How Do You Survive The Storm of the Century?
Well, unless you live under a rock you have heard about the crazy storm that hit Texas.
Yes, yes. I have heard from the amazing midwesterners that look at us and think, "come on Texas! Why can't you handle it? We can."
Really? That's like comparing Chickens and Watermelons.
Perspective:
Texas is approximately 678,052 sq km. That means it's big enough to hold North and South Carolina with room to spare for Virginia, Alabama, West Virginia, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Georgia. And for all my global readers out there, 10 countries can fit into Texas: The Netherlands, Slovenia, Switzerland, Austria, Belgium, Slovakia, Czech Republic, Macedonia, Luxembourg, and Hungary would all fit inside Texas. Are you getting the perspective?
Texas's average temperature in the winter 72 degrees in the day and 40 at night. Average in the summer 96 degrees at 78 at night. So, snow? Yeah, not really.
Sure the panhandle (Amarillo and Lubbock) get cold and can handle some snow. (They borrow snowplows from New Mexico if it gets really bad). However, the storm impacted the whole of Texas: Dallas, Austin, Houston, El Paso, and San Antonio at the same time. Here is the picture for perspective.
Can we handle below-freezing temperatures for one maybe two days? Sure, but six days and at 5 degrees or colder? No. Texas sits on a huge Limestone rock—not a lot of digging is going to happen through that rock. So if air temps drop, then pipes will freeze.
The trouble? The strain on the power grid. Demand for power in a storm like this rises. One to two days? Sure you can handle it. But for five days with over 27 million people impacted? Nope.
Well, no power, no pumps to keep the water and gas pumping through the lines. Without moving water the lines freeze. Many of the water towers depend on those pumps to pump the water up to the towner and down the lines to keep the pressure in the lines. No pressure, low water quality, and burst lines also mean that we needed to boil the water that was coming to you.
There were people whose pipes froze then burst in the home (flood), others whose roofs collapsed (we are more of the hurricanes and Tornadoes type. We are not built to carry snow loads). Fires broke out because others tried to light fires in blocked fireplaces, or water heaters are empty because water is not filling the tank and yet the flame is heating up an empty tank. And, CO2 poisoning happened because of a lack of heat and power.
Alrighty. I'm not a Texas Native, but survival in all types of weather is in my blood. Check out this link here for that story. But I was prepared. Food, water, fuel, heat, and a plan. Ok. Bring on the storm.
Did all my plans work out? No, however, "Necessity is the mother of invention."
Check out some of my videos to see how we made it.
Need more ways to stay warm? Check out Rock Warmers
Need more ways to figure out how to flush a toilet and use your gas stove as a source of radiant heat? Check it out here.
Need more ways to harvest water? Check it out here.
Now, just to share with you, praying never decreased. It increased. But it was with a grateful heart for all of it.
I challenged myself to list 100 positive things from the storm. (That's coming tomorrow).
Y'all, thanks for your prayers. Thanks for your love. Thanks for your support.
Forever Shining!
April
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