rwfromkansas wrote:Rough stories from the family staying here overnight. Their neighborhood has been without power for 15 hours! Sure they will have frozen pipes. Also they said they have a hot tub that will be a goner probably.
Sounds like my neighborhood? They live in Ponder?
We just got power again. It's been over 30min so fingers crossed.
So here's an update from one of us who's right in the middle of it.
Let me tell you this sucks. I've got a wife, and two sons 5 and 3. We cut water and drained the pipes because the power had been out since 3 AM this morning. Trying to avoid busted pipes. We got our fridge and freezer food outside to avoid it going bad. Some the fridge food is now frozen.
House inside temp was 48 when the heat just kicked on. We briefly had power around 6:30 ish for like 20min. We've been getting in our minivan to warm up, drive around the neighborhood and charge our electronics. We have unlimited 5G cell data with 15GB hotspots for both phones so we can connect our kids tablets and my laptop without issue. I have a TV/FM tuner for the laptop that runs over USB so we can watch TV live if need be.
I stocked up on Propane, food and bottle water. Bought a small indoor safe Mr Heater that runs on Propane to use during the day or to help warm up.
I've got family down towards Dallas that has power on and off so we opted to stay since we have what we need and have plenty of camping gear to stay warm when sleeping.
I'm so done with Winter. Seriously. I'm done. This will emotionally and financially ruin people and perhaps kill people. Depending on any damage to my home I'm now maybe looking at 2 deductibles as I was in the process of getting my roof approved from wind damage from a few weeks ago.
While I appreciate the passion on this site and totally understand it, I think we need to be mindful there are fellow humans hurting and scared right now.
Apologies for the rant but it's been a day. Not directed at anyone as I know we don't control the weather.
Back to bed, surprisingly the power is still on, been 45min.
Don't hold me accountable for anything I post on this forum. Leave the real forecasting up to the professionals.
Location: Ponder, TX (all observation posts are this location unless otherwise noted)