Back to work today after a week off due to The Great Winter Storm of 2021. It wasn't the snow or ice that was especially devastating. Rather, it was the sub zero temperatures that wreaked havoc on Texas infrastructure. I've lived in Texas for 24 years and had never seen it so cold. Below zero temps are an extreme rarity in this part of the country.
The Texas electrical grid couldn't handle it. My Mom's house lost power and was dark for over 36 hours. I drove out on the terrible roads to pick my Mom and Sister up so they could stay at our house which amazingly never lost power. The Jeep made traveling these roads possible.
This grid failure exposed the fallacies of energy privatization and the greed of un-regulated capitalism. All the loss of power was entirely preventable. The grid was supposed to be winterized after our last big storm in 2011. But nothing was done. Now our Republican government officials try to cast blame elsewhere, unless they're too busy fleeing to Cancun to ride out the storm while their constituents literally in some cases freeze to death. But the Republicans have been governing Texas for 30 years. There's no one else to blame.
My family was lucky. We never lost power or water. We live next to a police and fire station so our neighborhood was not subject to the rolling blackouts.We had stocked up on groceries right before the storm. I had cleared out the mud and dirt around our water meter and had the water key ready in case we needed to shut down the water. I had gassed up both vehicles. We had winterized as much as we could. We had collected water in coolers and water bottles.
We had one pipe that led to the kitchen sink freeze up but we caught it early. I was able to put a small space heater, borrowed from my Mom, under the sink next to the wall which de-thawed the pipe before it burst. That little space heater saved us from a real hassle and expense. My kids got to spend quality time with their Grandmother and Aunt. We had a vehicle that could travel on horrible road conditions. We were lucky. Others were not.
