Where is Austin?

[Chanson]

Hey, Austin.

Just wanted to check on you to see if you are staying warm out there. Also, anyone out in Minnesota, I meant the frozen part of TX, doing OK?

[Austintacious]

We lost power for two days during the coldest part of the weather (3 degrees).  Luckily, we have a gas fireplace that didn't let the temperature drop below 60 degrees in the den and 55 degrees in the bedrooms.  Some people's houses were in the 40s or even the 30s. 

We lost water flow Wednesday, as well as half the city, and it may be a couple more days before it's restored.  We had filled up the bathtub to flush toilets in case this happened. 

During the beginning of the pandemic in March, I bought a good supply of drinking water that we're now using.  Glad I kept it for a time like this.  The little dogs hate going out in the snow to do their duty because it touches their bellies. 

Today, it's supposed to warm up to 40 degrees so there will be some melting.  I don't think we have a broken water pipes.
 We'll soon find out. 

Streets are clear except for an occasional icy patch but that should be gone shortly.  Thanks for thinking of us.

Austin

[kyyote]

My daughter is in Temple and they still don?t have electricity. The road their subdivision is on is treacherous. I think they are going to escape to a friends house today.

[Chanson]

Austin, it sounds like you might make an episode of Doomsday Preppers. Glad to see it worked out.

[ATL-Miner]

Glad to hear you're making the best of a bad situation. Stay safe.

We lost power for two days during the coldest part of the weather (3 degrees).  Luckily, we have a gas fireplace that didn't let the temperature drop below 60 degrees in the den and 55 degrees in the bedrooms.  Some people's houses were in the 40s or even the 30s. 

We lost water flow Wednesday, as well as half the city, and it may be a couple more days before it's restored.  We had filled up the bathtub to flush toilets in case this happened. 

During the beginning of the pandemic in March, I bought a good supply of drinking water that we're now using.  Glad I kept it for a time like this.  The little dogs hate going out in the snow to do their duty because it touches their bellies. 

Today, it's supposed to warm up to 40 degrees so there will be some melting.  I don't think we have a broken water pipes.
 We'll soon find out. 

Streets are clear except for an occasional icy patch but that should be gone shortly.  Thanks for thinking of us.

Austin

[SisyphusMiner]

I live north of Dallas.  I have had power the whole time because I basically got lucky and am on the same power circuit as some medical facilities and nursing homes.  Most of my town (Sherman) was without power or water for days.  I just lost water again tonight, however.  Been under a boil order for days, but can't boil water we don't have.

As things are thawing out, city distribution pipes that were frozen start leaking and that causes the pressure loss as I understand it.

I do have a creek that I can get water out of to boil if I have to, I guess.  Deer and feral hogs drink out of it, and there's a beaver dam on the upstream edge of my property, so I would definitely want to boil the hell out of it.

[Austintacious]

From my scout days, I remember we would drop some pill or something in the water as we boiled it to help sanitize it.  Anyone remember that?

I live north of Dallas.  I have had power the whole time because I basically got lucky and am on the same power circuit as some medical facilities and nursing homes.  Most of my town (Sherman) was without power or water for days.  I just lost water again tonight, however.  Been under a boil order for days, but can't boil water we don't have.

As things are thawing out, city distribution pipes that were frozen start leaking and that causes the pressure loss as I understand it.

I do have a creek that I can get water out of to boil if I have to, I guess.  Deer and feral hogs drink out of it, and there's a beaver dam on the upstream edge of my property, so I would definitely want to boil the hell out of it.

[Minermojo]

If you have snow or ice you can boil that too, right? I imagine there's a bit of snow on your roof and you can be assured that no dog has crapped on it. Yes, they still sell water purification tables but you still have to boil the water if you want to be safe. At times like these you sometimes think that you should have bought those water bottles that purify your water as you drink. I always tell myself that I'm buying one but now I think I should buy two instead.

Luckily for us desert dwellers where we have no greenery or beautiful vistas at least we don't encounter too many natural disasters. I don't like the desert much but I'm happy that we have had very, very few natural disasters except for the time we had a major freeze and water pipes were bursting all over the city. My neighbors pipes didn't burst so I had to get any of my containers and go beg for water from his outside taps. It wasn't life threatening but just a major nuisance. Trying to get a plumber in those days was the biggest problem as they were gouging their prices because they knew they could. It took me a few days for someone to fix my burst pipe and I was worried that when the fixer welded the pipe he'd burn the house down. Luckily he was able to fix it without much trouble. I should have wrapped all my pipes then but I didn't do a good enough job. I now wrap my outside faucets and cover them with that styrofoam cups. I sweat frrrrreeezing weather now and get paranoid.

[Austintacious]

My granddaughter?s wading pool is perfect for collecting melted snow off the roof. I refilled the bath tub and filled other containers. We may not have running water for two more days.

Got up to 60 degrees today. 70 tomorrow.

[Austintacious]

We got water flowing this morning.  Still, approximately 20% of the city doesn't.  However, by tomorrow the rest should get water tomorrow. 

[SisyphusMiner]

I got water back at noon.  Still under a boil order, but things are much better now.

[Austintacious]

Parts of Austin have the boil water order lifted.  My area in far South Austin still must boil water. 

[SisyphusMiner]

Boiling is a bit of a pain, but I can't really complain about it now that bathing and flushing are once again available.

I don't fault the city for anything that happened, but they have been absolutely terrible about communicating.  It would have been great to get occasional updates like "water is available here, but not over here because of a leak that we are working on.  Probably will not be fixed today, will update in 8 hours."  I don't expect up to the minute reports, but every 4-8 hours on their website, twitter, or facebook seems like it would have been reasonable. 

The boil order had apparently been in place for something like 24 hours before it showed up on any official communication.  No calls, no texts, no emails, no twitter, etc.  They sure know how to get in touch with me if my payment is late.

[liebestraum]

Amazingly, we never lost power at my house in Huntsville, but there were plenty of people who were without it for 3 or 4 days.  We were without water Wednesday and Thursday, but there was still plenty of snow to melt to use for toilets.  Our neighbor across the street has a pool and offered to share its water, but we never needed to take advantage of his generosity.

A couple of frozen outdoor faucets, but no frozen pipes.  We were really, really lucky.

lieb

[SisyphusMiner]

We had an all time record low of -4.  People here still trying to assess their damage but my home OK as far as I can tell.

One house burned to the ground because there was not enough water to fight the fire