[Need4Camaro]

N.Austin metro suburbs here, its unbelieve what happened. I've never went through anything like this before. They are rotating power here so I get about a combined 4 hours no power and the rest with power which isnt terrible compared to what happened in S.Austin (48 hours no power). I lost water because our water plant equipment literally froze so Im hoping my pipes dont burst when they restore water.

As for the cold? Unbelievable, I've NEVER felt 0*F before ... and especially in Texas, that was another level of COLD... It was literally painful just to stand outside in it and it was coming through my walls like I didnt have any walls. The heat is all electric here so it just ran all day not heating the house struggling to keep up. CoWorkers abandoned their homes for hotels because the HVAC couldnt keep up. Then other friends completely lost power for days and had to retreat on untreated iced up roads.

As for the power situation, I didn't come to know this until recently but Texas is on its own separate power grid separated from the rest of the country and its managed by ERCOT. The main issue that happened is the equipment was not winterized. Typically Texas sees its peak power usage during the summer when everyone is trying to stay cool under the A/C and they take down power infrastructure during the winter to do maintenance so that left us crippled to start with. Texas doesn't prep for winter temps because that costs money and the state being pro-business likes to tout about low energy costs, this is part of the reason. We did lose Wind Power but the bulk of our power loss came from Coal and Natural Gas plants either freezing, running out of fuel, or shutting down. We also lose one reactor in a Nuclear Plant

The Electric Reliability Council of Texas, or ERCOT, manages about 90% of the state's power for 26 million customers.

During a news conference Tuesday, representatives from ERCOT said there were 45,000 megawatts offline. Of that, 15,000 megawatts were wind and 30,000 were gas and coal.

Supply fell short by about 34,000 megawatts (MW) of energy, according to ERCOT.

https://www.usatoday.com/in-depth/ne...rk/6764764002/

&

One of the two reactors of the South Texas Nuclear Power Station in Matagorda County shut down, knocking out about half of its 2,700 megawatts of generating capacity. On Monday, Unit 1 went offline cold weather-related issues in the plant’s feedwater system, said Vicki Rowland, lead of internal communications at STP Nuclear Operating Co.

https://www.houstonchronicle.com/bus...ing%20capacity.

Green energy failures have hurt us but what really killed us were those power plants becoming inoperable.

[closs2sx]

Sorry to see people go through this. I may be crazy but I have headed out on my snowmobile when it was -35 without the wind chill and gone down the trail at over 70 mph in the middle of nowhere with the nearest town 50 miles away and loved every minute of it. Did I say I might be crazy?

[FarmerFran]

JTDC Imagine if everyone was trying to charge their vehicles!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[pauly1119]

Originally Posted by AZ_1LE

Yea, my mom has been home alone since it went out on Sunday, and then the water stopped early monday morning. My dad's been out of town on a work trip and can't get back because of cancelled flights and no rental cars available.

Pool plumbing all exploded around the pump and filter, irrigation system is toast, hose bibs are questionable which is the main concern (if they burst in the wall, that's gonna suuuuck to fix). The neighbors helped her shut off the water valve at the street so they can make sure there aren't any crazy bad leaks when it comes back on.

And the power did come back on a little bit ago, but the heat pump was making a helluva racket and so they shut it back off. But the neighbors also helped her get the fireplace going and brought some firewood. It's still only 40 degrees in the house. They also are taking buckets of slushy water from the pool back to their houses so they can flush toilets.

But the roads in their neighborhood are the issue. There's only one road in/out from the main highway and it's fairly steep in places. Unless they lay down some salt and/or sand or gravel, I don't see how anything other than a 4x4 with chains is going to get in there before it melts in a few days. I was hoping someone could bring them some food or water or something, but it'll probably be near impossible.

I'm already planning on taking some days off work coming up to fly out there and help my dad fix everything. It's a mess.

That really sucks, hope you can get to them soon and resolve all the issues. Hard to believe in these times they can't supply enough power to keep these poor peoples homes heated. Best of luck!!

[Joshinator99]

Truly sorry to hear about what is going on in Texas. Wish I was closer so I could help some fellow C6 members.

Growing up only 3 miles from Quebec in upstate NY and living most of my life in Massachusetts, I can tell you that this crap can and will absolutely happen and you need to be prepared. A rugged vehicle is a must have with a muscle car IMO. If money is tight, it doesn’t have to be sexy. A Camaro is useless is most emergency situations unfortunately. A standby generator is a no brainer if you own a home. Automatic 17kW unit with large LP tank is best (I have a 500-gallon underground tank), but I also had a 7500 watt portable gasoline generator that worked great at my last home too. Always had at least 3 gas cans filled and treated with Stabil on standby. Last, but not least, 30 days of essentials: food, water, toiletries, first aid kit, emergency radio, medications, PET food too, etc.

Sounds boring, but when you NEED it, you will feel an immense amount of satisfaction in knowing you are prepared for the situation at hand. Sorry for the dad-level rant, but just want my fellow C6 owners to be prepared. Manage the situation before there is chaos. The government is not going to help.

[Bumbleboy92]

I’ve been more lucky then others, only had some power outages and slight water pressure issues but nothing spanning more then a few hours at a time.

The worst thing which is partially our own fault is not being on a fixed rate electric plan. Price rose to $10/kWh and last checked at $13 with it still rising. We decided to rather flip the breakers to the house minus the fridge and some outlets. Those on fixed rates won’t have issues now but I feel in the future the companies may want to get their money’s worth from this.

[seethruya]

Originally Posted by seethruya

North Austin for me. No power Thursday and Friday. Loss power again yesterday and still waiting.

This has been my week. 2/11-2/12 and 2/15-2/18 (Today), no power. Still waiting for power to be restored.

[Fraxum]

Man what a mess for you All. So sad some people freezing to death. I hope this ends soon....