Winter Apocalypse

Just in case we thought 2021 was going to be calmer, we were treated to a true winter apocalypse earlier this month!

Things got pretty bad here in Texas as our power generation system was revealed to be TOTALLY unprepared for the arctic blast, and millions of people were without power during the coldest weather in 30 years.

We were very, very fortunate to be minimally impacted. The temperature plummeted to 19 degrees on Valentine’s Day (Sunday) night, and we woke up on Monday morning to a dusting of snow (or really, it was ice). The girls were THRILLED. We bundled up in two layers of pants and multiple layers on top and headed out several times over the course of the day to play.

We had power, but soon learned that many people had lost power at ~2 a.m. as the state electricity council had to order a crapton of load shedding. The temperature never rose above freezing that day, and that night it got even colder — our thermometer measured 16 degrees! That’s the coldest weather I’ve ever experienced in Houston, and I’ve lived here 20+ years.

We kept power through the night and all day Tuesday as well, although I’ll never totally understand why — perhaps our proximity to a police station, a grocery store, and NASA saved us?? School was cancelled and daycare was closed, and most of the snow/ice was gone, so we hung out inside where it was thankfully warm.

On Tuesday afternoon, I noticed the water pressure at the kitchen sink was low, and panicked, thinking we had a cracked pipe or leak somewhere in the plumbing. But we quickly learned that water pressure was low everywhere, and by Wednesday morning we had no water at all. Water leaks from pipes bursting all over the greater Houston area combined with power outages resulted in most of the city losing water for a time. Yikes!

Fortunately, we had a stash of bottled water from last summer’s hurricane supplies, plus two large 5-gallon jugs that Jose had been planning to use to brew beer, so we were set! We lugged a couple buckets of water from our neighbor’s pool across the street for toilet flushing, and taught the kids the classic “if it’s yellow, let it mellow” rhyme.

By Wednesday afternoon, we had a bit of water pressure again, but since the pressure in the system fell so far, we were under a boil water notice. We still had power plus our gas stove, so we quickly set about boiling a bunch of water to use for hand and dishwashing (so we could save the bottled water for drinking). Jose’s 6-gallon beer brewing bucket came in quite handy! We filled it with boiled water, and the spout at the bottom made it quite effective as a temporary sink in the kitchen.

By Wednesday evening we thought we were in the clear…and then at 7:15 our power finally went out. Although I’d been expecting it at any moment for days — and we’d been keeping our various devices fully charged in preparation — somehow it was still a surprise!

We lit a few candles, pulled out the flashlights and headlamps, and I gathered a bunch of extra blankets and quilts from upstairs. While it wasn’t going to be 16 degrees that night, it was still in the low 30s and the temperature in the house started to drop right away. We piled into the master bedroom with a ton of blankets, and the girls went to sleep while Jose and I read on our Kindles.

I fully expected the power to stay out well into Thursday, so I was thrilled when everything popped back to life (and light) at about 10:15 pm! By then, we’d heard from so many people who would get power back for as short as 10 or 15 minutes before losing it again, but it stayed on — and in fact, never went out again.

On Thursday morning, I saw that the percentage of people with power in the Houston area — which had been hovering around 40% for 3 days — had finally jumped back up to 80%. The state had finally been able to get enough power generation back online that most of the blackouts were over.

School ended up being cancelled all week, and again last Monday since the boil water notices remained in place until late Sunday. But once school went back and we could drink the water from the tap, we were fortunate to be able to go back to normal. We didn’t have any pipe issues — which is very likely related to the fact that we kept power and therefore heat on the two coldest nights — but many of our coworkers and friends are having to deal with burst pipes and associated water damage, which ranges from minor to really major.

(The only lasting “funny” for us is that one of our water heaters isn’t working anymore; Jose turned the temperature all the way down when the water went out, and when he turned it back up a few days later, it didn’t respond. It’ll be a while before we can get a plumber for a “routine” call, but since the one one on the fritz only covers our master and guest bathrooms, we’re still good with hot water in the kitchen, laundry room, and girls’ bathroom.)

As with Hurricane Harvey, I emerged from the week feeling completely burnt out and exhausted, but so so thankful that the impacts to my family and home were so minor.

Earlier this week, it was 75 degrees outside and it’s hard to believe how much the weather can whiplash from truly disaster-inducing back to our typical mild winter.

Whew.