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Texas deep freeze carnage thread

immamac

By immamac
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I am beat. My friend Chris, that I get my oysters and crawfish from, came home to a flooded yard, and water coming out from around exterior doors. Two story house built in the late 80's. He put the wo

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Anastasis

Anastasis 23,463

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Haven't had to fuck with any faucets, we'll see if shutting down the water was the right call. Wife figure kinda tired of it as this point, but at least I am able to sleep well at night.  I go back and forth whether we would have been better off just dripping the shit out of everything.  Kinda worried that we didn't get a complete drain of the system and maybe some pipes  still had water in them.  I guess tomorrow is the day we find out. 

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gmr548

gmr548 16,576

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Maybe a chunk of ice blocking the valve?  Open it all the way up to flush.

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I was able to turn the shut off valve all the way so that wouldn’t seem to be the case.


That's what i would think - the water system is draining (that's a good thing and you want it to drain if you are shutting off your water to prevent frozen pipes).  

I mean we drained it before we shut it off the first time and it didn’t keep running for minutes. It’s more than a drip. The pressure is low but one could wash their hands. It’s the same as when I turned the water back on. I guess I’ll just let it run for a little bit and see if it tapers off. I just don’t want those rusty ass 1950s pipes leaking.
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Guest Lobo

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8 hours ago, TonyTexas said:

Someone explain to me how cold weather electricity usage even approaches mid summer usage. At least half of Texas residences use gas for heat whereas close to 100% use electricity for air conditioning. 

It's impossible you're this stupid.  The math is beyond elementary.  

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BradInATX

BradInATX 9,208

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Septic alarm went off because it wasn't draining due to frozen sprinkler heads.

Managed to get them all going with boiling water. Tank is back to normal levels after it cleared itself. On the bright side the first 30 seconds of the spray was a half frozen slurry. So I can cross "witnessing shit snow" off of my bucket list.

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dcar00

dcar00 14,154

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27 minutes ago, Anastasis said:

Haven't had to fuck with any faucets, we'll see if shutting down the water was the right call. Wife figure kinda tired of it as this point, but at least I am able to sleep well at night.  I go back and forth whether we would have been better off just dripping the shit out of everything.  Kinda worried that we didn't get a complete drain of the system and maybe some pipes  still had water in them.  I guess tomorrow is the day we find out. 

  I've been team drip eerrything(fairly fast drip) inside and team no drip/no check outside.  had first issue just now.  toilet that backs up to north wall with sidiing upstairs isn't filling reservoir now.  obviously a supply line freeze.  putting a hair dryer on it and running the heater.

add to that pool froze when power went out. I shut everything down powerwise, drained pump and closed all valves.   power came back after 20 hours but now the valves are all frozen.  Its an old school pool with just one line(main and skimmers on same valve)

At this point I'm ride or die. Its a 50/50 to become Surly "King of All Frozen Land and Water I Survey" or "the Surly Palace Court Jester of Hydro" as I take my house down to the studs.

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Guest Lobo

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Yeah that’s a fucked up photo for myriad reasons.  They also seem excessively proud of the giant grill and canister of lighter fluid they brought to cook a few little cocktail weenies and wash it down with a fucking Pepsi

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8 minutes ago, BradInATX said:

Septic alarm went off because it wasn't draining due to frozen sprinkler heads.

Managed to get them all going with boiling water. Tank is back to normal levels after it cleared itself. On the bright side the first 30 seconds of the spray was a half frozen slurry. So I can cross "witnessing shit snow" off of my bucket list.

I was gonna ask if you just run shit through them, and behold, the answer in the affirmative...

You're gonna be mowing your ass off this summer.

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dcar00

dcar00 14,154

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7 minutes ago, BabaYaga said:

Jesus, enough f'ing hunter orange?  Looks like a bunch of Tenn football fans reminiscing about that fateful '98 season.....and why's the damn deer upside down (right side up)

These guys learned from Dick Cheney that there is no such thing as TOO MUCH hunter orange....

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Mrs Whiggins

Mrs Whiggins 13,050

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8 minutes ago, dcar00 said:

  I've been team drip eerrything(fairly fast drip) inside and team no drip/no check outside.  had first issue just now.  toilet that backs up to north wall with sidiing upstairs isn't filling reservoir now.  obviously a supply line freeze.  putting a hair dryer on it and running the heater.

add to that pool froze when power went out. I shut everything down powerwise, drained pump and closed all valves.   power came back after 20 hours but now the valves are all frozen.  Its an old school pool with just one line(main and skimmers on same valve)

At this point I'm ride or die. Its a 50/50 to become Surly "King of All Frozen Land and Water I Survey" or "the Surly Palace Court Jester of Hydro" as I take my house down to the studs.

We are also Team No Drip outside; had the same issue with toilet-first time in all the years in this house. Whenever the power was on we had heat on the wall near the inlet and when the temp outdoors was at its warmest, the rest of the crew went out and added extra insulation and some lawn bags to protect the location where we estimated the pipe was. It began working in the afternoon during another power on cycle and we have been flushing it every hour. So heat may work for you if you keep at it. 

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dcar00

dcar00 14,154

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2 minutes ago, Mrs Whiggins said:

We are also Team No Drip outside; had the same issue with toilet-first time in all the years in this house. Whenever the power was on we had heat on the wall near the inlet and when the temp outdoors was at its warmest, the rest of the crew went out and added extra insulation and some lawn bags to protect the location where we estimated the pipe was. It began working in the afternoon during another power on cycle and we have been flushing it every hour. So heat may work for you if you keep at it. 

yep hair dryer and heater(original 1980 one which will melt you like the Nazi's in Raiders of the Lost Ark) did it after about 10 min.

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TexasEd

TexasEd 8,066

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I was team no drip outside and had them wrapped up like Luke on Hoth but they froze up anyway.  Had to use a Harbor Freight Heat Gun (also loaned to multiple neighbors) to get them unfrozen in 5 and 15 minutes respectively.  Was really worries about the 15 minute one.  Now I'm team drip.  Also dripping every faucet in the house by a wall and have the tankless water heater on circulate all night.

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Mrs Whiggins

Mrs Whiggins 13,050

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4 minutes ago, dcar00 said:

yep hair dryer and heater(original 1980 one which will melt you like the Nazi's in Raiders of the Lost Ark) did it after about 10 min.

I’m glad it worked. We thought the bagged leaves would give some wind protection but when my husband went outside he noticed I had protected the outside spigot but the bags were not covering the area where the inlet would be. So they got another box to double protect the spigot and then added more full bags and covered everything with black plastic to keep the ice off and absorb heat. The grass there is going to be killed but that’s a small price compared to a plumbing fiasco. 
 

Harder for you folks with two story homes though. 

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Godzillatron

Godzillatron 292

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So did ERCOT get caught with its pants down? I mean, they knew the cold air was coming, and they have models that predict the load on the grid based on temperature, so what gives? Wind generators froze? What else?

Wind generation very small impact. Mostly natural gas plants that weren’t ready for cold weather and froze up combined with just in time delivery of feed supply that couldn’t be supplied because well heads and pipelines froze.
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Spaulding Smails

Spaulding Smails 1,552

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5 minutes ago, Godzillatron said:


Wind generation very small impact. Mostly natural gas plants that weren’t ready for cold weather and froze up combined with just in time delivery of feed supply that couldn’t be supplied because well heads and pipelines froze.

I'm hearing the exact same thing from someone in the industry.  Lots of blame being thrown around about lack of preparedness as a result of budget cuts, deferred maintenance / upgrades, etc.  

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Murfdogg21

Murfdogg21 4,412

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10 hours ago, Murfdogg21 said:

Has anyone attempted inter city travel today? We have been stranded in Houston since Sunday morning when DPS turned us around on 290 (before the precipitation came through). I want to time the break in action to get back and check on our house, which just went under contract yesterday and needs inspection by Friday. 

We made it, for anyone that cared. Took 4.5 hours. 290 between Giddings and Elgin was rough, lot of snow on both lanes, especially between Highway 21 and Elgin. 290 between Houston and Waller was pretty clean, with one lane clear and dry most of the time. 

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Bill Lumbergh

Bill Lumbergh 7,171

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I was able to talk to a plumber yesterday, so here's what we're doing based on his feedback:

- we still have no water through the line to our fridge, and he recommended space heaters towards the wall behind the fridge (outside facing). We ran two strong heaters behind it for 8+ hrs yesterday, still nothing, so we'll try again today.
- we've had hot and cold running out of every faucet since yesterday morning. Some of the pressure is pretty low now, but he recommended keeping it running.
- I've only had my outdoor pipes wrapped, not dripped, and he said he's doing the same at his home. I have no idea if that's going to end up being better or not. I almost went out last night to test them and possibly drip them, but I have zero expertise in this area and could easily go wrong either way. If the one plumber I was able to talk to said just keep it wrapped, that's what I'll do for now and we'll see how it goes.

Hope everyone gets through this safe and damage free. I miss being a kid when snow storms could just be fun.
Update, much to my surprise, space heaters behind the fridge and pointed at the wall worked.

Still no drip outside. I haven't checked, but if we're frozen we're frozen.

Every faucet in the house is dripping and still have hot and cold most places. One odd thing is that in just a room or two I have pressure from the hot valve, but the water stays cold. Can't make sense of that one. There's a sink that won't get hot, but has pressure, but the shower in the same room gets hot. I'm baffled.

Master shower is down to a trickle, both hot and cold. I'm not sure what to make of that other than that we're possibly barely avoiding a freeze there. I have it turned on all the way but can't get much out of it. Going to run space heaters in that bathroom all night to see if heat through the walls helps.

It's still really cold here, so I'm pretty worried about the impending thaw. Given some of the other pictures here, it's exactly what I've been working for days to avoid. The only thing that worries me is that master shower and not knowing what's going on at the outside faucets. Probably another 3 days here until we'll know.

Hope everyone is safe and warm tonight.
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dcar00

dcar00 14,154

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28 minutes ago, XYZ said:

So did ERCOT get caught with its pants down? I mean, they knew the cold air was coming, and they have models that predict the load on the grid based on temperature, so what gives? Wind generators froze? What else?

I'm interested to see what comes from the STNP failure(if that is what happened), given the amount of energy it supposedly puts out.

that said my guess is every type of energy had some type of issue and the lack of spinning up the peaker plants may have been an additional problem.

The inability to do predictable rolling blackouts is the biggest problem.

PUC  controls ERCOT.  ERCOT says to shed more, Austin Energy/PEC say they can't shed anymore.  ERCOT says the local provider sets the blackout priority, Austin Energy says it's ERCOT that does that. 

They may have it down for summer event when people are working and away from their homes but it obviously doesn't work for an extreme winter event where everyone is at home.

 

 

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dcar00

dcar00 14,154

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29 minutes ago, Murfdogg21 said:

We made it, for anyone that cared. Took 4.5 hours. 290 between Giddings and Elgin was rough, lot of snow on both lanes, especially between Highway 21 and Elgin. 290 between Houston and Waller was pretty clean, with one lane clear and dry most of the time. 

image.jpeg.96e3f9a82127a8ba1f3221d2550f2cfe.jpeg

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next2naus

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8 hours ago, Jameslaw121 said:

Haven't started my truck (Dodge Durango 2003) since Saturday. It was outside the whole time. Ran up to work (about 2 miles away) and it started leaking oil. Guessing a bad seal?

possible, some gaskets/seals are cardboard material and they leak in extreme temps and temp swings. I get a variety of drips from places under my '76 Bronco but then again Im working with 45 YO auto tech

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TwiceHorn

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15 minutes ago, dcar00 said:

I'm interested to see what comes from the STNP failure(if that is what happened), given the amount of energy it supposedly puts out.

that said my guess is every type of energy had some type of issue and the lack of spinning up the peaker plants may have been an additional problem.

The inability to do predictable rolling blackouts is the biggest problem.

PUC  controls ERCOT.  ERCOT says to shed more, Austin Energy/PEC say they can't shed anymore.  ERCOT says the local provider sets the blackout priority, Austin Energy says it's ERCOT that does that. 

They may have it down for summer event when people are working and away from their homes but it obviously doesn't work for an extreme winter event where everyone is at home.

 

 

I saw that the issue with STNP that shut down reactor 1 was regulatory with FERC.

The problem here is not Ercot as near as I can tell but cheap and stupid plant owners. 

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Grade of D as in David

Grade of D as in David 13,253

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55 minutes ago, Murfdogg21 said:

We made it, for anyone that cared. Took 4.5 hours. 290 between Giddings and Elgin was rough, lot of snow on both lanes, especially between Highway 21 and Elgin. 290 between Houston and Waller was pretty clean, with one lane clear and dry most of the time. 

Glad to hear you made it safely. That piece in-between Giddings and Elgin with no divided highway always makes me nervous that someone is going to come over into my lane and hit me head on. 

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TwiceHorn

TwiceHorn 31,440

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2 hours ago, Dr. Beeper said:

I had 2 showers that weren’t even dribbling. Now, just one. I don’t need to use them; I have one that works and noted the other two weren’t working when I was trying to drip them. 

Separately, my master tub was dripping, but wasn’t draining. 

Were you dribbling hot water?  Should switch it now and then.  Run a full blast of hot from time to time.

In most showers the hot and cold lines are fairly close to one another.  If you circulate some hot from time to time, that hot line acts like a heater for the cold line.  If the hot line just sits, it probably won't freeze, but it's not being much of a heater for the cold line.

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Wanker Bob

Wanker Bob 379

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So the wife's family in Decatur told us their Walmart had to get rid of all the refrigerated product because the power outage would cause spoilage. So what did they do? They trashed it all. Perfectly good food they could have put out in the front or side of the store and let it out on social media for people who are hungry right now to come and pick up. Nope. So insanely callous

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Guest Lobo

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If any mosquitoes lived through this shitshow, be afraid.  Be very afraid.  Drain all your blood and switch types with a homeless person 'cause they're gonna be super-zombie mosquitoes.  But yeah, I was ready to lay down corn-gluten meal this next week to keep weeds discouraged.  Looks like I don't have to worry about that.  Curious about the Spring/Summer ramifications of this 10-day donkeyfuck.  But we gotta get through it first.  

Blizzards, power outages, ice storms, floods, polar vortexes, droughts, months and months of triple digit temps, extreme cold, extreme heat, extreme rain, extreme dryness, hurricanes, brush fires, tornadoes, dust storms.  It's something every single fucking year.  Been here 25 years and it seems to be getting worse.  Or so my insurance premiums suggest.

It is becoming painfully obvious that ERCOT leadership has the bloat of Steve Patterson, the indifference of Mack Brown, the incompetence of Charlie Strong, and the arrogance of Tom Herman.  We are truly entering the Perfect Storm of Stupidity.  

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Steel Shank

Steel Shank 9,421

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So the wife's family in Decatur told us their Walmart had to get rid of all the refrigerated product because the power outage would cause spoilage. So what did they do? They trashed it all. Perfectly good food they could have put out in the front or side of the store and let it out on social media for people who are hungry right now to come and pick up. Nope. So insanely callous

I’m sure it’s because of our laws and our legislature. Always doing what’s best for the citizens of Texas.
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