On 2/18/2021 11:57 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
On Thursday, February 18, 2021 at 11:20:01 AM UTC-5, Dave in SoTex wrote:
On 2/18/2021 8:14 AM, DerbyDad03 wrote:
We haven't heard from you in a couple of days. I hope the weather hasn't impacted you too severely.

Let us know.
Leon may be w/o power or internet service or both. Much of
Houston's power has been restored. Just saw that there "only" about 45k
still w/o power vs. the high of 1.2 mil.
My NW-Harris-County power has now been on uninterrupted since 9:30
a.m. yesterday after 55 consecutive hours w/o. Night before last it was
52 degs in the house with but a puny gas log fireplace and some of the
gas stovetop burners for heat. I've had a Little Buddy propane heater
running on low in my well pumphouse continuously since Sunday.
Life seems almost back to "pandemic normal."

Dave in SoTex

"Just saw that there "only" about 45k still w/o power vs. the high of 1.2 mil. "

Yes but it is daylight and warmer now. We will see at 9 pm tonight if
there are only 45k with out power.




How many have homes that have been ruined by burst pipes? That's mainly what
you saw on the news but I don't recall seeing numbers on how many are in that
situation. Getting the power back on is great, but if the flooding damaged any of
the mechanicals or power equipment, they could still be in trouble heat wise.

A lot of people have broken pipes. My son has a broken pipe.
Fortunately he shut the main valve going to his outside water softener
and drained the pipes in his house before the freeze. That main pipe
froze and broke outside the house and above ground. Hopefully that will
be the only problem. The next problem will be getting parts for this
easy repair.

WE left our water trickling at 3 sinks and have had no issues so far.
But we have a couple of nights with a hard freeze forecast, fortunately
only in the 20's, I hope. ;~)


Of course, it begs the question as to why they didn't let the water run before the
pipes burst. Ignorance, I guess.

;~) So the wise authorities say, "turn off the water coming into your
home and drain your pipes". This will prevent low water pressure...and
your pipes from freezing inside your home.


Sooooo if you do this you actually have NO water pressure. What is the
point of preserving pressure if every one turns their water off?




We had a few ice storms in my area, the worst being back in the mid-80's. Five
days without power. Luckily, the temps hovered around 40, so it was cold, but not
dangerously so. Gas still worked so the stove provided some heat.

In 1989 we got down to 7 one morning. That was cold. Did not loose power.
In 2008 we lost power for 11 days during Hurricane Ike. That was in the
summer and miserable. Fortunately a cool front moved in immediately
after the hurricane hit so we eased into misery vs. immediately.
Last night before our electricity was restored our inside temp was 57.
No gas range or fireplace.




Worst part was that I had just upgraded my furnace before that winter. The old
furnace had a manual valve that allowed the furnace to operate without power
as long as you adhered to a strict duty cycle. Code doesn't allow that these days.

;~) We had a gas range until July of last year.


I added a transfer switch and inlet a couple of years ago so I can use my generator
as long as I can get gas.


I have a generator but did not really need it, it is not large enough
for much more than a few lights, freezer and fridge. Our freezer still
showed Zero degrees after 23 hours of no power.

We did get to listen, for 23 hours, to the whole house generator run 4
houses down.