Texas....a lesson for the entire nation

Happy Joe said:
Why would anyone rely on utilities to provide something as essential as power and water, without a personal backup plan?
The camping filter will take care of even large viruses and a carbon filter will remove many noxious chemicals from water. There is a very large creek within walking distance.
Generators have been available for roughly a century, or more.
Portable heaters work both as a home heating backup and for camping...

Self reliance has been apart of my life for most of it... so far.
The Texas scenario boggles my mind!
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One stays prepared when living in an off grid mountain cabin
Everything topped off, always

That's followed me when we bought our place in town

Good sized genny
5 gals gas
Couple cases of bottled water
Small propane heater (that just rocks, BTW)
four tanks of propane
Kerosene lanterns
Flash lights (duh)
Other obvious essentials
And both tanks filled in the vehicles

It's become pretty basic for me

Heh, my wife's sister (in Houston) had a bit of a time of it
Big money folks (he's a top exec in natural gas)

Had to scoop water out of her pool to flush the toilet

Their umbrella blew over in the back yard
They quizzed each other on who they should call
 

One of the big problems that happened in Texas during this whole mess is that natural gas supply was dependent on the power grid.
Now I have a generator and some other preparedness items, and when the power goes out here I still have natural gas coming into the house. So with a gas cooktop I can still function.
If no natural gas, I can still function with the generator and propane.
My pickup truck has the power outlet option in the bed so I can plug in there for short periods of time.
 

J.B Books said:
One of the big problems that happened in Texas during this whole mess is that natural gas supply was dependent on the power grid.
Now I have a generator and some other preparedness items, and when the power goes out here I still have natural gas coming into the house. So with a gas cooktop I can still function.
If no natural gas, I can still function with the generator and propane.
My pickup truck has the power outlet option in the bed so I can plug in there for short periods of time.
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Some years ago the pumps supplying natural gas were all run by natural gas.
In the last few decades or so "GREEN" gas companies have been converting to electric pumps; soo... in a wide spread long term power outage there may be no gas pressure in some localities.
Conversion exclusively or even mostly to Green renewable sources without disaster/backup/surge plans is a huge mistake IMO... Talk about setting one's self up for failure! (folks in Kalifornia and Texas now, should, have realized this), IMO.

Enjoy!
 
The news is saying that Texas went through a similar power outage about 10 years ago, and measures were supposed to be implemented that would mitigate future issues. It appears that those "measures" were largely just "hype", and little or nothing was actually done. Perhaps the severity of this outage will force the authorities to actually do something.

With our ever changing climate, it's anyone's guess as to what future years will bring in the way of cold and heat waves, etc. The only sensible approach is to try to plan for the worst, and be grateful if it doesn't happen.
 
Don M. said:
The news is saying that Texas went through a similar power outage about 10 years ago, and measures were supposed to be implemented that would mitigate future issues. It appears that those "measures" were largely just "hype", and little or nothing was actually done. Perhaps the severity of this outage will force the authorities to actually do something.

With our ever changing climate, it's anyone's guess as to what future years will bring in the way of cold and heat waves, etc. The only sensible approach is to try to plan for the worst, and be grateful if it doesn't happen.
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I wonder if folks remember that there have been a good number of massive power outages in the past (e.g., the Northeast blackout of 1965 or Western North America blackout of 1996).
 
Happy Joe said:
Some years ago the pumps supplying natural gas were all run by natural gas.
In the last few decades or so "GREEN" gas companies have been converting to electric pumps; soo... in a wide spread long term power outage there may be no gas pressure in some localities.
Conversion exclusively or even mostly to Green renewable sources without disaster/backup/surge plans is a huge mistake IMO... Talk about setting one's self up for failure! (folks in Kalifornia and Texas now, should, have realized this), IMO.

Enjoy!
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I received a text from a friend in Texas with a picture of a gas powered Helicopter spraying a petroleum based De-Icer on a wind turbine. Even green cannot function without fossil fuel.
Things that make you say Hmmmm.
 
JonDouglas said:
I wonder if folks remember that there have been a good number of massive power outages in the past (e.g., the Northeast blackout of 1965 or Western North America blackout of 1996).
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I remember the 1965 outage very well. I lived in upstate NY. on lake Ontario at the time.
That outage was caused by some hydro failure in Niagara falls if I recall.
 
J.B Books said:
I received a text from a friend in Texas with a picture of a gas powered Helicopter spraying a petroleum based De-Icer on a wind turbine. Even green cannot function without fossil fuel.
Things that make you say Hmmmm.
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Shh! I don't think the green weenies want you to look too closely at the foibles and failures of those wind turbines (e.g., freezing, lubrication, periods of insufficient wind, blade failure, etc.). I happen to know of a town manager who, if he could, would tell you the horror stories about getting roped into a losing windmill deal by govt. "experts" and incentives.
 
fmdog44 said:
Let's not omit the dead people young and old due to freezing temperatures. The stories are sad and so unnecessary. If any of us Texans would have believed this would be this catastrophic we would have filled up our bath tubs. When is the last time you removed toilet contents with a scooper?
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I did fill up two large pails and a plastic trash container with water ahead of the freeze last Sunday, and left them sitting in my bathtub.
I only did that because I remembered 1989, and the situation we went thru for a couple weeks back then.

Haven't heard the latest death toll from all of this
 
Ruthanne said:
People in apts. and with low incomes especially are at the mercy of the power companies unfortunately. There is no way for them to own a home and get a generator no matter how long they have been available. Try and get a landlord to get a generator. Impossible.
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That vulnerability can lead to tragic outcomes. Two men (age 28 and 41) tried to stay warm with a generator in an apartment.

"Inside the apartment, officers found a gas-powered generator near one of the bodies. Officials said the key to the generator was, "in the on position with extension cords connected, but it appeared to be out of gas."

Witnesses told police they heard the generator running on Wednesday."

https://www.nbcdfw.com/news/local/2-garland-men-dead-of-possible-carbon-monoxide-poisoning/2557933/
 
Happy Joe said:
I have never let myself get into that situation; I did have to have my sewer line replaced though (took 2 weeks from failure to completion).

During that time I put (double) plastic grocery bags n to a five gallon bucket to receive the solids, Not all that comfortable but not terrible after I cut a hole in the lid to get away from the narrow bucket rim. (double knotting the bags helps keep the smell down: replace bags immediately after each use). since then I have found out that you can actually get toilet seats to fit a five gallon bucket and some folks just slit a pool noodle or use pipe insulation as a cushion.

For weekend camping I use a porta pottie.

Enjoy!
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Yep. (y)

portable toilet.jpg
 
I would be willing to bet that the "big whigs" who control the State policies all had large Generac standby generators at their houses, and barely noticed a blip during this power outage.
 
When they had a similar emergency 10 years ago and were told to upgrade their systems, they should have done it then! Probably wanted to save money and at what cost?! I feel so bad for those people in Texas. A friend of mine had a family member who had to go stay with a friend of the family. While she was gone the pipes in her home burst. Then of course there were the deaths for various reasons but caused by the effects of the extreme cold.:cry:

I was horrified as I read about all the problems those people were facing. I was worried about my cousin but he and his family made out okay. They have a fireplace which kept them warm. Power was off and on for a couple of days and they had enough to eat. Now they have a water emergency to deal with...just a mess. You're right @Don M. Hopefully this will be a wake up call for all the states because I've been hearing about failing infrastructures throughout the country for more than a decade.
 
@Happy Joe. I was wondering how many amp hours that battery of yours is. (always looking in case something better comes down the pike).
Should we need it, We have solar for our motor home boondocking excursions. Would only take a few minutes to hook to the house if needed. (y)
We had the 6v flooded batts hooked in series originally, but, when they finally quit, I went with some sealed 12v. AGM batts in hooked in parallel. I,ve only got 530 watts of solar, but, there is room on top for at least 6 more panels. (I will purchase as I can afford them).

DSC01212.JPG DSC02646.JPGDSC02647.JPG IMG_0448.JPG
 
Irwin said:
Wind turbines in Colorado have built in heaters so they don't freeze. They probably saved a few dollars by not getting the heaters in Texas, and it cost them in the long run.
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So true. I've read that Canada uses wind turbines so Texas's problem with them makes no sense to me. I thought there is a whole engineering profession that is supposed to have requirements to meet specs that include handling whatever extremes can happen. Sounds like a lot of human failure is behind the problems.
I am strongly of the opinion that every dang thing humans try to do they should be audited to make sure they aren't cutting corners.
In my area in Nebraska we had a flood a couple years ago, and despite all the requirements for our homes to be perched up on dirt to be above 100 yr flood levels, the major highway was built flat on on the ground, got flooded out, and took MONTHS to repair. Meanwhile everyone was detoured to the very old road and bridge that had been properly built raised up above flood level.
What ever happened to regulations that engineering projects had to meet, it is very confusing that things get built worse now than a hundred years ago.
 
HoneyNut said:
So true. I've read that Canada uses wind turbines so Texas's problem with them makes no sense to me. I thought there is a whole engineering profession that is supposed to have requirements to meet specs that include handling whatever extremes can happen. Sounds like a lot of human failure is behind the problems.
I am strongly of the opinion that every dang thing humans try to do they should be audited to make sure they aren't cutting corners.
In my area in Nebraska we had a flood a couple years ago, and despite all the requirements for our homes to be perched up on dirt to be above 100 yr flood levels, the major highway was built flat on on the ground, got flooded out, and took MONTHS to repair. Meanwhile everyone was detoured to the very old road and bridge that had been properly built raised up above flood level.
What ever happened to regulations that engineering projects had to meet, it is very confusing that things get built worse now than a hundred years ago.
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It has been my experience that you sometimes don't see the best and the brightest going into government positions that influence, create, specify and/or enforce construction regulations. This is especially true of law making politicians. Big egos, big ambitions yes. Big brains, no.
 
Texas....a lesson for the entire nation
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Well, aside from the message of self serving politicians and corporate greed, I would like to interject that nuclear power "can be" safe and a desirable alternative. Green! Yes, I know some bristle at the term...
Nuclear Power plants FAIL because of one major event: cooling failure. Back in the 1960s a proto-type reactor was built at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, had a fail-safe cooling system utilizing molten salt. That could have been our energy savior, but the Navy wanted nuclear powered submarines, of course the cooling system would depend of using water. For reasons unknown, the focus of the nuclear power industry was solely on designs using water based cooling systems.
 
Nathan said:
Well, aside from the message of self serving politicians and corporate greed, I would like to interject that nuclear power "can be" safe and a desirable alternative. Green! Yes, I know some bristle at the term...
Nuclear Power plants FAIL because of one major event: cooling failure. Back in the 1960s a proto-type 'nuke' was built at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, had a fail-safe cooling system utilizing molten salt. That could have been our energy savior, but the Navy wanted nuclear powered submarines, of course the cooling system would depend of using water. For reasons unknown, the focus of the nuclear power industry was solely on designs using water based cooling systems.
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My guess it came down to costs and what they could obtain and produce at that time. In other words it came down to money not having to procure the associate raw materials, refine them then turn them into reactor parts.

But this is what puzzles with a lot of these so called renewables which rely on electronic components and batteries which are loaded with heavy metals that must mined to start the manufacturing process.
 
Military contracts are far more lucrative and on-going, and no one really pays attention on how the military build their products.
Consequently, they tell the contractors what is needed, not what the safest method is... Safety is not the main priority........
 

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