Damn - national treasure Dan Rather freezing

[cilla4progress]

Last edited Wed Feb 17, 2021, 12:00 AM - Edit history (1)

in Austin!

Link to tweet

?s=19

[tiptonic]

1. I wonder

I wonder if Texas, is still planning on getting out, of the socialist United States.

[MagickMuffin]

11. That was never an option, only teeny tiny segment wants to and they will lose

[soldierant]

2. Your title scared the bejeezus out of me.

Dan's not a spring chicken, and we have lost too many good people last year and this year already.

I'm very sorry about the power - but glad he's alive.

[jcgoldie]

6. I thought he was dead too when i read it!

😰

[cilla4progress]

8. Oh shoot

I'll fix it

[soldierant]

12. Thanks. That's good.

[dalton99a]

3. Freezing rain is expected overnight on top of the snow

[central scrutinizer]

18. That's the worst.

It builds up weight on branches and power lines quickly and they break.

[efhmc]

38. Is freezing rain the term used now for sleet? Are they the same thing?

[Hermit-The-Prog]

39. No, different things

Sleet freezes on the way to the ground. Freezing rain freezes on contact. The latter comes from a (relatively) warm, wet air mass overrunning a cold air mass and everything is already below freezing.

Sleet is miserable when it hits your face or forms a slick layer of rough ice on the highway, but not as miserable as the potential consequences of freezing rain. Freezing rain encases everything it hits in ice.

[efhmc]

43. Thanks.

[brush]

4. People in states that don't usually get extended deep cold...

should've been warned by their government to keep a trickle of water going by their faucets to keep the pipes from bursting. Too bad Texas is disadvantaged with a poor governor.

[TexasBushwhacker]

20. Unfortunately, that is now causing dangerously low water pressure

When the pressure is really low, your pipes can still freeze. People have woken up to find an icicle hanging from their kitchen faucet!

It's better to insulate all outdoor pipes, as well as indoor pipes that are on walls that face outside. Fill a bathtub with water before the freeze for toilet flushing. Fill pots with water, but boil before using for food or drinking. Turn your water off at the main and drain your pipes when the freeze is happening overnight. You can always turn it back on in the AM.

I went through this in the freeze of 1989 in Houston. Unfortunately, I still had a spilt pipe in my garage ceiling because the pipe sagged and trapped water in it.

FYI, in a pinch, you can temporarily fix a split pipe with pipe insulation and hose clamps, like this. They come in different diameters.

https://static.grainger.com/rp/s/is/image/Grainger/5CZE0_AS02?hei=1072&wid=1072

A lot of places will be out of pipe insulation, but a pool noodle will do. No, I'm not kidding. You just have to split it, cut enough out that it will fit tightly around the pipe and then use the hose clamps or duct tape. I got through 2 weeks waiting for a plumber by doing this!

[Texin]

27. We were. We live in Dallas, and local Spectrum channel advised that.

Too bad, though, it wasn't enough to prevent our master bath sink pipes from freezing. (We had the faucets dripping, but stupidly left the cabinets closed, which might have prevented the pipes from freezing, but I doubt it.) The rest of the house was okay - though I don't know what will happen with any of our outside faucets. So far, we live in a pocket in Lake Highlands area that has power, and had it through the most brutal temps yesterday (morning lows in the 3 degree range) with snow and ice on the ground - though not much of it, mercifully. Overnight we got more snow - about an inch and a half, but temps are back in the twenties, which feels downright balmy if you don't have to be out in it for long. This is the worst episode of cold/ice I've experienced in my lifetime (though there might have been one incident when I was about six back in the early '60s). We've had plenty of ice and snow storms, but never anything I remember that involved single digit temps near zero. The biggest problem with the electric grid is that the fucking privatized electric energy delivery grid as not been updated and winterized in like never despite having been advised to do that well more than ten years ago. But this is what living in a state that's been run by the GOP for over forty years - and in rural areas since before that.

[efhmc]

31. This old Texas girl knows and has always known this. Even did it when we lived in Houston.

[BobTheSubgenius]

5. Texas is a disaster. Was there a seminal event that cascaded, like the NE Blackout?

Or components broke down independently because of the cold? I only heard about the story when it was well underway.

[BobTheSubgenius]

7. PS: Dan Rather IS a national treasure.

I have been a big fan since the last year of the Watergate epic.

[highplainsdem]

9. General failure to prepare, because of the financial structure for power generation:

https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/the-texas-grid-got-crushed-because-its-operators-didnt-see-the-need-to-prepare-for-cold-weather/ar-BB1dJPUS?li=BBnb7Kz

[hunter]

19. The "invisible hand of the free marketplace" is a psychopath.

Come to think of it, so is the god many chest thumping Christians worship.

Sadly the people most responsible for this catastrophe probably slept in warm beds last night.

[Woodycall]

16. Texas was always a disaster...

[birdographer]

10. Would a generator have helped him?

I don't know how they operate at such cold temperatures. We are in rural NC and lose our power if a squirrel runs across the line, so we got a whole-house one. Not very helpful question at this point. I don't like to think about him in this situation. I hope if they come through it they will consider a generator. (I know, useless...)

[moonscape]

40. I used to lose power regularly when I lived in a

redwood forest. Nearly every time it rained in the winter. One Christmas it was out for 5 days and that did it! I invested in a good Honda generator, had housing built for it, had the electic panel upgraded and tied it in with a swich and ... sigh. Felt great. The next two year I used it once for maybe 4 hours then sold the house.

Nobody thinks of doing that pre-emptively. After this experience there just might be a lot of work for electricians in Texas though!

[TheBlackAdder]

13. Folks with frozen pipes had better shut off their main line before thaw to prevent flooding.

.

Then, shut off your different zones so when the water gets tuned on, it can be controlled and checked for leakage.

If you just let things fly, some homes might be in for a world of hurt.

.

[Warpy]

14. Had one of these stinkers in Mass. many years ago

I thumbtacked blankets over the 2 doors into the kitchen, maybe a 2 foot gap at the bottom. Then I stayed up all night baking cookies, breads, and other goodies. The rest of the place stayed above freezing, which meant no frozen pipes. I had a gas stove, everything else needed electricity.

I've always looked for places with gas stoves for that reason.

[wnylib]

34. Most gas stoves today have electric ignitions.

Not sure, but I think that gas is also off in some places in Texas.

[Warpy]

35. It's called a spark lighter

and it works a whole lot better than most of those systems do.

I think you're right about the gas being off. Power plants and probably hospitals top the priority list.

[wnylib]

36. With gas off then pilot lights are also off.

Will there be problems when the gas is back on? Like gas build ups from unlit pilot lights?

EDIT: An afterthought - What about gas lines? Can they freeze up? Break?

[Warpy]

37. Big pilot lights in water heaters and heating systems have fail safe mechanisms

You have to relight the pilot lights and manually hold the gas on until the pilot light heats the thermocouple, otherwise the gas will; just shut off again. It usually takes a couple of minutes, there's usually a big button that nicely accommodates a thumb.

Stoves usually don't use that much to keep pilots lit, so you'll be notified by the foul odor long before you get to that magic 15% gas to air ratio that makes houses go "boom."

I never wanted to smell it, so I shut off all stove pilots as soon as I moved in. Apartment stoves were usually at least 25 years old and they weren't all that reliable, anyway. It saved a lot on the bill, too.

[aggiesal]

15. My brother is in San Antonio, and he had no electricity or heat at his home last night ...

So today he found a hotel for $100 per night.
We got electricity & heat for about an hour today so he had a chance to charge his cell phone.

Unfortunately, while his phone was dead, the hotel called and asked if he still need the room and to call if he needed to cancel.
When he called the hotel had already cancelled his room. Now they're asking for $150 per night after cancelling EVERYONE's reservation. When he called we was put on a wait list.

I told him that it's illegal to price gouge during a time of emergency and is considered a violation of the unfair or deceptive trade practices law.

Have an attorney write a really short sweet letter to the hotel and call the police.

[live love laugh]

17. Insane. I know two people suffering with this. Inexcusable. nt

[DeminPennswoods]

21. I would be turning off my water, draining my

pipes, setting my thermostat low, locking up my house/apt/condo, packing up my car and heading east or west out of Texas for a few days. Hotels up north, east and west would be glad for the business.

[efhmc]

32. Just curious if you know what the roads are like going north.

[DeminPennswoods]

42. Far away, up here in the western

part of Pennsylvania, the roads are ok. We had a freezing rain/ice event on Tuesday that made things a bit dicey, but the roads are now clear. Talked to a friend in SC and their roads were good.

But I think you'd only have to get a short distance outside of TX to find places that do have power.

[Luz]

41. North is Austin or DFW, not an option. East is Houston, they

aren't any better off. West is Mexico or west Texas.

In reality, there was no where to go. We're better off at home.

[orleans]

22. updated tweet

Link to tweet

[dalton99a]

24. +1

[WyattKansas]

23. The problem of cheap residences, buildings, & infrastructure that don't ever account for extremes.

From how deep lines are buried, how poorly insulated residences and buildings are, and utility requirements needed to whether industries safeguard against extreme climate changes with everything those industries do. Of course costs had to be cut, because a majority of the population traded cash buying power for credit/debt gains for decades instead, so everything needs to be built cheaper.

And all of that is a direct result of the United States of America's race to the bottom economy for Corporate America to PROFIT over actually providing a beneficial service to the economy, which use to be a prerequisite to actually become a corporation. Until this ignorant allegedly educated country finally figures out that Mammon is not God and Vulture Capitalism of today only creates more mayhem, nothing will ever change.

[Demovictory9]

25. omg

love Dan Rather

[MyOwnPeace]

26. Sorry, Dan, but........

"There needs to be accountability for what happened."

It was the RepubliQons - and for them there is NEVER accountability....

[durablend]

28. Cue the cries of

"HER DAMN EMAILS CAUSED THIS!!!!!!"

[rdking647]

29. Dropped to 38 degrees in my house

Power came back on at 5am this morning
No water for 2 days no idea when it will come back. I’m in the austin suburbs
At least we’re finally warm again since the heater is on.

Got more ice this morning. Gathered some of it in buckets to melt to supplement the buckets we ore filled before water went out

[cilla4progress]

30. Of little solace but...

holding you in my heart!

I hope the worst is over for you!

[northoftheborder]

33. Rachel had an excellent segment on Texas' electric grid problems...

Some history of being warned that upgrades needed to be done for weather like this, but ignored....Texas doesn't like for "big guvmint" to tell it anything. Big money wins in this state and always has.