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Published: March 3rd 2021
Two days before the Polar front ice storm, our weather stations warned us about all time record temperature lows and ice storm that could knock out our electric power for days. (The Texas electrical power grid is not reliable during temperature extremes.) I purchased ten gallons of non-ethanol gasoline for my portable generator for power. I purchased disposable propane bottles for my cook stove and my space heaters. I had plenty of food and water, and was ready to hunker down and stay at home. (What could possibly go wrong?)
Day one (Feb. 15): I first got sleet then snow. I lost power in evening and covered up for the night.
Day two (Feb 16): I woke to find ice covering my planted conifers damaging them. It warmed up to about 35 degrees F (turning snow to ice) then dropped down to about zero degrees at night. That was an all time low temperature for Nacogdoches and other counties here in East Texas. I ran my portable generator for four hours in morning and six hours starting around dark. I could not take the risk of walking on ice to place a propane space heater in my tropical greenhouse
in the dark, so I took some losses there. I used my fireplace for my limited heat in my home.
Day three (Feb 17): I woke to find that my propane cook stove would no longer function. (Dang it!) Nacogdoches was shut down, and businesses did not answer their phone. I called the Nacogdoches County Sheriff and he told me about a strong travel advisory, and please stay off the roads. I ran my portable generator about the same hours as before. I used my fireplace for heat and to bake some potatoes. It dropped down to about 24 degrees F at night. I watched some TV and found out that Austin, Houston, Nacogdoches, Lufkin, and other Texas cities had no power or water. (Bummer.) My water supply was limited but still clean. There were about six million homes in Texas without power. My electric power Co-Op had about 40,000 homes without power.
Day four (Feb 18): It was still cold outside. I used my portable generator about the same hours as before. In the evening I watched TV news again. There were about 40 Texans that died due to hypothermia, and some due to carbon monoxide poisoning.
Also many Texas cities had either no water or no potable water. I had fireplace taters for dinner again. It dropped down to about 20 degrees at night. Unfortunately, I used up the last of my gasoline for my portable generator that night. It dropped down to about 20 degrees F that night.
Day five (Feb 19): Daytime it reached 40 degrees F (for the first time during this emergency) so I made a drive to Nacogdoches. The snow was melting, but with slush on the roads people were driving slowly and carefully. There was no non-ethanol gasoline to be had. The few gasoline stations with fuel had long waiting line stretching out into the streets. Without my generator I kept my refrigerator doors closed as not to spoil my food. I used my fireplace for heat and to cook taters for that night, and it dropped down to about 15 degrees F.
Day six (Feb 20): Another warm 40 degrees F daytime. I stayed home again. It was fireplace and taters again. It dropped to about 17 degrees F.
Day seven (Feb 21): After sunrise I was under my quilts keeping warm when I herd a
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small generator shedbeeping sound meaning my electric power returned. I was happy to find my food in my refrigerators was still good. It warmed up and most of the snow was gone.
On Feb. 23, 2021 It was sunny and warm outside, and the ground was reasonably dry. I talked to a nice neighbor with a large down oak tree. He agreed for me (and a few of my friends) to cut free firewood. I cut wood and helped him open up his back yard. Now in march I still have good oak wood to cut.
On March 16, 2021 I cut more firewood and added it to my wood stack; I will give my friends a chance to cut firewood for a few weeks. Later I will return to finish any more needed wood cutting.
Commentary: Some Texan households received high electric power bills up to $7,000 cuz they got some emergency power. I am very happy that I did not get any emergency electricity.
Editorial: None of out top State officials have shown any empathy for Texans during this disaster. About forty Texans died during this emergency. Most died due to hypothermia and three perished (about
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plum tree 20 miles from me) due to carbon monoxide poisoning. Drinking water was hard to find. Our Governator Ab-Butt blamed this disaster on renewable energy, that only produce about 20% of our power. Mr. Butt mostly blamed ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) who manages most of the electric supply for Texas. Since the Texas electric grid is regulated by the State of Texas and is known to be unreliable during weather temperature extremes; why does the top Texas executive do something to prevent a coming disaster rather then do "the blame game" after the fact? (Note: Ab-Butt gets huge amounts of money from the Texas oil and gas industry; so no improvements to our power grid is expected.) Now our great Senega Turd Cruise knew about the coming emergency. Turd took his family and friends to a warm beach in Mexico to enjoy the disaster. Our Texas political leaders do not appear to care about the citizens of Texas.
PS: After the ice storm it was known that there were 151 Texans dead from that event. Maybe we should upgrade our frail Texas power grid rather then use state money to build a stupid wall. Later after the facts
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fruit trees came in, the estimate of the number of dead Texans was increased to 700. The 700 includes people who froze to death, carbon monoxide poisoning from portable generators, people drinking contaminated water, ice related auto accidents, and critical people who could not get to a hospital.
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