I’m seeing a bunch of images of broken water pipes and more snow is on the way. How can this Nebraskan help my TX brothers and sisters that doesn’t involve throwing money at the worthless Red Cross? Do y’all have enough water down there?
@kuoh@mike808
honestly the quickest solution for a burst pipe or two for the average home owner would be to shut off the water, cut and debur the pipe and slap a shark bite cap on it. To cut the burst off from the system. Then deal with the repairs to that section of piping later. Assuming it will be above freezing/you will have power and it won’t refreeze below the cap.
I have pipes into the unheated bonus room and 3 or 4 froze one winter and were fine till it thawed out. Then a disaster. I had to cut the water, clean up, then cut into the drywall/cut the pipes/cap the burst ones. I can solder and do my own patches but not on a wet cold line in winter. I still haven’t fixed them cause I don’t use them. I put in drain down valves in the basement and only pressurise them when it’s above freezing. Which the previous owners should have done in the first place. But those sharkbites have held for years.
The reason I would recommend sharkbites or similar is because any home owner can just push them on. So you don’t need to know how to solder. You don’t have to heat and dry out the pipe so solder will work, and you don’t have to scramble for a plumber. And they come off easily for an eventual splice/repair. Since I imagine lots of people in texas will need plumbers asap. Demand may outstrip supply.
This is obviously not an option if one of your main lines has burst. But if say one of the lines to an outdoor faucet close to an exterior wall has. Because it’s colder there. Or a line to an upstairs bathroom has burst. People could cut/cap those and deal with it when the rush is down… Does obviously require some knowledge of your plumbing routing. May require some dry wall repair if you cut into a wall to stop it. But water damage is usually worse. And if it’s behind a wall the plumber is going in there anyway. Too late to care about drywall
@kuoh@mike808
I’m just going to use home depot as an example. But almost any hardware store should have these. Pipe cutter and deburrer are one size fits all for residential plumbing. Feel free to help your neighbor
Then you are usually going to want 1/2 inch sharkbites. Normally in my state your in line will be up to 1 inch. Your branch lines will be 3/4 and your sidelines be 1/2. But realistically if you main or more than on branch is leaking your plumbing is down.
@kuoh@mike808 and just to clarify again… That’s just a way to plug in house leaks In your plumbing…/cut off lines. To reduce damage. If a boil order Is inefect … Obviously do that. As with all safety info.
Well, easy for me to say since we have power & water at my place (W Fort Worth). But by the time anything gets organized, it’s going to be back to 50-60F.
I wonder if the National Guard has the time to actually get anything substantial accomplished before it warms back up.
S. Central Texas here. Extended freeze here since Sunday. Stayed in teens and bottomed at 5 deg F, I believe. Buildings here are not insulated for that. Finally today we nudged back above freezing. I was doing a slow drip on outside faucets – didn’t think the foam insulating cover would work that low. They froze anyway. One I poured boiling water on and it started running again. Now it’s at a fast drip, not quite a stream and has been holding OK. other I could not get to, so don’t know for now.
Rolling blackouts left house very cold – thermostat reads down only to mid 50’s and it was below that inside. Inside lines also quit so I assume they froze. Sometimes power would be on for only 15-20 minutes. Put space heaters up close to cabinets for inside lines, and all started flowing again. That’s been the extent of heating for the house. Crossing fingers, but no sign yet of any burst pipes for house.
Some reports on community boards of blackouts leaving power on for cumulative of just a couple of hours over the last few days. Many reports of frozen pipes and some internal flooding, especially at apartments with lines in adjoining walls. Almost all construction here is on concrete slab, last few years, usually with pipes coming up through the concrete. Older construction is slab, with pipes in attic, as mine is. A house I had that was built in the 50’s was on pier and beam. The issue here is usually heat – temperatures sometimes get upwards of 110’s. Rare to get down into teens or lower, and usually that goes with highs above freezing. Even main pipes coming to the residence are usually only a couple feet below ground level.
I haven’t had to go without power for more than an hour, yet, myself, and usually only 30-45 minutes or so, max. As of this evening, power-ons have been lasting longer, steadily increasing past an hour, and currently it’s been on for an exact three hours, by my digital clock radio which resets to midnight whenever power is restored to it.
Who to blame for this mess? Everybody. State energy producers haven’t spent proper capital to winterize against these once every 20 years or so events, as ERCOT (currently a dirty word around here) has recommended (but not required). Federal govt has capped production – state had to get special approval to up the generating hours last couple days – for the plants which were operating properly. We had a local coal-fired generating plant closed (with the coal produced relatively nearby) to make environmentalist happy. Wind energy is a big part of the mix (plants up in northwest Tex mainly) but they weren’t built to withstand the extreme, prolonged cold of this rare event. There is a fair amount of solar, but that doesn’t work that well in a week-long overcast weather event. Texas produces lots of natural gas, but has to honor sales contracts and is priced by market conditions (which have been extreme lately, also) and they also have to follow federal production caps. There were reports of gas transportation pipes being frozen (probably more the pumps). Lots of oil, but that goes to gasoline production mainly, and that production is highly regulated, by both the state and the federal govt. Of the two main nuclear generators, one had to shut down for this. (And new plants are unheard of around here,)
ERCOT is getting most of the blame for the allocation of the state power grid during this mess.
Snow is rare around here. See it once every two or three years, but your snowman will have shrunk to a mound the next day. Four days of snow on the ground is the first in my lifetime that I am aware of. And it is back in the forecast for this morning, but I haven’t seen it yet today. Also the threat of MORE ice. Freezing rain yesterday playing heck with roads and power lines. My Yankee relatives always ribbed us about driving on snow when we were up there, but I don’t think any of them would do well
driving on the ice that we are much more likely to get here than snow.
My power is currently still on (pun intended), so maybe we’ve turned a corner. Lows now in mid to upper 20’s for next couple of days and highs in upper thirties. Used to, we thought of THAT as cold, but now that’s a veritable heat wave.
@phendrick What do we need mostly right now? A heat wave. And send lots of pro bono plumbers! On community boards, it seems a lot of people who have frozen pipes are retired/elderly or minorities who would have trouble paying for materials, let alone plumbers.
@phendrick News reports suggest both Gov Abbott and the legislature are after the heads of ERCOT and PUC (Public Utility Commision) personnel. And that will get lots of public support.
@phendrick It’s a shame the gov and legislators aren’t getting any accountability themselves. They have oversight of ERCOT and the PUC and appointed their cronies and political supporters (because calling it bribery, corruption, or grift is just too unseemly) to them.
Texas voters should remember this at the polls and which party was in charge when this happened on their watch.
@phendrick So much of what you’ve described is accurate that I hate to be a nitpicker, but 2 things:
Just about everywhere in the country requires following ‘national’/‘uniform’/‘standard’ building codes which mandate a certain minimum amount of insulation. Except in Texas, local municipalities are allowed to make up their own (and many do, especially the farther south you go). Any recent-ish (last 30-40 years!) home construction following the IBC (merged the 3 earlier systems in 1997) would keep interior pipes from freezing with very modest heating. Note: It’s actually easier to maintain pipes with pier & beam construction during these extreme events cuz they’re relatively simple to reach to heat, disconnect, or repair them.
Extreme cold should have NO effect on wind turbines; they should be using solid lubricants in their gearbox. Of course, if the GRID is disconnected they can’t help much, but that’s hardly a turbine problem.
As I said, I had previously lived in a house with pier and beam foundation. I can’t see myself crawling under the house to wrap or thaw the pipes in the weather of the last week or so, so that might not be such an advantage. (But definitely, if repair is needed.) My water lines that quit running (probably due to freezing) were located in walls with exterior exposure, in kitchen and bathrooms, so a little more than “modest” heating needed – I had to aim space heaters at the areas (opened cabinet doors). And, to boot, “modest” heating was not that much available with all the rolling blackouts we endured. Most of the house never reached 50 degrees when power was on.
Also, the areas that seemed to be reporting the most pipe problems had mainly homes older than your “last 30-40 years”. My present house was built circa 1970, and I for one had not found the money to consider insulation upgrades (Maybe I should now look harder).
Extreme cold can have an effect on wind turbines. It’s more than just a lubrication issue. From an industry website: https://windurance.com/2021/02/16/frozen-wind-turbines-do-wind-turbines-even-work-in-the-winter/
To do a partial quote:“Turbines operate year-round in Northern regions because they have special design features [which] … come at a cost, so wind turbines made for warm climates generally don’t have these features.”
And, on top of everything that @phendrick just said, which is very accurate, a lot of places are experiencing problems with water quality and are under water boil precautions. The pumps at the treatment plants froze and they can’t insure the quality of the water, and in some cases, the treatment plants lost power. Yet ANOTHER Public Utility Commission situation.
I am SO fortunate. We’re on the back of this, and, so far, I still have my power, water, no frozen pipes, and have enough food and water to last me quite awhile, if needed.
Of course, I listened to the weather reports and actually prepared, so… unlike so many, it seems, that in the middle of this were out searching for food and blaming the state because “the state didn’t prepare”. I have no idea how the state could have gotten them food, but, hey… it’s easier to blame someone else, huh?
@Tadlem43 the state could have enforced the recommendations from the last freeze so natural gas plants did not go offline in an emergency. The state could have properly regulated it’s utilities. Both would have kept grocery stores open. If they could plow/salt the streets so workers/customers could safely drive there. But technically no one is going to starve in a week and almost no one has zero food regaurdless. Just normal shopping you have something in the pantry. Miserable sure. But water first.
@Tadlem43@unksol Yeah the water side of this is a big issue (although the news said one 11? year old died of hypothermia in his bed the night before last in Houston). Many homes here (don’t live in TX but we get Houston shit a day later) have no power and no water (the city’s main water plant system failed)- so can’t boil anyway even if they had a trickle of water like some have. Entire swaths of this area have no power or have rolling blackouts (we are rolling black outs although the neighborhood over from me is out). Some of the problem is blown transformers and icy trees down, no idea if the grid itself is part of the problem other than it can’t handle the load (thus the rolling blackouts in the evenings).
Stores are all out of water, city did nothing until yesterday (I’ve had no water at all since very, very early Monday morning but at least I have power)… not to mention in states where this is a once in a 20-50 year occurrence weather wise, kind of hard to predict the outcome is going to be total grid failure since it isn’t a common occurrence (so blaming people for not preparing for something that hasn’t happened before - at least here (here any water outages have been maybe a day to day and a half in the past and not the entire city) - is more like blaming the victim). I had the better part of a case kicking around from when we had a broken water pipe going into the building a while back, but eventually one goes through that as long as this is lasting.
I spent the better part of yesterday trying to find water for my 88 year old neighbor (thought she was with her grandkids - nope - as they have no power or water or I would have tried to help her the day before yesterday when I was helping 3 others who were elderly with no cars get water - got some for them but none for me due to the one limit per person stores had imposed). Finally got her a case at a city hand out (only one case for car) after waiting in line nearly 3 hours. Also yesterday finally did find, about 14 miles, away a place with water with full water pressure so filled containers from the bathroom sink. Stores totally out of bottled water so I got very lucky with that sink.
Going back to that sink later today (Saturday) with my 5 gallon container to fill it up as the 88 year old was very upset that her apt smelled like a sewer (yeah no water = that) and I used most of my 5 gallon container filling up her tank so she could flush. Fortunately the guys doing the foundation work have a chemical toilet in the parking lot so I’ve been mostly using that - although at 10 and 18 degrees, etc. that is a bit nippy.
What I am the most unhappy about with this though is my already past 21 day Pfizer vaccine shot got cancelled and and was rescheduled for a week even further out. I will be pushing the limits for even the CDC’s recommendations, never mind the data I have found for Pfizer indicates the drop of in antibiotics gets pretty steep after 28 days (while this data isn’t published they did have some data that accidentally goes out 42 days so small number of subjects as this was not planned; Moderna does better further out). I will be beyond that. I’d bet they won’t let me start all over again.
@Tadlem43@unksol PS the joke is on the governor of this state though. His pipes froze so maybe he will take this mess bit more seriously since it personally affects him now. On the other hand I am sure his household is not suffering from the water shortage. I’d guess the city trucks dumped at least a pallet of water at his place. That would explain why the place I was in line at for my neighbor for 3 hours only got 4 pallets of water total over two drop offs (with a line that stretched over a mile so I am presuming at least some who were behind me got no water).
@Kidsandliz the water situation is obviously bad. I mean I have gallons in 2 liter bottles in the kitchen cabinets just cause. People should have some stored but it doesn’t help if the house is freezing.
But being northern midwest. Gas heat. We have basements so your main plumbing is below grade and it’s hard for the basement to freeze anyway. And the well is artesian so even without power you can get drinking water. But we have no power failures. What is a mass emergency in texas is a minor annoyance here. I.e. I hate February it’s so cold. But it’s not totally unexpected.
Aside from texas being stupid there should realy be some high voltage high current DC connections between the east/west grid. But no one cares to pay for that despite some good proposals.
@Kidsandliz I mean it’s all going to add up to deaths. There’s no way around that unfortunately. Hypothermia or lack of water. People doing dumb shit to stay warm.carbon monoxide. Fire. Hopefully the death toll is low
@Kidsandliz@unksol Kidz, I’m so sorry that you and your neighbor are going through this. It is so kind of you to help take care of her. That is so awesome and heartwarming!
I know the PUC screwed up royally, but my point was that Abbott went to them several times before this happened to assure that they could handle it, and they said they could. When it hit, they couldn’t. So I don’t see this as much on Abbott as I do on the PUC. On top of that, the federal govt. regulates how much energy production they can have and it wasn’t enough. Add to that the frozen pipes, pumps, power outages to the pumps, etc. and it’s just a mess! It isn’t that Texas is ‘stupid’ as that we don’t have this kind of weather very often.
They didn’t do ‘rolling blackouts’, but they called it that. It actually was mass outages and that’s just wrong. Now THAT was stupid! I was very, very fortunate to have had water, gas, and electricity through the whole thing, but for a child to lose his life over this is criminal. It is so sad. The lower part of the state is on the east/west grids. I haven’t heard how they fared, but I’m sure it was better than the rest of the state.
There were several people on the news here that they interviewed who said they couldn’t find food, even fast food, and ‘how could the state be so badly prepared that they didn’t even have food?’. To me, that’s just crazy. For a good week before this hit the weather folks predicted it. That’s when people should have stocked up at least enough to get through a week. That isn’t the state’s fault. That’s THEY’RE fault.
I’m a bit of a ‘prepper’ so I had plenty. You never know when something is going to happen, so it isn’t a bad idea to have a little extra just in case. I understand not everyone can do that, but an extra can when you go to the store adds up quickly and can be life-saving.
Biden finally declared an emergency so maybe some of the people who have been the most affected by this can get some help. The whole thing is just a mess. A sick, sorry mess!
@Tadlem43@unksol Actually they are calling them “rolling blackouts” here too but for the most part the power has “rolled off” and hasn’t yet “rolled on” for many (and that would be stayed off for several days and counting).
Food is the new toilet paper around here. I saw people taking 8 and 10 packages of chicken, one scooped up, literally, all the hamburger meat from the shelves. And that is just what I saw. When you have people doing that then there are going to be shortages (just like there were with TP - I know a couple of people who STILL have TP left over from the big TP grab some months ago), especially with the roads iced over and trucks not being able to come or go.
I was looking for microwave dinners since they don’t take water to clean up (and that matters to me since I’ve had no water going on 6 days; people hadn’t thought to wipe out that supply) and I, for the most part, have had power so I can heat them up. I just don’t have much of a freezer with an apartment sized fridge. So stockpiling a pile of those is hard. Had the water not been off I would have been looking for other stuff to eat although I have enough canned goods for a week or so (not much kitchen storage either). This is a long way of saying that lack of preparation isn’t necessarily the only cause of the problem. Space, money, other people over buying, and not expecting the extent of this since records are being broken all contribute.
@Kidsandliz fair point. Its hard to relate a house in the country to an apartment in the city if you’ve never lived in both. Plus what you keep on hand/have space for. On a well/septic so it’s a whole separate thing than city water going offline. Thankfully it hasn’t
@Kidsandliz@unksol Greed is a horrible thing.
I wasn’t talking so much about people not being prepared as much as I was about their attitude. It isn’t the state’s fault that they didn’t have food, but they didn’t mind blaming the state.
I understand, like I said, that not everyone can stockpile. It’s just a good idea if you can do it, or at least pick up a few extra cans when you go grocery shopping. A lot of people store it under their bed, for example.
Buying a can of chili, chicken and dumplings, soup, any kind of ‘ready made meal in a can’ shouldn’t take up too much space, and 7 or 8 cans can get you through a week, if needed. And you can pick up sterno at the dollar store, so if everything goes down, at least you can eat.
Do you have room for a small freezer? I know space in an apt. is limited. I bought my grandmother a ‘dorm’ freezer and it held a lot more than you’d think. She lived in a small apt. in a senior apt. complex.
It’s a difficult situation that is really heartbreaking. I live in Dallas and some of the stories are really sad. There are a lot of stories, too, of people helping each other. It’s easy to tell who the good guys are.
Most everyone has electricity now, but water is still a problem. The greater problem is all of the damage done from pipes that have burst. Some houses and apartments were completely flooded. ugh! I’ll be glad for everyone when this mess is over!
@Kidsandliz@Tadlem43 I don’t disagree with you on being prepared if you can be. But this is not that. It’s a full-on man made preventable. There is absolutely no reason utilities could not prevented this
@Kidsandliz@Tadlem43 and it absolutely is the state of Texas fault that they chose to have a separate grid. So it could not be regulated federally. Then chose to not regulate it internally. If you think differently IDK what to tell you. Texas is now a federal l disaster zone and no other state is that bad off. Texas is failing hard and needs federal help
The TX legislature chose not to require utilities to have emergency reserves available locally. And the governor knew or should have known this: part of his job.
the Texas legislature chose not to require the winterization of any of the salient equipment
Therefore the relevant businesses and utilities did not winterize the wind turbines, they did not winterize the equipment that controls the nuclear power plants, they did not winterize the equipment that runs the power generation at coal and natural gas driven plants, and they did not winterize the gas pipelines
And the governor knew it should have known this
all of these failed
Extensive recommendations for winterizing the state power grid were made after the hard freeze in 2011. Next to none of these or possibly none of them wherever implemented. None of the utilities or other business players in the energy grid area wherever required to implement them
No funding for implementing any of these recommendations was ever offered
The legislature and the governor knew this.
However Abbott and several other high officials in the state government seem to have the idea that their constituency is the right wing media. they have never appeared to actually believe that their constituency was the people of Texas.
Therefore they are entirely culpable.
as for Abbott believing or not believing what the power grid people told him he should be smart enough that he should not have believed them because he knew or should have known that the system had never been winterized.
and he knew that the reason the winterization recommendations had never been implemented was because they cost money and nobody wanted to pay for them and the he could get onto Fox News and make it sound like something happy
Abbott is intellectually cheap and he is a lying sycophant and therefore he is culpable
As for stocking up on emergency supplies I did this and many people did this but many people purchased food that was perishable and needed to either go in the refrigerator or in the freezer because people did not foresee that the entire power grid would fail for days upon days and therefore this food would be questionable and people did not foresee they would be unable to cook it properly because they didn’t have any power In their kitchens
I suppose people should have known in advance to get canned goods cereal crackers and the like but some people did not think that way at the time.
Let’s not demonize or blame people who did their best to prepare when they didn’t understand that the entire power grid was a ridiculous mess under extreme cold.
The state government, the legislature, the governor, the lieutenant governor, and the people who regulate the power grid all knew that the power grid was unprepared although the general public did not know this.
Also some people don’t have transportation that makes it easy for them to stock up, particularly if they are elderly or medically vulnerable, and some people don’t have the cash to buy a week’s worth of groceries in advance.
Had the power grid been winterized we might have had to our rolling 2 hour blackouts here and there, but nobody would have lost their food supply in the refrigerators or freezers; few people would now have had serious plumbing problems compared to the large numbers who are going to have to do major plumbing renovation and possibly other home repairs due to home flooding or leaks
Abbott is absolutely culpable here because he chose not to promote winterization or other safety and redundancy measures that would have helped this in the years that he’s been Governor previous governors who knew of the need and failed to support those actions are also culpable, as is the legislature, and as are the utility and Power road regulation systems
these people are not the sort of politicians who are problem solvers
These people are the sort of politicians who are driven by strict, shallow, erroneous and stupid ideologies and they make their decisions according to what they fear Fox News will criticize them over, not according to what makes sense to any sentient person who wants to prevent a disaster
These politicians tend to believe that their true constituencies are the most strident far-right portion of the R party and also Fox News and other ideological media
they certainly don’t believe that their constituency is the people of Texas
they think that the people of Texas will just put up with them
Therefore these sorts of politicians are entirely culpable
Furthermore Abbott and some other politicians early during the unfolding disaster went on television and somehow tried to blame it all on renewable energy or the new green dream or AOC or some other entirely false and entirely fanciful convenient scapegoats when these politicians such as Abbott knew they were speaking absolute falsehoods in order to make the Fox News talk show hosts and audiences happy
Therefore these politicians are just as dishonorable, dishonest, and venal as they appear at a quick glance.
And these politicians have, by their poor judgment, radically harmed the Texas reputation as a great place for business.
@Kidsandliz@unksol My comment was about the woman blaming the state because she wasn’t prepared. It wasn’t the state’s fault that she didn’t heed the warnings.
@Kidsandliz@unksol It is NOT the state’s fault that individuals didn’t listen to the media and prepare for themselves as much as possible…like picking up a can of food, etc.
I didn’t say anything about this not being the state’s fault or about them being on the national grids. I said it was the PUC’s fault and not Abbott’s because he went to them several times before this storm and asked them if they were prepared. They said they were…they weren’t.
And, no, he didn’t try to blame it on renewable energy. The wind turbines that they use in the north have different parts that function in winter months, but because we don’t have that kind of weather regularly, and because of the increase in their output, the ones here can’t handle the weather. In hindsight, I’m sure everyone wishes they had gone with the same ones they use up north…but they didn’t.
It seems you want to argue or attack me and blame all of the Republicans…which is not even a part of this conversation. I won’t go there.
@Tadlem43@unksol AWK… the news just said the earliest we will get water back is next Wed. Been out since early last Monday. They need to look at infrastructure here too. Admittedly more people in TX are affected than in our state but the water system for our entire town is not working and a good chunk of town is without power (notice they stopped calling it rolling outages LOL).
The city is blaming it on the state. WTF??? If our city was less into embezzlement, nepotism, conflict of interest decisions, etc. maybe there might be something to that. But this is the city that takes two and a half months (speaking from the one outside of our building) to shut of a fire hydrant that was gushing (a very common problem here with lots of fire hydrants gushing water for days and weeks). Then they try to blame the meter company for the city’s high water bills. Seriously? I am sorry but this country would be better off if this state was part of the gulf of mexico. Just let me move out first and then the gulf can go at it.
@Tadlem43 I have no desires to attack you and I’ve always voted republican but sometimes there are just screw ups to the point you can’t ignore why things happened.
had voted republican. Except for Trump. Idk why but I feel some need to clarify that cause. I just do not like anything about that person. If anything he’s seriously caused a rethinking of that
Meanwhile, the seditious Senator from Texas is on vacay in Mexico.
Just confirmed @SenTedCruz and his family flew to Cancun tonight for a few days at a resort they’ve visited before. Cruz seems to believe there isn’t much for him to do in Texas for the millions of fellow Texans who remain without electricity/water and are literally freezing.
@mike808 he is a complete and total asshole. And obviously dumb to not realize how this would play.
However it is sort of correct that he plays no direct role in texas internal operations. So he is and looks like a dick but idk that he’s actively being one besides being a rich out of touch prick. This second. At least until he lied about it.
@mike808@Tadlem43 he is seditious for separate, previously committed offences. Therefore the term carries forward. Since people are already upset with his messed up behavior he shouldn’t be surprised.
@Tadlem43 The majority of americans who voted for President Biden would disagree on the characterization of the actions of Senator Ted “Fled” Cruz around his repeated, public abuse of his office to support The Big Lie and to conspire with twice impeached two-time popular vote loser one-term ex-president Don “The Con” Trump to undermine and overthrow our constitutional democracy, from the violations of his oath of office in first impeachment trial through the election, and culminating with his actions to violate his oath again with his active, willful participation in the events on January 6th, and again in the second impeachment trial. So yeah, seditious fits the facts of his actions. I stand by the characterization of Senator Ted Cruz as having acted extremely seditiously.
I bet a lot of Texans would also like to have the “freedom” to flee to someplace warm, too. And book a lavish party while staying at a luxury hotel for a week while the voters of Texas freeze and deal with no water or power. Why a caring father would take his daughters to a country filled with “drug dealers, criminals, and rapists” is another concern. Did they all make it across the border into Texas? Which lie are you going to stick with?
@mike808 lol Wow… you really do swallow what the media tells you, don’t you? Have you bothered to fact check ANYTHING you said with some place other than another news media site?
Yeah… It shows that you haven’t.
You sound a bit bitter…and unhinged…which is certainly your right! Enjoy!
@Tadlem43 So you’re defending #TedFled and his actions as a Senator weren’t to undermine the lawfully elected President and to obstruct the transfer of power in accordance with the Constitution and the oath he took to uphold it? If not, then please explain. I’d like to subscribe to your newsletter.
Those idiots who publicly claim that Sen Cruz essentially had nothing to do during the emergency, as he is not a formal part of the state administration, are effectively indicating that they have zero understanding if how government works.
DJT, Jr made such a claim, therefore indicating he has zero understanding of the duties if a legislator.
For those who don’t know: ask any effective and widely respected legislator (not Cruz; his own R colleagues don’t respect him) about the job of “constituent services”, esp during an emergency.
Most legistors (D, R, independent, whatever) have some understanding of this. Many legislators across all the ideological spectrums are very good at this, and direct their own efforts and their best staff people onto this.
FWIW, an engages and responsive legislator can make an enormous and critical difference at such times.
Also, Cruz, when outed for running away, opened his response by lying, and by throwing his own kids under the falsehood excuse bus.
Cruz deserves all of the extreme dislike he receives from his R and D colleagues in Washington.
And yes, he is of the “seditionist caucus”. He knew perfectly well that the arguments he presented in Jan 6 were constitutionally and legally worthless. He went with them anyway because he thought it was worth fueling lies in order to curry points with the then President.
He knows very well how to defend false and worthless (for the nation) ideological and legal positions in order to curry political advantage. The fact that he routinely chooses this dishonorable conduct at every juncture is one reason he’s completely despised within his own party, as well as by so many others who have to deal with him.
@mike808lol I didn’t even mention Ted.
All I did was suggest that you fact check your beliefs because they’re based on erroneous information. If you choose to stay ignorant to facts, that’s on you, not me. I haven’t mentioned any person, any circumstance, any political party…only that you are choosing to blindly believe the media…and you are.
You folks sure are defensive. lol
@f00l@mike808 I wasn’t talking about him going to Cancun. I was ASKING why do you think he is seditious and stating that I don’t see his trip as ‘seditious’. I have no idea why you got into all of that other stuff. That wasn’t the conversation that I was having.
@f00l@Tadlem43 He was seditious before his trip. He remains seditious. The trip did not magically absolve him of his past behavior. It is who Ted Cruz is and forever will be, whether he is in Mexico, DC, or Texas.
I hate to be the Bearer of bad news but if packages aren’t going out of texas they probably aren’t gonna go in. Just a thought. My irk has been stuck there since Saturday.
Texas friends- TAKE YOUR ELECTRIC BILLS OFF AUTO-PAY. My billing cycle just started this week and it’s already 8 TIMES my normal payment with 25 days left to go. I sat in the dark and barely used my heat. We need to demand relief for these bills. This is so criminal and evil.
@kdemo there are options in texas to buy on the wholesale market like griddy. What that means is you normally get a good deal but when prices spike to the 9K $ per megawatt max you get screwed. Griddy saw this coming and tried to warn everyone to switch providers but the texas grid is really strange
I’d suggest finding out who is buying bottled water and handing it out, or food…(eg local charities doing this, not the national ones) then paypal them some money to buy stuff. Heck maybe someone who lives in TX can give you some ideas of who helps locally and spends what you send on what people need. The water situation is going to go on for a while as water comes back people are going to discover broken pipes - especially since some of them have not had heat so pipes would have frozen.
Heck around here (MS) they are telling us they have no idea when we will have water again (it’s been out since Monday early a.m. - fortunately I have power in this building although a lot in the neighborhood don’t). I’d imagine TX is in the same fix and so will be needing things for a while.
@Kidsandliz In the DFW area the North Texas Foodbank does a great job of providing food to those who need it. They are able to buy food at a discount and make your donations go farther than other groups. I’m not saying that other organizations aren’t doing a good job. Churches and neighborhood food pantries fill a very real need. But for those out of state who want to help out, you’re most likely to make the biggest impact by donating to the bigger food banks who have the organization and resources already in place.
This a crowd-sourced google doc that’s been compiling the last few days of people and orgs working on help and relief efforts, and how people can contribute. I got the link from the Meriam-Webster dictionary site, BION.
It’s heavy on the progressive-side, but many non-partisan organizations listed. The Mutual Aid and Crowd-Source Rescue outfits look to be doing a lot of the heavy lifting.
FWIW, many of the little small communities and counties in central semi-rural TX (S of DFW, n of Austin/College Station/San Antonio/Houston [excluding the better-known cities along the interstates, such as Waco and Temple]) have been v badly hit and aren’t getting any national, or much regional, media attention.
Anyone who wants to put their assistance offers into a less publicized acute area of need, please consider the mostly rural counties, or those counties of low total populations, as an option.
Probably could use some flex seal for the pipes and whiskey for warmth. Maybe some sarsaparilla for the little cowpokes.
KuoH
@kuoh
/image flex seal That’s a lot of damage!
@kuoh @mike808
honestly the quickest solution for a burst pipe or two for the average home owner would be to shut off the water, cut and debur the pipe and slap a shark bite cap on it. To cut the burst off from the system. Then deal with the repairs to that section of piping later. Assuming it will be above freezing/you will have power and it won’t refreeze below the cap.
I have pipes into the unheated bonus room and 3 or 4 froze one winter and were fine till it thawed out. Then a disaster. I had to cut the water, clean up, then cut into the drywall/cut the pipes/cap the burst ones. I can solder and do my own patches but not on a wet cold line in winter. I still haven’t fixed them cause I don’t use them. I put in drain down valves in the basement and only pressurise them when it’s above freezing. Which the previous owners should have done in the first place. But those sharkbites have held for years.
The reason I would recommend sharkbites or similar is because any home owner can just push them on. So you don’t need to know how to solder. You don’t have to heat and dry out the pipe so solder will work, and you don’t have to scramble for a plumber. And they come off easily for an eventual splice/repair. Since I imagine lots of people in texas will need plumbers asap. Demand may outstrip supply.
This is obviously not an option if one of your main lines has burst. But if say one of the lines to an outdoor faucet close to an exterior wall has. Because it’s colder there. Or a line to an upstairs bathroom has burst. People could cut/cap those and deal with it when the rush is down… Does obviously require some knowledge of your plumbing routing. May require some dry wall repair if you cut into a wall to stop it. But water damage is usually worse. And if it’s behind a wall the plumber is going in there anyway. Too late to care about drywall
@kuoh @mike808
I’m just going to use home depot as an example. But almost any hardware store should have these. Pipe cutter and deburrer are one size fits all for residential plumbing. Feel free to help your neighbor
Pipe cutters.
https://www.homedepot.com/b/Plumbing-Plumbing-Tools-Pipe-Cutters/Copper/N-5yc1vZc4ftZ1z0vifv?storeSelection=
Deburer
https://www.homedepot.com/b/Plumbing-Plumbing-Tools-Deburring-Tools/N-5yc1vZ2fkojui
Then you are usually going to want 1/2 inch sharkbites. Normally in my state your in line will be up to 1 inch. Your branch lines will be 3/4 and your sidelines be 1/2. But realistically if you main or more than on branch is leaking your plumbing is down.
https://www.homedepot.com/b/Plumbing-Pipe-Fittings/SharkBite/Cap/N-5yc1vZbqpfZ4n3Z1z114wr?storeSelection=
Only talking about copper pipe and just… An option. And trying to give examples so you know what we are talking about. Not recommendations
@kuoh @mike808 and just to clarify again… That’s just a way to plug in house leaks In your plumbing…/cut off lines. To reduce damage. If a boil order Is inefect … Obviously do that. As with all safety info.
This is a good place to start. https://docs.google.com/document/d/11GplfTTLRv6yV-2AC6GFw5Gy4izlPdGSay1HdRQcRjQ/edit?usp=sharing
Clothing
I’m sure there are folks in desperate need of warm clothing
Well, easy for me to say since we have power & water at my place (W Fort Worth). But by the time anything gets organized, it’s going to be back to 50-60F.
I wonder if the National Guard has the time to actually get anything substantial accomplished before it warms back up.
S. Central Texas here. Extended freeze here since Sunday. Stayed in teens and bottomed at 5 deg F, I believe. Buildings here are not insulated for that. Finally today we nudged back above freezing. I was doing a slow drip on outside faucets – didn’t think the foam insulating cover would work that low. They froze anyway. One I poured boiling water on and it started running again. Now it’s at a fast drip, not quite a stream and has been holding OK. other I could not get to, so don’t know for now.
Rolling blackouts left house very cold – thermostat reads down only to mid 50’s and it was below that inside. Inside lines also quit so I assume they froze. Sometimes power would be on for only 15-20 minutes. Put space heaters up close to cabinets for inside lines, and all started flowing again. That’s been the extent of heating for the house. Crossing fingers, but no sign yet of any burst pipes for house.
Some reports on community boards of blackouts leaving power on for cumulative of just a couple of hours over the last few days. Many reports of frozen pipes and some internal flooding, especially at apartments with lines in adjoining walls. Almost all construction here is on concrete slab, last few years, usually with pipes coming up through the concrete. Older construction is slab, with pipes in attic, as mine is. A house I had that was built in the 50’s was on pier and beam. The issue here is usually heat – temperatures sometimes get upwards of 110’s. Rare to get down into teens or lower, and usually that goes with highs above freezing. Even main pipes coming to the residence are usually only a couple feet below ground level.
I haven’t had to go without power for more than an hour, yet, myself, and usually only 30-45 minutes or so, max. As of this evening, power-ons have been lasting longer, steadily increasing past an hour, and currently it’s been on for an exact three hours, by my digital clock radio which resets to midnight whenever power is restored to it.
Who to blame for this mess? Everybody. State energy producers haven’t spent proper capital to winterize against these once every 20 years or so events, as ERCOT (currently a dirty word around here) has recommended (but not required). Federal govt has capped production – state had to get special approval to up the generating hours last couple days – for the plants which were operating properly. We had a local coal-fired generating plant closed (with the coal produced relatively nearby) to make environmentalist happy. Wind energy is a big part of the mix (plants up in northwest Tex mainly) but they weren’t built to withstand the extreme, prolonged cold of this rare event. There is a fair amount of solar, but that doesn’t work that well in a week-long overcast weather event. Texas produces lots of natural gas, but has to honor sales contracts and is priced by market conditions (which have been extreme lately, also) and they also have to follow federal production caps. There were reports of gas transportation pipes being frozen (probably more the pumps). Lots of oil, but that goes to gasoline production mainly, and that production is highly regulated, by both the state and the federal govt. Of the two main nuclear generators, one had to shut down for this. (And new plants are unheard of around here,)
ERCOT is getting most of the blame for the allocation of the state power grid during this mess.
Snow is rare around here. See it once every two or three years, but your snowman will have shrunk to a mound the next day. Four days of snow on the ground is the first in my lifetime that I am aware of. And it is back in the forecast for this morning, but I haven’t seen it yet today. Also the threat of MORE ice. Freezing rain yesterday playing heck with roads and power lines. My Yankee relatives always ribbed us about driving on snow when we were up there, but I don’t think any of them would do well
driving on the ice that we are much more likely to get here than snow.
My power is currently still on (pun intended), so maybe we’ve turned a corner. Lows now in mid to upper 20’s for next couple of days and highs in upper thirties. Used to, we thought of THAT as cold, but now that’s a veritable heat wave.
@phendrick What do we need mostly right now? A heat wave. And send lots of pro bono plumbers! On community boards, it seems a lot of people who have frozen pipes are retired/elderly or minorities who would have trouble paying for materials, let alone plumbers.
@phendrick News reports suggest both Gov Abbott and the legislature are after the heads of ERCOT and PUC (Public Utility Commision) personnel. And that will get lots of public support.
@phendrick It’s a shame the gov and legislators aren’t getting any accountability themselves. They have oversight of ERCOT and the PUC and appointed their cronies and political supporters (because calling it bribery, corruption, or grift is just too unseemly) to them.
Texas voters should remember this at the polls and which party was in charge when this happened on their watch.
@phendrick So much of what you’ve described is accurate that I hate to be a nitpicker, but 2 things:
@compunaut I’ll pick your nits a little…
Also, the areas that seemed to be reporting the most pipe problems had mainly homes older than your “last 30-40 years”. My present house was built circa 1970, and I for one had not found the money to consider insulation upgrades (Maybe I should now look harder).
https://windurance.com/2021/02/16/frozen-wind-turbines-do-wind-turbines-even-work-in-the-winter/
To do a partial quote:“Turbines operate year-round in Northern regions because they have special design features [which] … come at a cost, so wind turbines made for warm climates generally don’t have these features.”
And, on top of everything that @phendrick just said, which is very accurate, a lot of places are experiencing problems with water quality and are under water boil precautions. The pumps at the treatment plants froze and they can’t insure the quality of the water, and in some cases, the treatment plants lost power. Yet ANOTHER Public Utility Commission situation.
I am SO fortunate. We’re on the back of this, and, so far, I still have my power, water, no frozen pipes, and have enough food and water to last me quite awhile, if needed.
Of course, I listened to the weather reports and actually prepared, so… unlike so many, it seems, that in the middle of this were out searching for food and blaming the state because “the state didn’t prepare”. I have no idea how the state could have gotten them food, but, hey… it’s easier to blame someone else, huh?
@Tadlem43 the state could have enforced the recommendations from the last freeze so natural gas plants did not go offline in an emergency. The state could have properly regulated it’s utilities. Both would have kept grocery stores open. If they could plow/salt the streets so workers/customers could safely drive there. But technically no one is going to starve in a week and almost no one has zero food regaurdless. Just normal shopping you have something in the pantry. Miserable sure. But water first.
@Tadlem43 @unksol Yeah the water side of this is a big issue (although the news said one 11? year old died of hypothermia in his bed the night before last in Houston). Many homes here (don’t live in TX but we get Houston shit a day later) have no power and no water (the city’s main water plant system failed)- so can’t boil anyway even if they had a trickle of water like some have. Entire swaths of this area have no power or have rolling blackouts (we are rolling black outs although the neighborhood over from me is out). Some of the problem is blown transformers and icy trees down, no idea if the grid itself is part of the problem other than it can’t handle the load (thus the rolling blackouts in the evenings).
Stores are all out of water, city did nothing until yesterday (I’ve had no water at all since very, very early Monday morning but at least I have power)… not to mention in states where this is a once in a 20-50 year occurrence weather wise, kind of hard to predict the outcome is going to be total grid failure since it isn’t a common occurrence (so blaming people for not preparing for something that hasn’t happened before - at least here (here any water outages have been maybe a day to day and a half in the past and not the entire city) - is more like blaming the victim). I had the better part of a case kicking around from when we had a broken water pipe going into the building a while back, but eventually one goes through that as long as this is lasting.
I spent the better part of yesterday trying to find water for my 88 year old neighbor (thought she was with her grandkids - nope - as they have no power or water or I would have tried to help her the day before yesterday when I was helping 3 others who were elderly with no cars get water - got some for them but none for me due to the one limit per person stores had imposed). Finally got her a case at a city hand out (only one case for car) after waiting in line nearly 3 hours. Also yesterday finally did find, about 14 miles, away a place with water with full water pressure so filled containers from the bathroom sink. Stores totally out of bottled water so I got very lucky with that sink.
Going back to that sink later today (Saturday) with my 5 gallon container to fill it up as the 88 year old was very upset that her apt smelled like a sewer (yeah no water = that) and I used most of my 5 gallon container filling up her tank so she could flush. Fortunately the guys doing the foundation work have a chemical toilet in the parking lot so I’ve been mostly using that - although at 10 and 18 degrees, etc. that is a bit nippy.
What I am the most unhappy about with this though is my already past 21 day Pfizer vaccine shot got cancelled and and was rescheduled for a week even further out. I will be pushing the limits for even the CDC’s recommendations, never mind the data I have found for Pfizer indicates the drop of in antibiotics gets pretty steep after 28 days (while this data isn’t published they did have some data that accidentally goes out 42 days so small number of subjects as this was not planned; Moderna does better further out). I will be beyond that. I’d bet they won’t let me start all over again.
@Tadlem43 @unksol PS the joke is on the governor of this state though. His pipes froze so maybe he will take this mess bit more seriously since it personally affects him now. On the other hand I am sure his household is not suffering from the water shortage. I’d guess the city trucks dumped at least a pallet of water at his place. That would explain why the place I was in line at for my neighbor for 3 hours only got 4 pallets of water total over two drop offs (with a line that stretched over a mile so I am presuming at least some who were behind me got no water).
@Kidsandliz the water situation is obviously bad. I mean I have gallons in 2 liter bottles in the kitchen cabinets just cause. People should have some stored but it doesn’t help if the house is freezing.
But being northern midwest. Gas heat. We have basements so your main plumbing is below grade and it’s hard for the basement to freeze anyway. And the well is artesian so even without power you can get drinking water. But we have no power failures. What is a mass emergency in texas is a minor annoyance here. I.e. I hate February it’s so cold. But it’s not totally unexpected.
Aside from texas being stupid there should realy be some high voltage high current DC connections between the east/west grid. But no one cares to pay for that despite some good proposals.
@Kidsandliz I mean it’s all going to add up to deaths. There’s no way around that unfortunately. Hypothermia or lack of water. People doing dumb shit to stay warm.carbon monoxide. Fire. Hopefully the death toll is low
@Kidsandliz @unksol Kidz, I’m so sorry that you and your neighbor are going through this. It is so kind of you to help take care of her. That is so awesome and heartwarming!
I know the PUC screwed up royally, but my point was that Abbott went to them several times before this happened to assure that they could handle it, and they said they could. When it hit, they couldn’t. So I don’t see this as much on Abbott as I do on the PUC. On top of that, the federal govt. regulates how much energy production they can have and it wasn’t enough. Add to that the frozen pipes, pumps, power outages to the pumps, etc. and it’s just a mess! It isn’t that Texas is ‘stupid’ as that we don’t have this kind of weather very often.
They didn’t do ‘rolling blackouts’, but they called it that. It actually was mass outages and that’s just wrong. Now THAT was stupid! I was very, very fortunate to have had water, gas, and electricity through the whole thing, but for a child to lose his life over this is criminal. It is so sad. The lower part of the state is on the east/west grids. I haven’t heard how they fared, but I’m sure it was better than the rest of the state.
There were several people on the news here that they interviewed who said they couldn’t find food, even fast food, and ‘how could the state be so badly prepared that they didn’t even have food?’. To me, that’s just crazy. For a good week before this hit the weather folks predicted it. That’s when people should have stocked up at least enough to get through a week. That isn’t the state’s fault. That’s THEY’RE fault.
I’m a bit of a ‘prepper’ so I had plenty. You never know when something is going to happen, so it isn’t a bad idea to have a little extra just in case. I understand not everyone can do that, but an extra can when you go to the store adds up quickly and can be life-saving.
Biden finally declared an emergency so maybe some of the people who have been the most affected by this can get some help. The whole thing is just a mess. A sick, sorry mess!
EVERYTHING IS AWESOME!
@Kidsandliz @Tadlem43 we don’t live in texas as was mentioned several places we were just discussing the impact of it.
@Tadlem43 @unksol Actually they are calling them “rolling blackouts” here too but for the most part the power has “rolled off” and hasn’t yet “rolled on” for many (and that would be stayed off for several days and counting).
Food is the new toilet paper around here. I saw people taking 8 and 10 packages of chicken, one scooped up, literally, all the hamburger meat from the shelves. And that is just what I saw. When you have people doing that then there are going to be shortages (just like there were with TP - I know a couple of people who STILL have TP left over from the big TP grab some months ago), especially with the roads iced over and trucks not being able to come or go.
I was looking for microwave dinners since they don’t take water to clean up (and that matters to me since I’ve had no water going on 6 days; people hadn’t thought to wipe out that supply) and I, for the most part, have had power so I can heat them up. I just don’t have much of a freezer with an apartment sized fridge. So stockpiling a pile of those is hard. Had the water not been off I would have been looking for other stuff to eat although I have enough canned goods for a week or so (not much kitchen storage either). This is a long way of saying that lack of preparation isn’t necessarily the only cause of the problem. Space, money, other people over buying, and not expecting the extent of this since records are being broken all contribute.
@Kidsandliz fair point. Its hard to relate a house in the country to an apartment in the city if you’ve never lived in both. Plus what you keep on hand/have space for. On a well/septic so it’s a whole separate thing than city water going offline. Thankfully it hasn’t
@Kidsandliz @unksol Greed is a horrible thing.
I wasn’t talking so much about people not being prepared as much as I was about their attitude. It isn’t the state’s fault that they didn’t have food, but they didn’t mind blaming the state.
I understand, like I said, that not everyone can stockpile. It’s just a good idea if you can do it, or at least pick up a few extra cans when you go grocery shopping. A lot of people store it under their bed, for example.
Buying a can of chili, chicken and dumplings, soup, any kind of ‘ready made meal in a can’ shouldn’t take up too much space, and 7 or 8 cans can get you through a week, if needed. And you can pick up sterno at the dollar store, so if everything goes down, at least you can eat.
Do you have room for a small freezer? I know space in an apt. is limited. I bought my grandmother a ‘dorm’ freezer and it held a lot more than you’d think. She lived in a small apt. in a senior apt. complex.
It’s a difficult situation that is really heartbreaking. I live in Dallas and some of the stories are really sad. There are a lot of stories, too, of people helping each other. It’s easy to tell who the good guys are.
Most everyone has electricity now, but water is still a problem. The greater problem is all of the damage done from pipes that have burst. Some houses and apartments were completely flooded. ugh! I’ll be glad for everyone when this mess is over!
@Kidsandliz @Tadlem43 I don’t disagree with you on being prepared if you can be. But this is not that. It’s a full-on man made preventable. There is absolutely no reason utilities could not prevented this
@Kidsandliz @Tadlem43 and it absolutely is the state of Texas fault that they chose to have a separate grid. So it could not be regulated federally. Then chose to not regulate it internally. If you think differently IDK what to tell you. Texas is now a federal l disaster zone and no other state is that bad off. Texas is failing hard and needs federal help
@unksol
The TX legislature chose not to require utilities to have emergency reserves available locally. And the governor knew or should have known this: part of his job.
the Texas legislature chose not to require the winterization of any of the salient equipment
Therefore the relevant businesses and utilities did not winterize the wind turbines, they did not winterize the equipment that controls the nuclear power plants, they did not winterize the equipment that runs the power generation at coal and natural gas driven plants, and they did not winterize the gas pipelines
And the governor knew it should have known this
all of these failed
Extensive recommendations for winterizing the state power grid were made after the hard freeze in 2011. Next to none of these or possibly none of them wherever implemented. None of the utilities or other business players in the energy grid area wherever required to implement them
No funding for implementing any of these recommendations was ever offered
The legislature and the governor knew this.
However Abbott and several other high officials in the state government seem to have the idea that their constituency is the right wing media. they have never appeared to actually believe that their constituency was the people of Texas.
Therefore they are entirely culpable.
as for Abbott believing or not believing what the power grid people told him he should be smart enough that he should not have believed them because he knew or should have known that the system had never been winterized.
and he knew that the reason the winterization recommendations had never been implemented was because they cost money and nobody wanted to pay for them and the he could get onto Fox News and make it sound like something happy
Abbott is intellectually cheap and he is a lying sycophant and therefore he is culpable
As for stocking up on emergency supplies I did this and many people did this but many people purchased food that was perishable and needed to either go in the refrigerator or in the freezer because people did not foresee that the entire power grid would fail for days upon days and therefore this food would be questionable and people did not foresee they would be unable to cook it properly because they didn’t have any power In their kitchens
I suppose people should have known in advance to get canned goods cereal crackers and the like but some people did not think that way at the time.
Let’s not demonize or blame people who did their best to prepare when they didn’t understand that the entire power grid was a ridiculous mess under extreme cold.
The state government, the legislature, the governor, the lieutenant governor, and the people who regulate the power grid all knew that the power grid was unprepared although the general public did not know this.
Also some people don’t have transportation that makes it easy for them to stock up, particularly if they are elderly or medically vulnerable, and some people don’t have the cash to buy a week’s worth of groceries in advance.
Had the power grid been winterized we might have had to our rolling 2 hour blackouts here and there, but nobody would have lost their food supply in the refrigerators or freezers; few people would now have had serious plumbing problems compared to the large numbers who are going to have to do major plumbing renovation and possibly other home repairs due to home flooding or leaks
Abbott is absolutely culpable here because he chose not to promote winterization or other safety and redundancy measures that would have helped this in the years that he’s been Governor previous governors who knew of the need and failed to support those actions are also culpable, as is the legislature, and as are the utility and Power road regulation systems
these people are not the sort of politicians who are problem solvers
These people are the sort of politicians who are driven by strict, shallow, erroneous and stupid ideologies and they make their decisions according to what they fear Fox News will criticize them over, not according to what makes sense to any sentient person who wants to prevent a disaster
These politicians tend to believe that their true constituencies are the most strident far-right portion of the R party and also Fox News and other ideological media
they certainly don’t believe that their constituency is the people of Texas
they think that the people of Texas will just put up with them
Therefore these sorts of politicians are entirely culpable
Furthermore Abbott and some other politicians early during the unfolding disaster went on television and somehow tried to blame it all on renewable energy or the new green dream or AOC or some other entirely false and entirely fanciful convenient scapegoats when these politicians such as Abbott knew they were speaking absolute falsehoods in order to make the Fox News talk show hosts and audiences happy
Therefore these politicians are just as dishonorable, dishonest, and venal as they appear at a quick glance.
And these politicians have, by their poor judgment, radically harmed the Texas reputation as a great place for business.
@Kidsandliz @unksol My comment was about the woman blaming the state because she wasn’t prepared. It wasn’t the state’s fault that she didn’t heed the warnings.
@Kidsandliz @unksol It is NOT the state’s fault that individuals didn’t listen to the media and prepare for themselves as much as possible…like picking up a can of food, etc.
I didn’t say anything about this not being the state’s fault or about them being on the national grids. I said it was the PUC’s fault and not Abbott’s because he went to them several times before this storm and asked them if they were prepared. They said they were…they weren’t.
And, no, he didn’t try to blame it on renewable energy. The wind turbines that they use in the north have different parts that function in winter months, but because we don’t have that kind of weather regularly, and because of the increase in their output, the ones here can’t handle the weather. In hindsight, I’m sure everyone wishes they had gone with the same ones they use up north…but they didn’t.
It seems you want to argue or attack me and blame all of the Republicans…which is not even a part of this conversation. I won’t go there.
@Tadlem43 @unksol AWK… the news just said the earliest we will get water back is next Wed. Been out since early last Monday. They need to look at infrastructure here too. Admittedly more people in TX are affected than in our state but the water system for our entire town is not working and a good chunk of town is without power (notice they stopped calling it rolling outages LOL).
The city is blaming it on the state. WTF??? If our city was less into embezzlement, nepotism, conflict of interest decisions, etc. maybe there might be something to that. But this is the city that takes two and a half months (speaking from the one outside of our building) to shut of a fire hydrant that was gushing (a very common problem here with lots of fire hydrants gushing water for days and weeks). Then they try to blame the meter company for the city’s high water bills. Seriously? I am sorry but this country would be better off if this state was part of the gulf of mexico. Just let me move out first and then the gulf can go at it.
@f00l @unksol This absolutely couldn’t have been explained better. This is perfect. (Lifelong Dallas resident here.)
@Tadlem43 I have no desires to attack you and I’ve always voted republican but sometimes there are just screw ups to the point you can’t ignore why things happened.
@f00l has a lot of good points
had voted republican. Except for Trump. Idk why but I feel some need to clarify that cause. I just do not like anything about that person. If anything he’s seriously caused a rethinking of that
Meanwhile, the seditious Senator from Texas is on vacay in Mexico.
Just confirmed @SenTedCruz and his family flew to Cancun tonight for a few days at a resort they’ve visited before. Cruz seems to believe there isn’t much for him to do in Texas for the millions of fellow Texans who remain without electricity/water and are literally freezing.
— at DavidShuster February 18, 2021
@mike808
Ted Cruz new nickname:
Snake On A Plane
@mike808
@mike808 he is a complete and total asshole. And obviously dumb to not realize how this would play.
However it is sort of correct that he plays no direct role in texas internal operations. So he is and looks like a dick but idk that he’s actively being one besides being a rich out of touch prick. This second. At least until he lied about it.
I highly suggest voting him out in general.
@mike808 Why is everything so extreme? Why is he ‘seditious’ for taking his kids where it was warm?
Not smart, yes. Seditious? No.
@mike808 @Tadlem43 he is seditious for separate, previously committed offences. Therefore the term carries forward. Since people are already upset with his messed up behavior he shouldn’t be surprised.
@Tadlem43 The majority of americans who voted for President Biden would disagree on the characterization of the actions of Senator Ted “Fled” Cruz around his repeated, public abuse of his office to support The Big Lie and to conspire with twice impeached two-time popular vote loser one-term ex-president Don “The Con” Trump to undermine and overthrow our constitutional democracy, from the violations of his oath of office in first impeachment trial through the election, and culminating with his actions to violate his oath again with his active, willful participation in the events on January 6th, and again in the second impeachment trial. So yeah, seditious fits the facts of his actions. I stand by the characterization of Senator Ted Cruz as having acted extremely seditiously.
I bet a lot of Texans would also like to have the “freedom” to flee to someplace warm, too. And book a lavish party while staying at a luxury hotel for a week while the voters of Texas freeze and deal with no water or power. Why a caring father would take his daughters to a country filled with “drug dealers, criminals, and rapists” is another concern. Did they all make it across the border into Texas? Which lie are you going to stick with?
@mike808 lol Wow… you really do swallow what the media tells you, don’t you? Have you bothered to fact check ANYTHING you said with some place other than another news media site?
Yeah… It shows that you haven’t.
You sound a bit bitter…and unhinged…which is certainly your right! Enjoy!
@Tadlem43 So you’re defending #TedFled and his actions as a Senator weren’t to undermine the lawfully elected President and to obstruct the transfer of power in accordance with the Constitution and the oath he took to uphold it? If not, then please explain. I’d like to subscribe to your newsletter.
@mike808 @unksol
Those idiots who publicly claim that Sen Cruz essentially had nothing to do during the emergency, as he is not a formal part of the state administration, are effectively indicating that they have zero understanding if how government works.
DJT, Jr made such a claim, therefore indicating he has zero understanding of the duties if a legislator.
For those who don’t know: ask any effective and widely respected legislator (not Cruz; his own R colleagues don’t respect him) about the job of “constituent services”, esp during an emergency.
Most legistors (D, R, independent, whatever) have some understanding of this. Many legislators across all the ideological spectrums are very good at this, and direct their own efforts and their best staff people onto this.
FWIW, an engages and responsive legislator can make an enormous and critical difference at such times.
Also, Cruz, when outed for running away, opened his response by lying, and by throwing his own kids under the falsehood excuse bus.
Cruz deserves all of the extreme dislike he receives from his R and D colleagues in Washington.
And yes, he is of the “seditionist caucus”. He knew perfectly well that the arguments he presented in Jan 6 were constitutionally and legally worthless. He went with them anyway because he thought it was worth fueling lies in order to curry points with the then President.
He knows very well how to defend false and worthless (for the nation) ideological and legal positions in order to curry political advantage. The fact that he routinely chooses this dishonorable conduct at every juncture is one reason he’s completely despised within his own party, as well as by so many others who have to deal with him.
@mike808lol I didn’t even mention Ted.
All I did was suggest that you fact check your beliefs because they’re based on erroneous information. If you choose to stay ignorant to facts, that’s on you, not me. I haven’t mentioned any person, any circumstance, any political party…only that you are choosing to blindly believe the media…and you are.
You folks sure are defensive. lol
@f00l I never mentioned Ted.
@f00l @Tadlem43
BS. So who were you talking about if you weren’t talking about Ted? You should get some help for that cognitive dissonance.
@f00l @mike808 I wasn’t talking about him going to Cancun. I was ASKING why do you think he is seditious and stating that I don’t see his trip as ‘seditious’. I have no idea why you got into all of that other stuff. That wasn’t the conversation that I was having.
@f00l @Tadlem43 He was seditious before his trip. He remains seditious. The trip did not magically absolve him of his past behavior. It is who Ted Cruz is and forever will be, whether he is in Mexico, DC, or Texas.
@f00l @mike808
WOW! Unfreakin believable! WTH
@mike808 lol You sound triggered. I hope you recover soon. Have a nice night.
I hate to be the Bearer of bad news but if packages aren’t going out of texas they probably aren’t gonna go in. Just a thought. My irk has been stuck there since Saturday.
@Star2236 Why should Pitney Bowes have all the fun?
Found on Twitter:
Texas friends- TAKE YOUR ELECTRIC BILLS OFF AUTO-PAY. My billing cycle just started this week and it’s already 8 TIMES my normal payment with 25 days left to go. I sat in the dark and barely used my heat. We need to demand relief for these bills. This is so criminal and evil.
@kdemo there are options in texas to buy on the wholesale market like griddy. What that means is you normally get a good deal but when prices spike to the 9K $ per megawatt max you get screwed. Griddy saw this coming and tried to warn everyone to switch providers but the texas grid is really strange
@kdemo The person who tweeted that probably only had an estimated bill based on the temp, not taking into consideration if they had power or not.
I’d suggest finding out who is buying bottled water and handing it out, or food…(eg local charities doing this, not the national ones) then paypal them some money to buy stuff. Heck maybe someone who lives in TX can give you some ideas of who helps locally and spends what you send on what people need. The water situation is going to go on for a while as water comes back people are going to discover broken pipes - especially since some of them have not had heat so pipes would have frozen.
Heck around here (MS) they are telling us they have no idea when we will have water again (it’s been out since Monday early a.m. - fortunately I have power in this building although a lot in the neighborhood don’t). I’d imagine TX is in the same fix and so will be needing things for a while.
@Kidsandliz In the DFW area the North Texas Foodbank does a great job of providing food to those who need it. They are able to buy food at a discount and make your donations go farther than other groups. I’m not saying that other organizations aren’t doing a good job. Churches and neighborhood food pantries fill a very real need. But for those out of state who want to help out, you’re most likely to make the biggest impact by donating to the bigger food banks who have the organization and resources already in place.
This a crowd-sourced google doc that’s been compiling the last few days of people and orgs working on help and relief efforts, and how people can contribute. I got the link from the Meriam-Webster dictionary site, BION.
It’s heavy on the progressive-side, but many non-partisan organizations listed. The Mutual Aid and Crowd-Source Rescue outfits look to be doing a lot of the heavy lifting.
It’s broken down by cites and communities - apparently there has been little state-wide coordination.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rdMnbzYxfXFrG1DefGqN3R1zu_lan2fml2bEYRpMcRQ/edit
@stolicat
FWIW, many of the little small communities and counties in central semi-rural TX (S of DFW, n of Austin/College Station/San Antonio/Houston [excluding the better-known cities along the interstates, such as Waco and Temple]) have been v badly hit and aren’t getting any national, or much regional, media attention.
Anyone who wants to put their assistance offers into a less publicized acute area of need, please consider the mostly rural counties, or those counties of low total populations, as an option.