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jamielyssa) wrote2021-02-16 04:04 pm
jamielyssa) wrote2021-02-16 04:04 pm
38+ hours without power
Well, I did say I'd update if something happened, and something did happen we lost power for 38+ hours.
If you follow me on Instagram, you know most of this already.
The winter storm came on Sunday night to the Houston area. We had power until about midnight. From what I understand, the city was supposed to do these rolling blackouts to try to conserve power because the demand on power was super big since Houston/Texas doesn't normally get crazy cold winter storms. So we started getting a rolling blackout, only doing the rolling blackouts taxed the system and our power went off and never came back on.
Our house wasn't bad in the morning. I even went outside to see the winter stuff. We ended up getting ice, not snow. I finally had a reason to wear the Bucc-ees onesie that I bought like three years ago.
We're luckier than most people because we were probably a little more prepared than they were thanks to hiking and camping. We had a lot of blankets, zero degree sleeping bags, nonperishable camping food that doesn't expire until like 2026 and headlamps. Also, we have gas, so our stove still worked, and we could light it with a lighter, so we could get hot water and cook and things. We also have a lot of portable battery backups to charge our phones and things because we camp a lot without electricity, so we were able to use those to keep our phones powered.
It wasn't too bad as it started, but it got colder and colder and colder. The Texas power grid is a fucking mess [read about it here: https://spacecityweather.com/the-power-situation-is-disastrous-and-it-likely-wont-be-fixed-tonight/ ] and we were basically told that we were fucked and just had to pray that we didn't freeze to death. We didn't lose water, so we were lucky with that too. But by the time it was dark, I was in two onesies and under about ten different blankets just to stay warm. We stayed in the living room because it's the most central room of the house and also because we wanted to encourage the kitties to cuddle with us because we were more worried about them than us.
Luckily we were successful with that. Hammy slept on me for most of the night, Cujo/Sorin slept cuddled with J, Gandalf slept in his favorite cat bed, which we brought downstairs and J put hot hands under it to keep him warm. Litty did her own thing, we have no idea where she was for most of the night, but she's fine. And throughout the day, I hade a lot of cats cuddling on me, and we tried to cover them with blankets when they would tolerate it.
I entertained myself by constantly refreshing Twitter [the best source for news, also doom scrolling] and trying to read books on kindle. Justin mostly played his switch. We ate camping food and tried to make as much hot chocolate as we could tolerate. I'm not gonna sugar coat it, it was fucking terrible. By this morning, it was down to thirty something degrees in our house, and even all the blankets didn't seem to be enough.
My coworker Kendra saw my messages on Instagram and even offered to house all of our kitties so that they wouldn't freeze. I cannot even tell you how much that meant to me. We were more worried about them than us. Justin's mom had power, so she also offered her house and we were going to bring the kitties there. Then around 11:30, our power finally came back on after 38+ hours. We're okay now and we just hope we stay okay. We're also lucky enough that none of our food in the fridge or freeze got spoiled.
There's another ice storm coming tonight, but we live south of Houston in Brazoria county, so it will probably just be rain for us, so hopefully that'll help us keep power. It's also above freezing at the moment. We don't have water, at the moment. We had water up until this afternoon [and I can't even tell you how wonderful my hot shower felt] but now it is off. It is not an us issue, our pipes are fine, we're lucky unlike other people. A water pipe downtown burst and they're doing their best to fix it, but they had to turn the water off for that to happen. Hopefully that will be fixed soon. We have A LOT to drink because I am addicted to Gatorade and we had just stocked up on that a few days before from Costco, we we have plenty. So I'm not too worried about that and we also have bottled water in the garage that we can refill the kitties water with.
Our heat is acting weird. It's not broken, per se, but apparently the sensor is fucked up and has been for awhile [things I never knew]. Apparently the sensor for the AC is fine, but not the heater. We've never straight on has the heater turn on, like it's always been AC then we change it to heater. So our heater went to like 80 degrees and we had to shut it off and we reset the breaker. Then we let it rest for about an hour and turned it on to AC and we'll try to change it from AC to heat and see if that makes it functional. I doubt we'd be able to get the HVAC people over for a few days, at the very least, so hopefully that works.
Brian still has no power and no water. We invited him over. A lot of the roads are a mess, but I did find a way to get him here safely albeit taking a bit longer than it normally would. I'm not sure if he will take us up on the offer, I hope he does, as it is currently above freezing and the roads don't have ice, at the moment. Tonight, he's getting an ice storm since he lives in Houston, and I'm not sure if he can do another night in a freezing cold house with no heat and water. I hope he's on his way.
School has been canceled for basically the rest of the week. It was already canceled yesterday and today. It is now canceled tomorrow and Thursday. If we do have school on Friday, it will be virtual school, so nobody has to risk going to work and it will be asynchronous work.
I think that's it. Just keep us in your thoughts and hope that we keep our power. On the bright side, if we do lose power, though I really hope we don't, I think we'll at least be better off tonight than we were yesterday since we've had an opportunity to restore our power. Please keep Texans in your thoughts, there are so many people without power, and they're not used to weather like this and are in a lot worse condition than we are.
If you follow me on Instagram, you know most of this already.
The winter storm came on Sunday night to the Houston area. We had power until about midnight. From what I understand, the city was supposed to do these rolling blackouts to try to conserve power because the demand on power was super big since Houston/Texas doesn't normally get crazy cold winter storms. So we started getting a rolling blackout, only doing the rolling blackouts taxed the system and our power went off and never came back on.
Our house wasn't bad in the morning. I even went outside to see the winter stuff. We ended up getting ice, not snow. I finally had a reason to wear the Bucc-ees onesie that I bought like three years ago.
We're luckier than most people because we were probably a little more prepared than they were thanks to hiking and camping. We had a lot of blankets, zero degree sleeping bags, nonperishable camping food that doesn't expire until like 2026 and headlamps. Also, we have gas, so our stove still worked, and we could light it with a lighter, so we could get hot water and cook and things. We also have a lot of portable battery backups to charge our phones and things because we camp a lot without electricity, so we were able to use those to keep our phones powered.
It wasn't too bad as it started, but it got colder and colder and colder. The Texas power grid is a fucking mess [read about it here: https://spacecityweather.com/the-power-situation-is-disastrous-and-it-likely-wont-be-fixed-tonight/ ] and we were basically told that we were fucked and just had to pray that we didn't freeze to death. We didn't lose water, so we were lucky with that too. But by the time it was dark, I was in two onesies and under about ten different blankets just to stay warm. We stayed in the living room because it's the most central room of the house and also because we wanted to encourage the kitties to cuddle with us because we were more worried about them than us.
Luckily we were successful with that. Hammy slept on me for most of the night, Cujo/Sorin slept cuddled with J, Gandalf slept in his favorite cat bed, which we brought downstairs and J put hot hands under it to keep him warm. Litty did her own thing, we have no idea where she was for most of the night, but she's fine. And throughout the day, I hade a lot of cats cuddling on me, and we tried to cover them with blankets when they would tolerate it.
I entertained myself by constantly refreshing Twitter [the best source for news, also doom scrolling] and trying to read books on kindle. Justin mostly played his switch. We ate camping food and tried to make as much hot chocolate as we could tolerate. I'm not gonna sugar coat it, it was fucking terrible. By this morning, it was down to thirty something degrees in our house, and even all the blankets didn't seem to be enough.
My coworker Kendra saw my messages on Instagram and even offered to house all of our kitties so that they wouldn't freeze. I cannot even tell you how much that meant to me. We were more worried about them than us. Justin's mom had power, so she also offered her house and we were going to bring the kitties there. Then around 11:30, our power finally came back on after 38+ hours. We're okay now and we just hope we stay okay. We're also lucky enough that none of our food in the fridge or freeze got spoiled.
There's another ice storm coming tonight, but we live south of Houston in Brazoria county, so it will probably just be rain for us, so hopefully that'll help us keep power. It's also above freezing at the moment. We don't have water, at the moment. We had water up until this afternoon [and I can't even tell you how wonderful my hot shower felt] but now it is off. It is not an us issue, our pipes are fine, we're lucky unlike other people. A water pipe downtown burst and they're doing their best to fix it, but they had to turn the water off for that to happen. Hopefully that will be fixed soon. We have A LOT to drink because I am addicted to Gatorade and we had just stocked up on that a few days before from Costco, we we have plenty. So I'm not too worried about that and we also have bottled water in the garage that we can refill the kitties water with.
Our heat is acting weird. It's not broken, per se, but apparently the sensor is fucked up and has been for awhile [things I never knew]. Apparently the sensor for the AC is fine, but not the heater. We've never straight on has the heater turn on, like it's always been AC then we change it to heater. So our heater went to like 80 degrees and we had to shut it off and we reset the breaker. Then we let it rest for about an hour and turned it on to AC and we'll try to change it from AC to heat and see if that makes it functional. I doubt we'd be able to get the HVAC people over for a few days, at the very least, so hopefully that works.
Brian still has no power and no water. We invited him over. A lot of the roads are a mess, but I did find a way to get him here safely albeit taking a bit longer than it normally would. I'm not sure if he will take us up on the offer, I hope he does, as it is currently above freezing and the roads don't have ice, at the moment. Tonight, he's getting an ice storm since he lives in Houston, and I'm not sure if he can do another night in a freezing cold house with no heat and water. I hope he's on his way.
School has been canceled for basically the rest of the week. It was already canceled yesterday and today. It is now canceled tomorrow and Thursday. If we do have school on Friday, it will be virtual school, so nobody has to risk going to work and it will be asynchronous work.
I think that's it. Just keep us in your thoughts and hope that we keep our power. On the bright side, if we do lose power, though I really hope we don't, I think we'll at least be better off tonight than we were yesterday since we've had an opportunity to restore our power. Please keep Texans in your thoughts, there are so many people without power, and they're not used to weather like this and are in a lot worse condition than we are.
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