Getting Back to Normal

As most of you have probably heard, Texas and many of the other central southern states, have just come through a freak winter storm, with snow in various amounts depending on where you live, and record breaking temperatures. For us in the south central part of the state we received about 5" on Sunday night with another 3" on Wednesday. The temperatures reached single digits with wind chill as low as -35 (yes, you read that right, that's 35 below 0). The wind coming off the lake felt like needles hitting my face. I've never experienced anything like that, even in northern NH. A friend who lives in north Texas reported that she found many of the wild birds around her house frozen. Someone in San Antonio was out shopping for a heavy winter jacket, boots and mittens for her kids. She said that in all the time she's lived here she hasn't needed such things.

They called it a blizzard but those of us from the northern states just call it a regular old snowstorm. To the people here, though, this has been devastating. Millions were either without power for several days or had rolling power outages where electricity would be on for a few hours, then off for a few hours. As water mains froze and burst, many cities had a "boil water" order, if they could get water at all. 

Without power many stores, restaurants and gas stations were closed. Since Covid restrictions are still in place, limiting the number of people who could be in a store at any one time, the stores that were open had lines waiting to get in that stretched down the walkway and around the corner. They were trying their best to accommodate not only their own regular customers, but the overflow of people coming from other areas where the stores were closed. Without the proper equipment to clear the roads of snow and ice many were impassable, which interrupted deliveries of gas, diesel, groceries, and just about every other item.

Texas is #2 in the country for solar production, and #1 for wind power. But during a storm there is no sun, and the wind turbines froze because they weren't winterized. There's been no need until now. To add to the troubles, Texas has it's own independent power grid which isn't set up to receive power from other states. Obviously, Texas now has a great need to reassess their preparedness for such emergencies.

RVers are more prepared than most people for emergencies. We have batteries that will power most everything in an RV when we're not hooked up to shore (electric) power. If those batteries begin to run low we can either hook up to a generator or even start the truck and plug in there to recharge. There are water tanks that, when full, will give enough water for quite some time. In our RV we have a 60 gallon fresh water tank. That will last quite a while if we use it only for drinking and flushing the toilet which only uses a few cups with each flush.

Life seems to be getting back to normal for most folks. With the sun shining bright today, and temperatures getting into the mid 40s here, the snow is melting fast. Roads are now clear of ice and snow. Life is returning to normal but this is a winter that people will be telling their grandchildren about. 

Yes, when I was a girl I really did walk, in the snow and cold, a mile to school (or the school bus), and it was uphill both ways, since I lived on one hill and the bus stop was on another hill. You've probably seen the movie "A Christmas Story" where Ralphie's mother dressed his little brother, Randy, in a woolen snow suit with a scarf wrapped around his neck and head, and he wailed "I can't put my arms down!" I have a picture somewhere of me when I was probably about 5 or 6, standing in the driveway, with snowbanks way taller than I was, trussed up like a Christmas turkey in a woolen snow suit, heavy boots on my feet, a scarf around my neck, and a wool hat - with my arms stuck out to the side. I couldn't put my arms down either.