3 expected days of below-freezing temps wreaks havoc in Dallas!

Aunt Bea said:
If the electric goes out I can run the gas stove for heat.
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That is much to be thankful for. I have gas heat but it requires electricity to function, and the kitchen range is electric. Whoever made that choice was short sighted. They could have installed a gas range and would have made it through subfreezing temperatures.
 

seadoug said:
LOL, we know we are getting sleet and ice on Saturday morning and will stay in freezing temps through Monday. You would think The Apocalypse is coming. Yes, I've stocked on the food we will need to get us through this, but the grocery stores have been packed with people stocking up on, you guessed it... toilet paper! I went to buy toilet bowl cleaner today and all but two bottles of the store brand were gone!:oops: Really? Toilet bowl cleaner?

Of course, the news has been playing this up, but the behavior is so over-exaggerated it reminds me of the pandemic! You think people are overreacting?
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Yes. Ever since the pandemic people automatically freak out here and clear the shelves like it's the frickin apocolypse. It's ridiculous.
 

We experienced an ice storm in the year 2000. I don't wish to go through that again. We were without power for 5 days. The sound of trees cracking filled the air. Firewood was hard to come by. We were lucky to have a fireplace. I am hoping to stock up on wood this afternoon. Neighbors have been sharing information.
 
Well, when we get -27F, we just hunker down inside. Our power generally does not go out, but if it does, most out here have wood stoves for backup heat for our well insulated homes. And all our plumbing and water lines are buried about 5+ feet down in the ground so they do not freeze.

But down south, not so. Power goes out with the ice storms and people have no heat and they can freeze to death. Not too many wood stoves running. If it cold enough, plumbing freezes.
 
For those who worry about TP, get a bidet attachment for your toilet. They cost from around £20 in the UK, and we've had one for many years now. In fact we're on our third one, and they save an enormous amount on TP. Here's a photo of the one we currently have installed. It's cold water feed only, so you might prefer the type we used to have, which is shown in the lower photo.

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And here's a photo of the one it replaced when we had our bathroom refurbished. If you look closely you can see that it had both hot and cold water feeds, so you could adjust the temperature of the water jet.

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And here's a photo of the kit the one above came as. This kit cost around £35 from Ebay at the time, and they cost less than that today.

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I can't recommend these things highly enough. They are especially useful for those of us who are getting older, and find that reaching round is less simple than it used to be.
 
For a three day storm a bidet bottle cap might be good to have in the bathroom or the glove compartment.
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If you are a bit flexible and have a good sense of direction a bottle of water with a standard sport cap would also work, if all else fails poop with a friend. 😉🤭😂
 
I lived in Dallas in 1972 when we had an ice storm that coated everything with ice for about 2 days. It was pretty thick (an inch in places) and stayed on the roads a long time. My dad (who grew up in Wisconsin and was very familiar with driving on ice) took us out one of those days and did some spins in the car when it was safe. It closed schools for two days that we had to make up on two Saturdays in spring.

My dad went into work when others didn't because he knew how to drive on ice and there was a guy ice skating down the street at one point in time. We may or may not have had snow chains for the car he was driving.
 
It's 11 degrees outside right now! It's so cold, I'm going to have to wear my heavy coat (for the first time this winter) when I take the dog for a walk.

I feel for the areas that will be experiencing ice storms in the next few days. Those are the worst for driving... always a lot of accidents.
 
Paco Dennis said:
We built a small shelter over our well pump and then we put an electric heater or light bulb (back in the day) in it.
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I have a shelter over it and two light bulbs but if the electricity is off for an extended time I will have to shut the pump off and drain the pressure off the tank and then can't start it again until it has thawed out, which seems like it is going to be 4 or so days. I just hope all of this does not transpire in the middle of the night.
 
Babs2u said:
We experienced an ice storm in the year 2000. I don't wish to go through that again. We were without power for 5 days. The sound of trees cracking filled the air. Firewood was hard to come by. We were lucky to have a fireplace. I am hoping to stock up on wood this afternoon. Neighbors have been sharing information.
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Well I got some wood at Kroger but it meant waiting on line for an hour. Some people abandoned their carts but most stuck it out. The woman in front of me asked me to attend to her cart while she picked up another item. She returned with 3 bottles of wine. People are concerned
 

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