🧵 For my non-Texans, it's hard to convey how f'd our state is.

[soothsayer]

Link to tweet

?s=21


Conor Kenny
@ConorKenny
·
Feb 18, 2021
For my non-Texans, it’s hard to convey how f’d our state is. It’s barely broken freezing since Sunday. Half of Austin has been almost entirely w/out heat or power for 2.5 days. Water pressure is dropping and there’s a boil notice but half the city has no power to boil. Thread🧵⤵️

Conor Kenny
@ConorKenny
We mostly heat our homes w/ nat gas here but furnaces need electricity, so they’re out. Once buildings got cold pipes started breaking all over town. Folks dripped their faucets but now there’s not enough pressure for that. Mains are breaking w/ water running down the street. 2/
12:35 AM · Feb 18, 2021


Conor Kenny
@ConorKenny
·
Feb 18, 2021
Replying to @ConorKenny
This all started when several nuke, coal and gas power plants froze Sunday night because they’re not winterized despite warnings after our last storm in 2011 because we deregulated everything and industry owns the legislature/governor. 3/

Conor Kenny
@ConorKenny
When the big plants went down, the state grid operator cut local power. Yes, we have our own grid because we’re stubborn like that; former Gov/asshole Rick Perry says the disaster is worth it b/c we don’t want the feds imposing their SAFETY REGULATIONS: 4/

norKenny
·
Feb 18, 2021
Replying to @ConorKenny
When the state grid operator (@ERCOT_ISO) told local utilities had to immediately cut power Sunday night, many could only reach cut levels by shutting off every circuit that didn’t have a hospital or nursing home. So no rotating blackouts - just solid blackout since Sunday. 5/

Conor Kenny
@ConorKenny
It’s almost never this cold and never for this long. Texans don’t have fireplaces or many generators and many didn’t have food supplies for what’s looking like a week of lockdown. People are getting desperate, especially those who can’t cook because powers been out for 3 days 6/

·
Feb 18, 2021
Replying to @ConorKenny
Most cities here don’t have plows/salt, so the roads are a mess. Most cities got their utilities deregulated, so they have zero control over the power, and the few like Austin that do don’t have enough power to cycle - hospital circuits must stay on. City govs mostly powerless 7/

Conor Kenny
@ConorKenny
Many families (mine incl.) are lucky enough to have family or friends in the city near a hospital, so we drained our plumbing and abandoned our homes to go to them. I have neighbors who report 2 hours of power since Sunday and now almost no water pressure. It’s getting scary. 8/


onorKenny
·
Feb 18, 2021
Replying to @ConorKenny
Where we are now in Austin: people are out of food. Half the city still w/out power or heat. Citywide boil notice and little/no water pressure. Roads f’d. Stores closed. High of 34 lows in 20s next three days. It’s bad. Real bad. This is our Katrina. 9/

Conor Kenny
@ConorKenny
This was the looming danger behind the “Texas miracle” economy. We’ve invested the bare min. in education, foster care (kids dying/disappearing), affordable housing & #public health (healthcare in general: asshole Gov and #txlege refuse to expand Medicaid so hospitals closing)10/

or Kenny
@ConorKenny
·
Feb 18, 2021
Replying to @ConorKenny
And now chickens have come home to roost. We were warned in 2011 that if we didn’t require utilities to spend $ on winterization, this would happen. But we don’t force industry to spend $ in Texas. And now people are freezing and starving in their homes w/ no help on the way. 11/

Conor Kenny
@ConorKenny
And our feckless governor, who has never cared for governing as much as he has for his 2024 presidential run or protecting himself from a GOP primary challenge from our huckster Lt Gov., offers nothing but pointing fingers at windmills and his own regulatory appointees. 12/

Conor Kenny
@ConorKenny
WTF is this!?!? We’re in the middle of a crisis, w/ people freezing to death, caused by 1/3 of our nuke, coal, and gas plants failing in the cold, and Gov Abbott has time to go on Fox News to lie and trash wind and solar power!?!? We need competent leadership, not this bullshit.

Link to tweet

Conor Kenny
@ConorKenny
·
Feb 18, 2021
Replying to @ConorKenny
I apologize for my language and rudeness but I’m just done with these Texas politicians who think they can cut a bit of taxes, start a minor culture war and ride the momentum to the presidency (see Rick Perry). Now they’ve gotten people killed, and they still just don’t care. 13/

Conor Kenny
@ConorKenny
If you’d like to help, bless you. Throw some money at the local orgs out there feeding people and gettin them out of the cold (see below). It’s probably going to get worse in the next few days. If you pray, mention us. We’re going to need it. END

Conor Kenny
@ConorKenny
Here are the heroes helping Austin get through this. If you throw them some cash they won’t be worrying about holding back so as not to bankrupt themselves. Thanks, @joahspearman.

Link to tweet

[Walleye]

1. Saw it on the news. I really feel bad for those people

I lost power for four days in the summer from a tornado but the weather was warm and we still had water. I can’t even imagine what Texans are going through

[Squinch]

2. This is horrible. Especially because EVERY BIT OF IT was avoidable. I cannot imagine

what people are going through there.

I hope it makes some officials realize that they need to stop crowing about how climate change is a hoax.

The weather changes starting tomorrow. I hope they can hang in there.

[NCjack]

7. Did Sen. Ted Cruz just take his family to Cancun?

Some ideas for Texans.

1. If Cruz did just go to Cancun, everyone in Texas should call his offices in Texas and WDC and send his emails that demand that he immediately return to Texas!
2. Replace all Repukes with DEMs.

[Squinch]

8. I don't know. Those photos could have been him, but I wouldn't want to swear to it.

[Squinch]

13. Woops! I stand corrected. Looks like it WAS him.

Link to tweet

[dalton99a]

16. +1. His legal name is Rafael Edward Cruz

[luvtheGWN]

10. The pendulum has swung too, too far to the right.

Maybe this is what it takes for people to realize that deregulation will always come back to bite you in the ass. I hope ConorKenny, and Beto, and those few Democratic congresspeople will make big, big noise about this in an attempt to make people understand this:
government is YOU, and government works for YOU. Oh, and that corporations work for their shareholders, and not YOU.

[Kittycow]

3. I'll try to help; I'm just anal on research then donate.

I knew it was bad, but not this bad. On a personal niche level, the chronic pain and arthritic citizens must be suffering so in the cold

Leave it to the shit bag politicians to try and slime their way out of this. Although it's a hard, undeserved, and bitter lesson, I hope the die hard republican voters will open their eyes to the failure of leadership in TX.

Thanks for the post.

ETA: The Texas subreddit is saying Cruz just left for Cancun!

[soothsayer]

5. Yeah he did

[Renew Deal]

4. Republican governance is a large scale scam

Fully on display in Texas. It shows Texas is not a ready to be a serious state for business. NY, CA, WA, IL, MA are at the top of the list. Texas is near the bottom with its neighbors. Texas is overrated and is quickly moving toward catastrophe. I at least give credit to the Republican mayor that was honest. He told people to suck it up. Abbot just points fingers despite 25 years of Republican rule.

[Mr. Evil]

15. Texas needs another Ann Richards.

[judesedit]

6. Elections have consequences. Shame on those who complain, but don't vote

So sad. This could have been avoided. As soon as people realize republicons are poison to the survival of this country, America will be much better off. The GOP screws everything up and the Dems have to go in and fix it once again.

[DemUnleashed]

9. Instead of...

Instead of MAGA, Drumpf's slogan should have been MATW (Make America Third World)!

[JohnnyRingo]

11. If The Lone Star State had seceded from the union...

...it would be an international disaster area. The UN would have to come in and assist with what the government is unable to provide. Trump would call it a Shithole Country. Mexico would likely annex the country, and I'm not sure the 49 would help out.

Well they didn't secede, so I hope the feds get things under control fast for our Texan brethren. I feel for them because nearly every state has a disaster now and then and needs bailed out.

However, they can come down off their high horse and stop talking once and for all about independence that they are unprepared for and incapable of.

[bucolic_frolic]

12. Darwinian Survival-of-the-Fittest 1900 Vulture Cutthroat Capitalism is alive and well!

This will cull the herd, separate the weak from the strong!

Until Texas faces the demon ideologies of conservative economic theory that created this mess, they should face the music. I do want the Feds and Americans to help alleviate the suffering, but if we rush in with $300 billion and clean it all up for them, they'll just do it again. Stupid is what stupid does.

[orleans]

14. a chgo news station reported texas residents w/o power have been told not to flush toilets

i tried to google that and found articles talking about people melting snow in order to get their toilets to flush

[brush]

17. What a disaster. There's so much damage to homes and apartments...

some may be declared inhabitable because of black mold that will develop in the walls and ceilings because of water from busted pipes and water damaging electrical systems and sheet rock.

Poor government never winterized power installations over decades resulting in this mess. President Biden should sent FEMA aid asap and he should visit the state once it's safe.

This glaring example of poor republican leadership could tip the state blue in '22.

[AwakeAtLast]

18. My sister and her husband live in south Austin

They have been the fortunate ones with power, but many of their friends don't.

They had been discussing a move to Albuquerque. He is from there and Austin has now priced them out of living there. This fiasco has solidified their decision.

They are sad that they won't be staying to help turn Texas blue, but they have to look out for themselves.

[Kittycow]

19. I wouldn't stay either.

What if something even more serious happened? Their leadership is blase.

I bet the Preppers are high-fiving themselves, and I don't mean that in a sarcastic way. They were ready.

We were 50% ready, with dried foodstuffs and water but we'd have to eat everything cold. I don't think we have our heating alternative worked out. This storm has exposed the holes for everybody.

I was so blessed that our cul-de-sac didn't lose power and that I got my pain meds a few days before Uri hit. But my trucker husband was out in it and I was home alone with two rescue cats that fight each other; I would have struggled trying to tack blankets over the windows, making sure the cats were ok, etc. (I think you can jumpstart a gas furnace but I'd be helpless at it probably.)