Last week's storms

[teter]

I'm a little late, but here's wishing the best and a speedy recovery from those in Texas and elsewhere affected by the freezing cold and resulting power failures and water shortages.

[bassman]

OK got hit pretty hard in this one too. First time since I moved that people were ice fishing. 3 straight nights of below zero capped with a -15. For some reason we seemed to come through it better than TX did. They're be rebuilding and repairing for a long time down there and the ridiculous framework they have for electricity is going to leave many in serious debt just for a utility grid poorly thought out. I'm not anxious to see our bills this coming month for gas, electric and water not because of raised prices like TX but just the extra use for gas heat, added electric heaters and dripping faucets for several days. This will set record highs just like the weather set record lows.

[Cimarron]

Seems to me that what happened to Texas is just a preview of what’s coming for all of us in some way. Texas was unprepared in multiple ways, but we are unprepared as a planet and a species.

[6tUc05]

Speaking as a Texan who has survived this storm with only minor inconveniences, and two previous ones; 1983 when the second lowest temperature on record for Houston was set(7 F) and1989 with similar or worse results related to water pipes bursting, I appreciate your thoughts. Relative to the power situation: AIN"T DEREGULATION GREAT?!?!

[BGreer]

Pardon the pun or whatever, but it was sort of the "perfect storm".

Terribly cold weather knocked out some of the electric power infrastructure and the cold caused much greater demand on the system.
Less supply and more demand. It just couldn't sustain itself. This led to massive outages and blackouts.

I saw some data and some graphs before the SHF and it didn't look good. I saw some 24hr graphs of system frequency and it had dipped down to almost 59Hz.

IMHO, better planning and more reserves are what is needed. That is true for more places than just Texas.

Brian

[6tUc05]

Brian...

It was deregulation in 1999 that "damaged the infrastructure". The adverse affects of this storm were minor in comparison.( I speak from 28 years experience in the Texas utility industry .)

Cheers!

[SpringCreek]

I feel fairly lucky. I moved out of Texas the second week of January. Saw a couple of pictures that my friends took and they were just ugly to say the least.

Jim