Last night I went to bed about 1 a.m. Those first few hours, I’m usually out for the count. At some point, I heard what sounded like an alarm – a wakeup alarm, not a smoke alarm. Even as it continued to ring, I was thinking . . it’s Monday. Am I supposed to be somewhere? Why did I set an alarm? It stopped. I went back to sleep. A few minutes later, it started again. I started fumbling around in the dark for my phone. I found it but that’s not where the sound was coming from. It stopped again. I went back to sleep. It started again. It was time to turn on the lamp and figure out what the heck was going on.
It was my tablet ringing . . Vince calling me on Facebook. It was 1:57 a.m.
Knowing something had to be wrong, I was instantly in panic mode.
Vince: My power is out.
Me: Mine is not! I was sleeping.
Vince: Can you call Encore?
I was nice but it was hard. He has a phone but . . his battery was dead. Who lets their phone battery die (1) in the midst of the worst winter storm to hit Texas in decades, if not centuries and (2) ever . . ever? I can just about tell you every minute of every day how much battery power I have on my phone and if it’s less than 20%, it’s going on the charger. This is something we’ve dealt with for years. I’d ask him where is phone was or try to call him and his phone was dead. I’d like to say that will change but I know it won’t.
Without a phone, he could not call an ambulance, the fire department — no one.
So, I told him I would call Encore. I did and because both of our phone numbers are registered to our account, just by calling in, I heard a recorded message that they knew our power was out but could not give me a time when it might be restored.
That was 10 hours ago. It was zero degrees. As of writing this post, it’s 7 degrees but it’s going to be zero again tonight.
There are so many people without power. If power is not restored, this is going to mean frozen pipes (if they aren’t already), animals with no heat (including Cat), homes without fireplaces with no heat. It’s a sad and dangerous mess. I’m not blaming the electric company. This is one of those things that happens rarely and is almost beyond the capabilities of the power company to handle.
I am thankful that all I lost was a few hours sleep but I am concerned for so very many people without power. The last time I checked, Encore alone and well over 1.23 million customers (and that may mean households) in Texas without power and they’re just one company that provides power. This is dangerous for homes with no alternative way to heat. Most towns/cities will not have shelters or power to keep this many people safe with the extremely low temps.
It’s a mess and it’s a scary situation for many.
Vince was worried about me losing power in MO. He wasn’t real concerned about it happening to him.
Liz says
Part of the reason is that the solar farms are not generating due to the snow and cloudy skies and the wind farms had to be shut down due to icing conditions. Get this – the wind turbines use power at these times to keep them operational.
The newspaper indicated that “The Southwest Power Pool (SPP), the regional transmission operator that oversees the grid that serves parts or all of 17 states between here and the U.S./Canadian Border, issued a Level 3 Energy Emergency Alert at 10:38 a.m. Monday. As part of that alert, utilities that serve customers across the region have been advised to prepare to shut down part of their distribution systems at times to conserve the power available on the grid.”
So, there are a bunch of people who might get brown outs for the next day or so. At least I have a small solar panel that I can use to charge my devices.
Judy Laquidara says
Our power supplier has been at Level 3 for at least three days but so far, no brown outs here. I’m saving the propane for the fireplaces in case I need them.
Tee says
Tell Vince he can charge his phone in his car, even without going anywhere. I hope he remains safe at home.
Judy Laquidara says
He has several backup batteries, has three generators that are on intermittently for the freezers, fridge and well pump plus he has solar charges and it’s sunny there (and here) today.
Andrea in MO says
Losing power now is not just an inconvenience, it could be deadly. I hope it gets restored soon!
Judy Laquidara says
Definitely. With the fireplace going, it’s 51 in the house now.
Dorothy Matheson says
I am very worried as I am in the outage area with not alternate way to heat anything. Power finally came back on for ? how long. Mother 95 husband 87. OK scary for sure.
Many clothes on and small dog on each lap helps. Microwave food while power is on. We already have lost the water in one house.
No where to evacuate to.
So just try to cope.
Joyce says
I heard on the radio that the wind mills in Texas are frozen and they are having to do things to thaw them out which is why there are some of the power outages. I don’t know if that’s why the power is out where Vince is, though.
Suzette Harris says
All of Texas is on the same power grid. They say wind provides 25% of our power. No fail over plan. It’s been tough! We were pretty prepared but could do better.
Judy Laquidara says
No, I have a friend near Amarillo and they’re on a different grid. Found this online:
While the two other grids, the Eastern Interconnection, the Western Interconnection, cover huge swaths of the country, ERCOT covers about 90% of Texas. El Paso, parts of the northern Panhandle, and some eastern Texas regions are not part of ERCOT and get their energy from one of the other two U.S. power grids.
Debbie says
I know what you mean Judy. I’m near San Antonio. It’s not good here with no power. Houses have internal temps lower than our thermostats register. My kids both have lost power and their houses are colder than 50 degrees. One has an infant. Lost water because the well can’t pump and pipes have frozen. It’s hard to prepare for something like this that is at historic levels. I have a generator but can’t get it to them. Plus it wouldn’t help much. I’m off to try to thaw my septic tank discharge sprayers. sheesh.
Judy Laquidara says
I know what you’re saying but no matter where people live, for their own safety, they need to be aware of the worst possible case scenario and have a plan. Having a well as our only source of power, we had a generator specifically for the well and had it wired so that could plug it in without having to do much else, and kept a heater specifically for the well house. In 10 years, we never had to put that plan into action til today. We also kept and rotated at least 50 gallons of storebought water just for emergencies. We have the same here with the bottled water even though we have municipal water. Vince has a battery backup setup for his CPAP. It was about $200 and he’s never needed it til now.
Yes, those events you think will never happen but COULD happen . . we need a plan for those too. I feel really bad for people with children, especially those with infants. There is a time I’d probably abandon the place and a baby might be what causes me to do it but now, I’m not sure where people would go with so many without power.
I hope your family stays safe and makes do without too much disruption to their lives.
sheryl says
I’ve been thinking about both of you and Wicked Wanda too. It’s actually in the 20’s here which is very unusual. I’ve got the last water faucet dripping. Thank goodness we have a gas stove and gas heat in the upper level. There’s a fireplace if we need to use it. We haven’t lost power yet but lots of people in our parish have. Take care of yourself.
Judy Laquidara says
We have gas central heat in Texas but it doesn’t work without electricity so keeping the house warm with the fireplace was barely working. Vince said it was in the low 50’s in the family room with the fire place and he figured in the low 40’s in the bedroom. I hope y’all don’t lose power and weather returns to normal for all of us soon.
Nelle Coursey says
I hope he left the faucets dripping! That is what we all do here when this happens. It is once in a lifetime thing for me! I think they said the power outage went down as far as Houston! We called several times yesterday and they could not give us a time. I think it was almost 24 hours before it came back on. Then we had a water leak in one of our kitchen pipes! It was the hot water so I turned it off at the cut off and still spurting, tried gorilla tape and it would not stop it. I finally called Pat and he told me to turn it off at the water heater. Still not heat, still in the motel! At least we are warm. Bless his heart, that bone cancer is evil! He was hurting so bad! And with the elevator out, we had to climb the stairs to the 3rd floor! But we are safe, the dogs are safe and the house is still standing!
Judy Laquidara says
He did leave the faucets dripping that were on outside walls but once the power went off, the well stopped so whatever water was in the lines wasn’t moving but he had all the cabinet doors open so luckily, pipes haven’t frozen so far.
I’m so sorry for y’all. It’s so hard on everyone but with him being sick, it’s worse. No one should be having to go through this. If you see this first, I sent you an email.