Major SHTF winter storm for Texas 2-11 till 2-17, maybe longer

[ak474u]

About 2" snow here looks like we had freezing rain here at some point pre-snow because it's got a really thin layer of solid ice under it.

[CENTEXDUDE]

Roads are iced over here in Austin. Hardly any traffic.
I'm not going anywhere. I have an ample supply of freeze dried food, no need to venture out.
Have a Coleman guide propane stove and bottles in case of power failure, one of the best investments I've made.

[91CavGT]

Just got back home from picking up my nephew from work. That was an adventure that I don’t care to do again. Thank the good Lord above that I know how to drive in this stuff. He DEFINITELY was watching over us.


The beginning of the cold air has now made it to San Antonio. The temp is now 23 degrees and EVERY road is a solid sheet of ice now. I-10 both east and west bound were at a complete stand still, but not because police shut it down. Both 18 wheelers and cars could not make it up minor hills and several 18 wheelers have actually slid off of the road. My nephew was giving me grief for going so slow and being passed so much while taking him to work. Coming back home he did not say anything as we passed vehicle after vehicle that had stopped or that slid off the road. There is still freezing rain coming down and conditions are only getting worse. Now I need to go work in the garage to wire up 4 of my big AGM batteries to possibly use when the power goes out.

[bacpacker1513]

Glad you made it back safe

[beowulf]

Glad you made it back safe

AMEN!! You folks please be careful out there.

[Camouflaged]

I've prepped for this for years. We're just hanging out, watching Lord Of The Rings 1,2 and 3. Our local KBTX is calling for 1*F by Tuesday morning. Right now it's 18*F in my area and everything has turned white. Frozen ground covered in sleet and a light dusting of snow. We got moved into the new house in the nik of time!

I'm glad to read you guys are safe and taking this storm seriously. There are wreaks piling up like crazy around my area. FOOLS! People think they are exempt from SHTF situations.....

[ak474u]

So glad I'm off tomorrow, It's nasty here. 9* and another few inches of snow since about 4pm. Lowest temp in history overnight, they say maybe -2*. I work for a home builder and homeowners have been texting me all day that pipes are frozen. We just don't design homes for this weather.

[flock6]

"We just don't design homes for this weather" It makes good sense not to, if you don't experience this type of weather.

[ak474u]

"We just don't design homes for this weather" It makes good sense not to, if you don't experience this type of weather.

Yeah, we really don't have average lows below 26-30ish here, so it makes sense. That being said, as soon as I get my LED lights finished in a few more areas of the house, I'm blowing the attic to R50 from R26 (was 38 when the house was built in 07' but settled out over time and trampled down from AC duct and system replacement). We are also gonna finish the air seal and replace windows next year with really good windows from the aluminum builder grade we currently have. I'm also gonna have my plumber install shutoff valves in the attic for the PEX water lines that run to the outside spigots. Those are my biggest worry right now. They're covered but I see so many frozen and broken ones at work, it always worries me. My front one on the north side is covered, and I build it a foam board box to shield it from the winds that extends to the ground and has a 65w bulb in it just to keep the chill off. Next year, I'm gonna have a shutoff that I can turn, and open them up to fully drain. The only cold and hot spot in the house is the master bath, and we've had the pipes freeze there several times. It's the only room we haven't remodeled this year because I wanted to have a bathroom during that whole project. We're gonna get rid of the tub and put in a big shower, so that's gonna require reducing the size of the big old window in there from 4x4 to 1x4 and moving pipes, etc. I'm gonna go ahead and demo the drywall out of there and have one of my guys closed cell foam the walls. I used to sell insulation, so I know what to do, and energy bills are sure to go up due to the new guy in charge, so it'll pay for itself.

[91CavGT]

Woke up this morning to 6” of powder snow with drifts of over 1’ deep. It is 8 degrees outside with the sun shining. Local news had one of their people reporting off of a busy local highway(281). During the entire 3 minute report, there was only 1 vehicle that drove by on the highway.

Rolling blackouts are happening. Out of the 12.5 million customers in the state, 2.5 million currently have no power from either rolling blackouts or due to power out from the weather. https://poweroutage.us/area/state/texas


The high today is supposed to be in the 20’s and the low tonight back in the single digits. Tomorrow it is supposed to get above freezing but another round of winter weather is due to come through on Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning. So we still have another 2 days at least before we start to recover from this.