San Antonio hasn't had as significant amount of snow since 1985. We got some in 2017, but nothing too crazy.
We got about 5 inches. And I totally get people on the East Coast think it's nothing. But this is Texas. We aren't used to this. I cannot tell you how irritating it is right now to be told "what 5 inches? 10 degrees! That's nothing." Okay, it's nothing to YOU. It's something to people in Texas. Thanks.
People started to lose power when it was single digits outside. It's because the power grid can't keep up with all the electricity being used, apparently. Texas isn't used to this. We were lucky at first but then at 4 AM the other day I woke up to this:
I woke up instantly because I sleep with a fan and it got dead silent. It was eerie. I had a slight panic attack because my husband is deployed. I used my phone as a flashlight to find the flashlight we do have. I tried to get some sleep, but it was too quiet, and I was worried that a pipe might burst.
That's another thing: pipes are freezing and bursting. If you head to Tik Tok you'll see all sorts of videos from people dealing with that. We haven't at the moment, but it's supposed to freeze again. Right now a boil warning is in effect for water.
Our house started to get cold so I found more blankets and gave those to the kids. It's comical how many blankets I own, but hey, they came in handy. We were lucky and our power returned at 3 PM. So we were only without power for about 12 hours. It was pretty chilly in the house and the cats were angry.
Other people haven't been as lucky. They have been without power for over 30 hours. Some even longer than that. Many of those same folks have no power AND water.
Oh and grocery stores? Remember the pandemic lines? They're back, but worse. Stores are wiped out of the basics. You can't find milk, eggs, water, and bread. Trucks can't make it to restock because of the roads. Unleaded gas is also hard to find.
It is absolutely ridiculous what is happening. No one should be without power. I completely get that this doesn't happen in Texas, but I would think there would be some emergency setting in case it does.
We're okay. As of writing this post, we still have power. But we did get a warning that power could be shut off again to help deal with all the demand. My parents live about 40 minutes away and they've had rolling blackouts for about 3 days now. If you are without power, here's something to keep in mind:
Oh, and more snow is coming. At this point, everyone is over it.
So keep Texas in your thoughts. I keep reminding myself this:
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