Posted: 2/19/21 at 8:17pm
On a personal note: It's been a crazy 6 days. On Sunday, we received about 6.5 inches of snow. For our little corner of the world, that IS a lot. We're just not used to that amount. Then early Monday morning, our power went out. On Tuesday morning, it was 5 F with a temp of 33 inside my apt. I decided to secure a room at a local Holiday Inn Express for 4 nights. I checked into my room on Tuesday afternoon. The next day, the City of Austin cut off our water, basically in the entire city. Luckily, I was located across the way from a local store called Fiesta Market. On Thursday, I was able to get a 24 ct. package of water. I also purchased a plastic bucket so I could get water from the swimming pool to flush the toilet. Meanwhile, today I got in line at the grocery store at around 7:30 a.m. with a temp of 21 F. That was not fun. Later, I tried to thaw out my car, as it was literally encased in ice and snow. I later managed to find some gasoline to get a full tank. Tonight is my last night at my hotel. My apt. has water, but no electricity....due to a damaged transformer. Goody. I'll be covering under 7-8 blankets. This whole week has been a nightmare. Our state officials and ERCOT are to blame for this mess. In 2011, a similar storm caused havoc. A subsequent report recommended that our state weatherize our electrical infrastructure. Only El Paso listened and aligned with a different grid. The roads are clearing up, but the main worry is a lack of water and power (which includes my apt. building). It's very humbling that people are organizing collections to aid Texas. Personally, I am generally o.k. I live by myself but it's no fun looking forward to almost freezing temperatures in my apt. I recognize that others are in a far, far worse situation than I. I have read any number of criticisms of our state of Texas. Please focus your ire at the state officials, who initially created our statewide grid to prevent federal regulations. The people in our state have suffered tremendously under these....literally Arctic conditions. I admire those states who have had the wisdom to weatherize their electrical structures against extremely cold conditions. I have tried to keep it together, but it can be a stressful time. Today, luckily, we had the sun come out. It melted the remaining snow and ice. We were thankful that we had a high of 40. We're looking forward to warmer temperatures. That's all I have to say about that. Roman in Austin, Texas
Updated On: 2/19/21 at 08:17 PM
