There we were, skating along on my good looks and impeccable luck, and just about feeling untouchable when the power went off with a huge green flash and a loud bang. I thought we were at war and someone just dropped a bunker buster bomb on the water treatment plant about a third of a mile away. But no, it was just a catastrophic physical failure of a transformer cluster. We love putting them up on high poles so the wind chill works better, they're more of a challenge to fix (and who doesn't like a challenge?), and so the high school kids don't challenge each other to lick the HV wires.
So, the power went off at 5 am and stayed off until just a little while ago, about 5:15 pm.
But, the water treatment plant was offline for while so now we're under a "boil water" alert for at least the next 24 hours. I need to research how that all works. For now Belinda translated for me. It means: "don't drink the water unless you boil it for a while". Hope that boiling works on cryptosporidium. And brain eating amoebas.
Anyway, we have heat back. All the exterior faucets are alive and dripping well. But I also wrapped them around the exposed pipe area (but did not block the drip flow!). We are able to cook, microwave and shower. And we can do so at 68 to 70 degrees.
We've been lucky but there are more obstacles to overcome. Tomorrow night will be out last night in the teens so we still have time to do one more round with no heat. The power has been out at the three local (to us) grocery stores so they've either had very limited hours or shut altogether. That's okay, I guess, because panic shoppers stripped the shelves, and the wait in line to get in and fight for the meager remainders was about an hour long. It makes shopping for groceries in the old Soviet Union sound better.
I'm not too sad about the stores since it's still not safe to drive on the ice covered streets. Remember, we're not like all you "first world" states where people come out and sand or salt your roads for you after plowing them the minute they get dusted with snow. Nope, we get the old truck with the baldest tires and drive as fast as we can. The idea being that the longer you are on the road the more opportunities for something bad to happen. And if you are going to have an accident don't you want to get it over with quick? So you can get on with your day?
On clear roads Texans (and southern Californian transplants) drive 60 in a 30 zone. But when we have a mix of black ice and black ice they like to go just a little faster. Gets the adrenaline pumping.
Hopefully we'll be getting back to normal by late Saturday. Probably just in time for an earthquake or an inconvenient lava eruption. But I would not rule out a pesky meteor shower..... You just never know with the folks in Texas. Might be a legislative pact with the devil coming back to haunt us.
Safe and warm and thankful right now. Subject to some change. But always thankful.
Just a quick note for Fuji camera users: They have new firmware available for many, many Fuji cameras today. I was interested in the X100V firmware. It adds the ability to use the built in ND filter for video now. Also allows you to record both Jpeg AND raw when using the two digital teleconverter settings. And lots more.
13 comments:
Thanks for the update. Last week, just before the snowstorm hit, out mayor reminded everyone who had moved to Seattle from a colder climate: "If you think you can drive in this kind of weather - you can't!" To prove her point, collisions in the city were up 200% over the weekend.
I am very glad to see that you have power back. Besides keeping warm, power keeps your wifi alive, and who can live without wifi?
Here in SE PA, while we had our 9 degrees F a week or so ago, our nights are still in the low teens or mid twenties. There are three layers of precipitation on the ground, and because of thaw and refreeze, you can walk on top of what looks like a foot of snow. Now expecting anything from 5" to 10" of snow and sleet, followed by freezing rain, followed by a mix of snow, sleet, and freezing rain until Friday morning.
We're in a wooded area, a single power line snaking its way over several miles around to our house, so having a generator is mandatory. Battery-powered backup sump pump. Individual UPS's on router, phone panel, Ethernet switches. Wood stove insert in the fireplace. Someday I may hit a meaningful lottery number, and buy a whole-house generator system with automatic transfer ... and of course a Tesla wall-mounted battery pack.
Stay warm, stay safe, and heat and cook things whenever the power is on, since you can't depend on it. (ERCOT - hah!)
BTW, an unexpected side benefit of surgical masks: they keep your face warm!
Perhaps a bit of unsolicited and perhaps obvious advice about driving on snow or ice. Imagine a raw egg between your foot and whatever pedal it is on. Your goal is to control the acceleration and deceleration of the car without breaking the egg. That minimizes the chance of sliding or skidding.
I was talking to a transplanted woman from Texas this morning who said her family in West Texas was without power but doing OK. She was jealous when I told her about you being on the same grid as the water treatment plant and therefore had perfectly reliable electricity. I'm sorry to hear that I spoke too soon.
You seem to be about as prepared as a person can be. Be kind and check-in with your neighbors, especially the older ones.
Political lunacy aside, climate change is obviously real. If you are planning to live in your house for awhile I would suggest a backup generator. When Hurricane Sandy hit we were without power for twelve days - 20 miles North of Times Square. The primary cause was that our town supervisor got into a p___ing contest with Con Ed (the power utility). Your governor is, of course, right on top of things and the grid issues will be squared away quickly, and at no cost to you.
If you do consider a generator, it should be a stationary, as close to "whole house" that you can handle. We now live about 100 miles North of Times Square, in a house with a generator. Gives some peace of mind.
Good luck.
Not sure I would agree that the TX Governor (Abbott) is on top of things. From what I can see, he seems more interested in using the power issues to spread misinformation and cast blame on renewable energy.
We have friends near Houston who have been without power for several days. I hope for the best for everyone, especially those who are less fortunate than Kirk and less able to deal with the ongoing difficulties.
Good to see you haven’t lost your sense of humour! Your very low temperatures seem to happen very infrequently and even if they do get more frequent with global heating I think there’s no prediction that will become common. I’ve been wondering what is the solution to such infrequent occurrences and can’t see you installing backup generators or similar just for the purpose. I don’t know the numbers but how about fuelling houses with solar panels and using electric vehicles? It’s often said the batteries in leccy vehicles can be use for general storage and feed the house or grid when parked. I don’t know how long a car battery can satisfy a house for but since you don’t drive when you have the infrequent snow in TX it seems a possibility.
Back in the 1970s, there was a real possibility of natural gas shortages in the northeast and I was working on a project to investigate how some key industries could continue without natural gas (meat processing, baking, etc.). The folks down south, where natural gas was plentiful, helpfully said something to the effect that the Yankees should freeze in the dark.
With family in Texas, I can both sympathize and empathize, since here in NY with my crappy electric utility outages are a way of life and a generator can be your best friend.
Stay warm and safe. And don't believe the bullshit that Abbott is tossing about regarding windmills.
I've been reading about Texas' power problems- sounds like the free market at work. Sometimes, especially for critical infrastructure, the 'government' needs to be more involved.
I live in Chicago, and we've been having some unusually (for us) bad weather. Temperatures in the minus double digits at night, and what looks like ~3 foot accumulation of snow on the backyard picnic table. The small metal sculpture of 3 stacked pigs that I normally use to gauge snow depth (Hey sweetie- we had a two-pigger last night) has long since disappeared.
It occurs to me that in addition to few snow plows in Austin there are probably few people who own snowblowers. On my block almost every third house has one and they sure beat heavy shoveling. Some of us do our driveways and sidewalk and then clear the sidewalks in front of our neighbors as well. Good times!
Something people don't realize about driving in ice and snow (BTW, salt doesn't really help with traction- it just makes the snow turn into some sort of weird grease) is that their nice AWD vehicle (I own a Subaru) may not have a problem accelerating in the snow, but it doesn't help with stopping. And pickup trucks have their own special traction problems.
Good luck to you and your fine city! Stay warm and keep off the streets until you can actually see dry pavement.
Amazed that you're able to keep up your blog with everything that is going on down there. Nothing like that has happened to us since the great ice storm of 1998 that hit the US northeast and Quebec and Ontario. Stay warm!
I have two generators. One for camping and one for the house. They can also be used in tandom. I may never need to use them for the house but it's like having a spare tire. You only need it when you need it. Comes from being a boy scout.
Eric
Most pressing:
Do you have enough camera batteries charged? Because, you know, priorities.
On a side note, from my news days when I took all manner of electric dependent digital stuff all over the place I'm reminded I still have a nice little inverter that lets me plug in a couple 120V things into my running car. Might have to re-locate that and put it into my emergency kit. You know, to keep camera batteries charged during the apocalypse.
Sarcasm and irony. Love it.
Never give up, Mr Tuck.
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