

I have noticed that those who Hunt, fish, or are otherwise outdoorsman are usually pretty prepared for this stuff. I personally go to Oklahoma when it is bitter cold and live without water or electricity for a week or more at a time on a regular basis. This past week has just been a minor inconvenience for me. I would imagine that most on here, even many that sustained damage to their homes were probably fairly well equipped to handle what Mother nature has given us, and none of this would be considered an emergency. If you think any of this was a real emergency, you might want to re-think your preparedness level. Sometimes preparedness is not the things you have, but the knowledge that you have. Can you cut and braise pipe? Can you heat and cook without electricity? Can you do simple carpentry and drywall? Can you turn off the water to your house?

Neighbors across the street did just that- they headed to their condo in Florida.
So they were sitting down there all warm and cozy when they look on their camera and see water running out the back door.
Called a neighbor that has a key and they went over to check- 3" of water in the downstairs.
If you flee you better have a "Plan B" for what you left behind...

They should have considered prevention instead of a cure. We left for the holidays last Christmas and I shut off and drained the water from the house even without a forecast of 8 degrees for a low.

all those who hoarded ammo were too broke to go buy supplies. just sayin.

Ran my house's gas furnace off a generator and kept my family and a neighbors family warm until power came back. Just a little know how and YouTube haha, seriously will re-think everything in my house now. I will be preparing for another ACTIVE 'cane season, and we won't be caught off guard.

I watch the weather daily, knew this was coming and warned tff multiple times.
hit wally world last wed. and again on fri. to stock up on things I could eat with no cooking if necessary or cook in the fireplace.

my problem came when our amerigas driver never showed for a scheduled refill (we are on auto refill) after I called fri. and asked if they would make it, assured they would. yeah right! have 2 500 gal tanks buried, one was in the red and the other was almost red so I have been very careful about use. thermostats at 65 and 3 of 6 units shut down, lodge is 7,000 sf. and metal bldg/barndominium built. stocked up firewood fri/sat. and have just enough inside to cover to tomorrow, may need more if temps don't rise but for now holding at 65* in big room.

second problem was blackouts, this caused both our exterior wall mounted tankless to freeze up, part due to lack of propane and part due to power outage, between the 2 I had no way to run water thru them to keep from freezing so I wrapped exposed pipes, used a heater on one that froze first and last night both came back online miraculously.

in my case, 20 yrs. in colorado mts. at 8500' helped a lot on how to winterize things, about 30 yrs. in construction also helped a ton.

my long winded point is that we were warned and I think that a lot of folks are burned out on weather predictions that don't happen and they shrug their shoulders and wait to see. this time it was a real bad idea to wait. I hope a lot of folks wake up and realize that the one time they get it right is probably the clue that being prepared is a whole lot better than not.

had they been wrong again I would still have about 2 weeks worth of food on hand, a ton of firewood inside and been that much further ahead of things in normal times. all I have left to do is find a new propane supplier, amerigas lied to me twice and one of the owners as well and he is the acct. holder. they gonna get a good long wiff of my stench after about 9 days with no shower when I go see them tomorrow in paris, well provided the roads clear some.

So what would be the best way to get hot water in this situation with propane as your main fuel? Large water heater in a closet, tankless unit in a closet?

[/quote]
I have noticed that those who Hunt, fish, or are otherwise outdoorsman are usually pretty prepared for this stuff. I personally go to Oklahoma when it is bitter cold and live without water or electricity for a week or more at a time on a regular basis. This past week has just been a minor inconvenience for me. I would imagine that most on here, even many that sustained damage to their homes were probably fairly well equipped to handle what Mother nature has given us, and none of this would be considered an emergency. If you think any of this was a real emergency, you might want to re-think your preparedness level. Sometimes preparedness is not the things you have, but the knowledge that you have. Can you cut and braise pipe? Can you heat and cook without electricity? Can you do simple carpentry and drywall? Can you turn off the water to your house?[/quote]


Very good post. Knowledge is just as important as materials. You could have all the pieces and they are worthless without knowledge to install. I had PVC fittings on hand but needed more than I expected (already making a list of what inventory I need to replace and increase spares). I went to Lowe’s and saw a bunch of people just grabbing whatever 3/4” or 1/2” fitting and piping not even realizing they had either CPVC or PVC piping and the opposite fittings. I saw one guy with what I needed and asked if he realized that they aren’t the same. He said no and I asked if I could have a few fittings from his cart. I then explained to him he could reduce down to 1/2” and he would be fine. He was shocked and kept asking if going from 3/4” to 1/2” would be ok. Just like I went straight to electrical isle and got a 3/4” Sch 40 slip FIP (grey color) when I couldn’t find one in the plumbing section. FYI they can work in a pinch as they are both Sch 40. Point is you could tell a lot of folks had know trade knowledge or much basic knowledge and even with a cart full of supplies it wasn’t going to do them much.