I was born and raised in Texas. I have actually been in the DFW area my entire life. My son is graduating from the same high school that I graduated from and my father graduated from. I haven’t gone far.
Now that the weather is much warmer and we escaped with no damage, I can speak about our experience when the lights went out during subzero temperatures. I listened to the weather reports. I planned ahead by getting enough groceries to feed these four boys should the roads get bad. It snows in Texas, not a lot, but we have experienced bad roads and snow before. Now looking back, I can’t even remember when the snow began falling. I do remember that I started my faucets, especially the ones on exterior walls, on a slow trickle on Sunday night. I woke up Monday morning and let the dogs out. We were given the option to work from home since the schools were closed for President’s Day. So I grabbed my laptop, turned it on and went to make coffee. I was staring out the back door at the falling snow when everything went silent. The humming of the fridge, the slight shaking of the ceiling fan, everything silenced. In a brief moment of disbelief I looked at everything that has a clock or light when it is powered. All dark, no lights. I grab my phone and check the usual spots for information; Facebook, NBC5 app, Nextdoor website, group texts with friends. It appeared that they had decided to do rolling black outs because the power grid was being stressed. I said to myself, okay, we can do this for an hour. I messaged my work and told them about my situation. I then told the kids not to open doors a whole lot and not to open the refrigerator or freezer. Of course, the snow was new and exciting at this moment. So we did go outside and play a little. My youngest, this being his first time that he can remember seeing snow, had to make a snow angel. He was lit up with excitement and joy. It made me smile and happy. I even let him throw snowballs at me. Hours passed and we still had no electricity. As the sun was setting, the house was just getting colder. We got out all of the blankets, all of the candles, ate lots of bagged snacks. We were hesitant to try to find warmth elsewhere because we have two dogs and two cats that we did not want to leave behind. Not to mention that the roads were covered in snow and could be dangerous. Oh and don’t forget COVID. There were moments, that I just wanted to cry. My Littles used the darkness to hunt ghosts and scare each other. They walked around the house with the electric candles like they were really searching for something. They played on devices until they lost charge. They danced, they laughed, they made me laugh.
In the early hours of the morning, being cold to the bone and longing for a warm meal, we loaded up in my son’s Lexus and headed for a place with electricity. We warmed up, ate a warm meal and took warm showers. I kept checking my Ring Doorbell to see if power was restored. Once I saw it was up, we loaded up and set out for the 15-20mph drive home.
The roads were slick but there was some powder left on top so it wasn’t horrible. As we were driving, I noticed there were places on the roads where the snow was melting. I said “at least it is warming up.” My son looks at his vehicle’s temp indicator and says, “yeah, it is 18 degrees now.” I laughed and nearly cried. When we arrived home after our power being out for around 30+ hours, the temp inside the house was 47 degrees. It was still cold. We all added layers of clothing and waited for the house to warm up. I hung sheets in walkways to block off areas to the living room where my electric fireplace was working to create a warm space. I put tape around doors and windows to try to limit the cold coming into the house. I made warm meals while I could because I feared the power would go out again. We were some of the fortunate ones that had power after 30 or so hours. The power did go out again but this time it only lasted for about an hour. So there wasn’t a lot of warmth lost. We were then told that the water treatment plant also lost power so we would need to boil water. There are five of us and two dogs and two cats. I just boiled water and filled every container I could find. Boiling water and searching for containers at least let my mind take a break from thinking about what I was going to do if we lost power again. Thankfully any power outages we experienced after that were more of the rolling blackout type, only lasting 30-45 minutes.
During last week, I was a mess of emotions and just trying to make sure that my children, pets and home were safe and warm. I was speaking to a coworker today and we were talking about the stress of it all. We both feel like the adrenaline is still going, like we haven’t actually stopped long enough to process it all. I know that we were fortunate, we had each other, we had food, our pipes seem to have held up against the low temperatures. I am praying very hard for all of Texas and anyone else that is going through hard times. I absolutely am thankful for my kids and my pets and for those that checked on us. I can promise you that this momma is going to make sure that I am prepared for future situations like this, hot or cold.
Until next time, be well.
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