If you haven’t heard about the weather in Texas then you clearly don’t watch the news. An estimated 4 million households were without power or involved in rolling blackouts that began early Monday morning. And in our area, the temperatures dropped to about -6 °F with a windchill that felt about -10 °F. And y’all, it wasn’t a fun time. The forecast kept pushing the winter storm back and it said the lows would be between 3 °F to 0 °F. The forecasted numbers fluctuated every day too! By the time the numbers switched into the negatives in our area for Sunday-Tuesday night, we had maybe a full day to try and prepare. Do you know how hard it is to find everything you need in a 24-hour window? Not to mention how many OTHER people are out there trying to prepare for the same thing. And in all honesty, the majority of our homes are not built to withstand those temperatures.
Our pipes froze on Friday night so we were without water early on. We grabbed a few cases of bottled water, bought some thick socks, and then quickly scrambled to get firewood as well as hook up an old propane heater. All of the stores were out of space heaters and pipe insulation. We managed to grab two heat lamps and I pulled out my electric throw along with three more blankets out of storage. Then we filled up our cars with fuel. My parents brought over about 10 gallons worth of water and then on Sunday, we bought three 5 gallon buckets that we filled up at Corey’s workshop. Along with a battery-operated pump. We were fortunate. I know some people who were on the same grid as hospitals or nursing homes that didn’t lose power at all, but almost everyone else experienced the rolling blackouts that started early Monday morning. Forty-five minutes on, forty-five minutes off. Some people lost power completely though. And it was cold, y’all. We could hear the wind blowing really hard outside throughout the day, and then the sleeting coming down on the roof in the early morning the first two days.
We ended up camping out in the living room because all of our heat was in that area. But it’s hard to keep a fire going all night. And then the propane we had ran out after a day and a half. So on Tuesday morning we woke up to our house being 45° F. Thankfully, our Tahoe is a 4x4 so throughout all of this we were able to get out to grab some food, help look after some livestock, refill our water buckets, and get somewhere to take showers. We were also blessed to have a relative that was able to refill our propane bottles because most of the places around here were out or waiting on trucks to come in. But the lines were about a mile long. And the roads were all icy. We saw several cars in the ditches, and we even fell into one ourselves. Then yesterday the temperature reached 28 °F but it was quickly followed by another hard freeze last night. However, from what the forecast says, this was the last one in our foreseeable future.
Next week we have weather in the 60’s! So, I’m hoping that we’ll be able to have our pipes defrosted by sometime early next week if not sooner. But y’all, I complained sooo much throughout this entire ordeal. Corey’s a real trooper for putting up with me. After day one I was over it. Then Em cried one morning because she was so cold. By Tuesday, I was frustrated with the rolling electricity and if I had had the money I would have had us out of here in a heartbeat. Which made me quickly realize that we are not meant for below zero weather. Now, I love snow. Em loves snow. I like when it’s cold. But I will not complain about Texas not getting a “real winter” ever again. I’ll take our regular winter lows of 20-30 °F from now on. And if for some reason, I ever find myself living or visiting somewhere up north, I better be in a house that is BUILT for it. None of this losing power and pipes freezing nonsense.
Now that it's almost over I can say that it wasn’t all bad though. School was canceled for all of us. Corey had entirely too much fun sliding around on the ice in our drive. On Valentine’s Day, we made our way to have lunch in town in order to celebrate. When we went to check on cows, Emery got to drive in a pasture. One night Corey cooked BLT’s with melted cheese in the fireplace and they were the best yet! Then one evening we had cake at my parent's house to celebrate Em’s birthday. Thankfully, their pipes never froze and they were able to get their heating issues fixed in time. And even though the Internet was down a lot, and our cell service was spotty I tried to stay updated on the local news. The stories coming out were just- wonderful. Our community really stepped up. Several facilities, churches, and families with extra room opened their doors for those who needed shelter, showers, food, or power stations. Several restaurants donated food. The school Em attends opened up its doors as well and even distributed free firewood. People were checking on neighbors and those who had vehicles capable of getting around offered up help to those who didn’t. So, after it was all said and done, we survived!
Now, I know a lot of people out there weren’t as lucky. Some are just now getting their power back - the rolling outages stopped for us yesterday morning. Some have lost loved ones due to the cold - though the official number hasn’t been released yet. Some people are having to boil their water before they can drink it. Many ranchers have lost livestock. Some people will be facing costly repairs once everything thaws. Some areas probably had it WAY worse in terms of temperature and outages. And I know a lot of people are mad at our government leaders right now for allowing us to be put in this position in the first place. But I'm thankful that it's over. I'm grateful that it wasn't as bad as it could have been, and that everyone stepped up to help when they could. And as we finally begin to see the light at the end of the frozen tunnel, I know that we’ll get through this. Texas always does. And we’ll do it together.
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