2022-2023 Winter Weather Thread

[The Dog 44853]

RRISD closed as well. 

[Radical Larry 28818]

My neighbor called his tree guy. I called my tree guy. Both vmail inboxes are full. Aint no tree guy answering any phone calls. They have as many jobs as they want for the next 2 weeks. I'm going to keep calling until he answers. 

[UTexasFight 9793]

27 minutes ago, hornian said:

6:00 Friday ain’t happening folks:

 

This was a given yesterday when they first put a number out there.

I guess it’s less painful, bureaucraticly to throw a date close to present and then keep shifting it back then to give the real truth 

 

[yoladu 4187]

2 hours ago, ChickenSandwich said:

My neighbor across the street bought propane heater, 5 5 gallon gas tanks and a generator after snowmaggedon. We laughed she may never even use them. She is laughing now. 
 

96hours out front says get a Genny

no one likes the neighbor whose house is lit up like a lantern and causing generator noise 24/7.

Further, i shouldn't  have to spend a lot of money on a generator that provides me something I already pay for and should expect to receive

[Updawg 2382]

Most tree companies are probably only taking existing customers. Glad I called mine yesterday morning when it was only a few branches. I have them coming for half a day this weekend hopefully. But I’m sure I’ll be seeing a lot more of them over time


Fully expecting to lose water. I filled up a bathtub in preparation on Monday.

[royiv 9749]

2 minutes ago, yoladu said:

no one likes the neighbor whose house is lit up like a lantern and causing generator noise 24/7.

Further, i shouldn't  have to spend a lot of money on a generator that provides me something I already pay for and should expect to receive

1. You sound jealous of a neighbor that isn't suffering in the cold and dark.

2. Technically, you're not paying for power when you're not using any.

[atomheartbevo 90607]

We actually have crews assigned to our outage so we got that going for us.  But assigned and working are different things.   

[Your Mom 4964]

RRISD is out too.  AISD evaluating options.  Lame. 

[yoladu 4187]

8 minutes ago, UTexasFight said:

This was a given yesterday when they first put a number out there.

I guess it’s less painful, bureaucraticly to throw a date close to present and then keep shifting it back then to give the real truth 

 

that is not how restaurants typically do it. They tell you an hour wait, and usually get you in earlier. Makes for a happy customer than saying its an hour wait and they get you seat 2 hours later.

[Red Five 41703]

I don't know about y'all but I used to call myself a cold weather person. I would amend that now to I am a somewhat cool weather person, sometimes. Like you know, maybe the morning of Texas/OU. And a little chilly at Christmas. After that it needs to go back to 85 degrees. 

[yoladu 4187]

4 minutes ago, royiv said:

1. You sound jealous of a neighbor that isn't suffering in the cold and dark.

 

[UT_OB1 2263]

Sounds like the right time to drive to austin with my chainsaws and offer my services for $350 an hour 

[utee94 16078]

Just now, Red Five said:

I don't know about y'all but I used to call myself a cold weather person. I would amend that now to I am a somewhat cool weather person, sometimes. Like you know, maybe the morning of Texas/OU. And a little chilly at Christmas. After that it needs to go back to 85 degrees. 

I'm the opposite, I've never called myself a cold weather person.  In fact I've always known that eventually I'll move away from Austin because it gets too cold here.  

 

 

[Samson's Wig 3229]

9 minutes ago, yoladu said:

no one likes the neighbor whose house is lit up like a lantern and causing generator noise 24/7.

Further, i shouldn't  have to spend a lot of money on a generator that provides me something I already pay for and should expect to receive

[Judge Roybeanbag 11860]

34 minutes ago, crash_davis said:

Blaming the energy companies for the power outages is probably barking up the wrong tree. The energy companies trim the limbs from the power lines. But as you've been seeing pics, you have whole trees or branches falling everywhere. The energy companies cannot do anything to protect the lines when the damn tree falls on it and takes it out. This shit is happening everywhere. A fixed number of repair teams fixing hundreds, maybe thousands, of issues all over the area is going to take time. 

I somewhat agree with this - but we should have contingency agreements with other power companies to be able to get emergency crews from places where they aren't needed.  The Austin Energy crews are doing the best they can in this situation, there just aren't enough of them.

[Samson's Wig 3229]

The failure is in not maintaining the trees to begin with.  I think everyone is willing to give them some grace regarding the current situation.  It's the lack of ongoing maintenance that falls squarely on the shoulders of city leadership, and this is is a constant problem in numerous areas.

[royiv 9749]

3 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

I somewhat agree with this - but we should have contingency agreements with other power companies to be able to get emergency crews from places where they aren't needed.  The Austin Energy crews are doing the best they can in this situation, there just aren't enough of them.

Somewhat related, I've often wondered what the City of Austin could get if they sold their municipal electric utility. Austin is in the minority of cities in Texas that owns and operates its own electric utility.

[The Dog 44853]

3 minutes ago, Samson's Wig said:

The failure is in not maintaining the trees to begin with.  I think everyone is willing to give them some grace regarding the current situation.  It's the lack of ongoing maintenance that falls squarely on the shoulders of city leadership, and this is is a constant problem in numerous areas.

except many of the trees are on private property and those are also causing damage. so unless you pass laws/regulations that require the owner to keep the tree trimmed to a certain height that isn't happening either. and "topping" is very bad for trees.

Edited February 2, 2023 by The Dog

[Brisketexan 106857]

9 minutes ago, Judge Roybeanbag said:

I somewhat agree with this - but we should have contingency agreements with other power companies to be able to get emergency crews from places where they aren't needed.  The Austin Energy crews are doing the best they can in this situation, there just aren't enough of them.

They do.  CPS and NBU crews were here yesterday.  Crews from the Houston area are arriving now.

The problem with this event is that the "disaster causing it" was ongoing through mid-morning today.  It's like going out to repair wind damage while the hurricane is still blowing.  Patch one spot of roofing, another spot, or three, blow off.  You can't gain ground until the wind passes.  AE couldn't gain ground till the trees stopped breaking/falling, which is STILL ongoing to some extent.  They weren't kidding at the press conference when they said they take 2 steps forward, 3 steps back.

[texhorn 356]

14 minutes ago, Red Five said:

I don't know about y'all but I used to call myself a cold weather person. I would amend that now to I am a somewhat cool weather person, sometimes. Like you know, maybe the morning of Texas/OU. And a little chilly at Christmas. After that it needs to go back to 85 degrees. 

It'd be nice to have four proper seasons. But fuck freezing rain/ice, I'd rather have snow. 

[Pato del Muerto 53420]

12 minutes ago, UT_OB1 said:

Sounds like the right time to drive to austin with my chainsaws and offer my services for $350 an hour 

Just bought a short 18v ryobi from HD because they didn’t have any 40v left. Hopefully it will do the job and then be available for camping trips - if I can ever find a place in Texas that allows foraging firewood. 

[Brisketexan 106857]

1 hour ago, HenryJames said:

Those all made me think @Armybrat.

Cross Steel Shank and Armybrat, and you end up thinkin' about laying some 100 year old clay pipe.

[Samson's Wig 3229]

9 minutes ago, The Dog said:

except many of the trees are on private property and those are also causing damage. so unless you pass laws/regulations that require the owner to keep the tree trimmed to a certain height that isn't happening either. and "topping" is very bad for trees.

The city can legally trim and remove trees on private property.  They choose not to because they would rather spend their significant budget elsewhere.  As for it being bad for the trees, well, that's at least part of the argument that has led us to where we're at today.

[crash_davis 23468]

10 minutes ago, Samson's Wig said:

The failure is in not maintaining the trees to begin with.  I think everyone is willing to give them some grace regarding the current situation.  It's the lack of ongoing maintenance that falls squarely on the shoulders of city leadership, and this is is a constant problem in numerous areas.

They do perform tree maintenance. Last year, AE crews were on my street trimming at least 2 houses. My street had no issues with power outage. The street directly behind mine is without power. Did they perform tree trimming on that street last year? Who knows, probably? Would any of that mattered if a damn tree fell on a line? Nope, no amount of trimming is going to prevent that outage.

The question is, how do energy companies know and schedule tree maintenance? Are they one a fixed routine or do they go by homeowners alerting them, or both?

[Samson's Wig 3229]

Just now, crash_davis said:

They do perform tree maintenance. Last year, AE crews were on my street trimming at least 2 houses. My street had no issues with power outage. The street directly behind mine is without power. Did they perform tree trimming on that street last year? Who knows, probably? Would any of that mattered if a damn tree fell on a line? Nope, no amount of trimming is going to prevent that outage.

The question is, how do energy companies know and schedule tree maintenance? Are they one a fixed routine or do they go by homeowners alerting them, or both?

Don't know.  Austin Energy (let's call it the city as it's not an energy "company") seems to hardly ever trim anything, even when called and asked to.  I'm glad you got your street trimmed, though.  You're in the minority on that one.

And yes, trimming trees back from power lines will prevent trees from falling on power lines.  That's the entire point of trimming them.

[Brisketexan 106857]

Don't know.  Austin Energy (let's call it the city as it's not an energy "company") seems to hardly ever trim anything, even when called and asked to.  I'm glad you got your street trimmed, though.  You're in the minority on that one.
And yes, trimming trees back from power lines will prevent trees from falling on power lines.  That's the entire point of trimming them.

It helps some. To trim trees back to a level that would have prevented significant outages in THIS event would have required …complete tree removal. Trees that have a big V cut to not be over power lines ended up toppling to the side, taking out lines (I’ve seen that in multiple spots already). You can’t “trim” to account for that.

Better trimming - perfect trimming, even - might have reduced the impact of this event 30-50%. Which would still be a massive outage event.

Burying the lines is the only real fix. And is prohibitively expensive.

[Trey3216 15452]

4 minutes ago, Samson's Wig said:

Don't know.  Austin Energy (let's call it the city as it's not an energy "company") seems to hardly ever trim anything, even when called and asked to.  I'm glad you got your street trimmed, though.  You're in the minority on that one.

And yes, trimming trees back from power lines will prevent trees from falling on power lines.  That's the entire point of trimming them.

No.  It prevents limbs from falling on power lines.  When 1/2 a tree breaks or a whole tree falls over, not much is stopping that shit, except Kevin, since he can also beat a chimpanzee in a fight apparently.  

[dcar00 14930]

1 hour ago, Samson's Wig said:

Tell me you don't live in Austin without telling me you don't live in Austin.

Texans deal with an overall tax burden on par with most states, e.g. most people are surprised to learn Coloradans pay less.  Our sales and property taxes more than make up for the income tax component, which was never actually a burden due to the ability to deduct it from your federal return until a couple of years ago.  It's how we spend our money that's the problem.  There's plenty in the budget for trimming trees in Austin, but our fearless leaders choose to spend that money elsewhere. 

this.  there is plenty of money.  but hey bike lanes and shit...

[YGIFS 19458]

so you're saying we train chimps to climb up to the potentially harmful parts of the tree and prune from there?  

FYI---you can still prune a big tree near power lines, if felled properly, can rope the larger branches topside down safely to the ground in most cases.  I barely know what the the fuck I'm doing but with one able-bodied male, I've brought down some fair-sized branches outta harms way.  Almost knocked my self out...but didn't harm the lines. 

Let's just be honest, people just need to call their shit in more often.  But they're either afraid, confused, don't walk the back of their property line by utility easements, don't give a shit, don't want to have to be home to grant access to the crew, don't want to give up shade canopy, etc.  Iced  up trees get heavy and fall on shit and knock out power.  That's just the way this went down.  No switch flip can prevent it, but we can sure as shit mitigate it next time.  I mean fucking a, there are now in the thousands of limbs that fell on lines.  Not just thousands of fallen limbs period.  But just on power lines.  It didn't need to be like this.  But instead of a campaign to get people to call it in and have more proactive (but aggressive) pruning crews operating between March and November.  We'll start a campaign about water conservation whilst using bike lanes.  

[gsoda3 3362]

it's a million dollars a mile to bury existing power lines with additional costs for maintenance.  good luck with that.

[austingirl 2194]

AISD said they'll let us know about school tomorrow by 3:30 pm today. Said that 20 schools are currently without power and besides that, many of the routes people take to school are impassible because of debris. 

[Chet Steadman 940]

Northwest Hills looks like an F3 tornado ripped through it.  Several streets, and wide ones at that, are still impassable.  

I know until yesterday people were comparing this to 2007 but after last night this has to be the worst 1-2 ice storms in our history, right?

[Deej 77751]

48 minutes ago, royiv said:

2. Technically, you're not paying for power when you're not using any

My garbage didn't get picked up for two weeks after 2021 Snowmageddon, but they sure charged me for it. 

[dcar00 14930]

30 minutes ago, Samson's Wig said:

The failure is in not maintaining the trees to begin with.  I think everyone is willing to give them some grace regarding the current situation.  It's the lack of ongoing maintenance that falls squarely on the shoulders of city leadership, and this is is a constant problem in numerous areas.

This is a perfect storm type event as it relates to the trees. 2.5 days of drizzle right at around 28 degrees.  I was out for 108 hours during freezepocalypse.  no down time during treemageddon so far. knocks wood.

our issue during 2021 was austin energy equipment related(something local in the neighborhood but apparenltly not aa transformer was what I was told). my guess is they replaced whatever was probably 40 years old and might even have trimmed power lines.

just for good measure...

 

[YGIFS 19458]

8 minutes ago, gsoda3 said:

it's a million dollars a mile to bury existing power lines with additional costs for maintenance.  good luck with that.

I think we should mandate it on new developments/ROW's...especially you can now so cheaply attach rural broadband to it and last I checked, expansion is going out into rural areas not in reverse.  As I've stated, not much you besides keep the lines clear of shit but people won't for myriad reasons.  

[Orange&White 5572]

25 minutes ago, Samson's Wig said:

The city can legally trim and remove trees on private property.  They choose not to because they would rather spend their significant budget elsewhere.  As for it being bad for the trees, well, that's at least part of the argument that has led us to where we're at today.

I am not sure if you are just trying to be intentionally obtuse or not.

There are ENTIRE FUCKING TREES falling down right now. What would you as a homeowner do if you saw a city electric crew walk up to your 150 year old oak and tell you they are cutting it down in case we get a massive freeze and it falls on the power lines?

There is a massive fucking chasm between keeping the lines clear of branches and what is happening right now.

I agree that they should do a better job or the former, but if you think they should just have free range to cut down whatever the fuck they want, you are not even worth entertaining a conversation with.

[UTexasFight 9793]

13 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

 

Let's just be honest, people just need to call their shit in more often.  But they're either afraid, confused, don't walk the back of their property line by utility easements, don't give a shit, don't want to have to be home to grant access to the crew, don't want to give up shade canopy, etc.  Iced  up trees get heavy and fall on shit and knock out power.  That's just the way this went down.  No switch flip can prevent it, but we can sure as shit mitigate it next time.  I mean fucking a, there are now in the thousands of limbs that fell on lines.  Not just thousands of fallen limbs period.  But just on power lines.  It didn't need to be like this.  But instead of a campaign to get people to call it in and have more proactive (but aggressive) pruning crews operating between March and November.  We'll start a campaign about water conservation whilst using bike lanes.  

A lot of this right here. I’ve called twice in the last 2-3 years.

all the power lines around me are still in the air…. And I got a couple of hackberries removed by the city free of charge in the process.

[4th&Five 41938]

5 minutes ago, Deej said:

My garbage didn't get picked up for two weeks after 2021 Snowmageddon, but they sure charged me for it. 

We’re usually Tuesday and they picked up ours before noon today. It was so weighted down with ice that it fell in the truck and the guy had to go in and fish it out. 

[TexArcher 38897]

30 minutes ago, Samson's Wig said:

The city can legally trim and remove trees on private property.  They choose not to because they would rather spend their significant budget elsewhere.  As for it being bad for the trees, well, that's at least part of the argument that has led us to where we're at today.

Well, now we have a disaster scientist on the city council, so this will get taken care of in no time, I'm sure.

[MalibuSheriff 1095]

I’m bummed to see the photos of all the downed Live Oaks.  My old neighbors in West Lake sent me pics of our old hood and it is in shambles.

As several mentioned upthread, the ice storm that hit Tulsa in 2007 was the most devastating natural disaster I’ve witnessed, and I’ve seen some serious shit growing up in Oklahoma and living in Texas for almost thirty years.  Tulsa looked like a nuclear bomb had detonated.  I didn’t think it would ever be the same.  A few years later and you’d never know anything has happened.

I’m sorry for my friends in the ATX.  Very sorry for the loss of the beautiful live oaks.

[Nicole44 22209]

Thankful for the arborist! This tree has survived a lot and it’s pretty damn impressive. Always has had the long lower limb but it’s been cared for for three years by the same guy, Adam (who loves trees.) considering the carnage in the neighborhood my mom’s yard faired extremely well. It’s always leaned like that but damn. Backyard tree (oak also got the brunt of another tree across the fence) didn’t fair as well but at least can be saved. 

[HOOKEM4 5154]

19 minutes ago, YGIFS said:

I think we should mandate it on new developments/ROW's...especially you can now so cheaply attach rural broadband to it and last I checked, expansion is going out into rural areas not in reverse.  As I've stated, not much you besides keep the lines clear of shit but people won't for myriad reasons.  

It is very rare to have any new development with anything but underground dry's. Everyone mandates they are buried. Plus developers hate ugly looking power poles in their cookie cutter neighborhoods.

We could take the money that is raided from AE by council and start investing in burying the lines in high risk areas. Imagine what you could do with the alleged 100 mil that is raided from them.

[Judge Roybeanbag 11860]

41 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

Burying the lines is the only real fix. And is prohibitively expensive.

Not if you bury the bike lanes with them.  Probably need shorter bikes, but hey...

[Shoxthemonkey 1992]

Time lapse from my kid's house in Kyle.

[mooseoutfront 3646]

I hope the power gets restored soon.  Be safe out there you Surly Degenerates.

[Deej 77751]

28 minutes ago, Orange&White said:

I am not sure if you are just trying to be intentionally obtuse or not.

There are ENTIRE FUCKING TREES falling down right now. What would you as a homeowner do if you saw a city electric crew walk up to your 150 year old oak and tell you they are cutting it down in case we get a massive freeze and it falls on the power lines?

There is a massive fucking chasm between keeping the lines clear of branches and what is happening right now.

I agree that they should do a better job or the former, but if you think they should just have free range to cut down whatever the fuck they want, you are not even worth entertaining a conversation with.

Cutting back the canopy om trees near the lines might have kept the weight down enough on some of them to stop the entire tree from coming down, no? 

 

[Cap33 407]

Just now, HOOKEM4 said:

It is very rare to have any new development with anything but underground dry's. Everyone mandates they are buried. Plus developers hate ugly looking power poles in their cookie cutter neighborhoods.

We could take the money that is raided from AE by council and start investing in burying the lines in high risk areas. Imagine what you could do with the alleged 100 mil that is raided from them.

Sounds like that'll pay for 100 miles of buried lines. Start with the big ones that take out entire neighborhoods when they go down. 

Coming up on 34 hours with no power. 

[crash_davis 23468]

Found on reddit. I imagine shit like this is everywhere. 

[Fastbreak 4023]

The power is still off at my mom’s house (Barton hills 78704). It has been 24+ hours. The food delivery services aren’t delivering. She is trying to cook outdoors - but as mention, my grille was crushed by the falling tree. It’s a f’ing disaster.

[Orange&White 5572]

18 minutes ago, HOOKEM4 said:

It is very rare to have any new development with anything but underground dry's. Everyone mandates they are buried. Plus developers hate ugly looking power poles in their cookie cutter neighborhoods.

We could take the money that is raided from AE by council and start investing in burying the lines in high risk areas. Imagine what you could do with the alleged 100 mil that is raided from them.

Here is the link to the current CoA Budget:

https://assets.austintexas.gov/budget/22-23/downloads/FY23_Approved_Budget.pdf

Scroll to page 178 and you will see that AE transfers $105M this year. I think Austin Water sends like $20M.