Posted on 02/02/2023 2:42:23 PM PST by Oldeconomybuyer
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Thousands of frustrated Texans shivered in their homes Thursday after more than a day without power, including many in the state capital, as an icy winter storm that has been blamed for at least 10 traffic deaths lingered across much of the southern U.S.
Even as temperatures finally pushed above freezing in Austin — and were expected to climb past 50 degrees (10 Celsius) on Friday — the relief will be just in time for an Arctic front to drop from Canada and threaten northern states. New England in particular is forecast to see the coldest weather in decades, with wind chills that could dive lower than minus 50.
Across Texas, 430,000 customers lacked power Thursday, according to PowerOutage.us. But the failures were most widespread in Austin, where frustration mounted among more than 156,000 customers over 24 hours after their electricity went out, which for many also meant their heat. Power failures have affected about 30% of customers in the city of nearly a million at any given time since Wednesday.
Allison Rizzolo, who lost power in Austin, told KEYE-TV that she wished there were more clarity from the city on what to do or expect.
“I get that there’s a fine line between preparedness and panic, but I wish they’d been more aggressive in their communications,” Rizzolo said.
Unlike the 2021 blackouts in Texas, when hundreds of people died after the state’s grid was pushed to the brink of total failure because of a lack of generation, the outages in Austin this time were largely the result of frozen equipment and ice-burdened trees and limbs falling on power lines. The city’s utility warned all power may not be restored until Friday as ice continued causing outages even as repairs were finished elsewhere.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
Yep...just look what it’s (ice load) done to all of these huge Live Oak branches, in Texas.
A whole house generator is your best friend!
During Ike, we had a portable generator running.....for what seemed like....forever.
We purchased a whole house generator not long after.
Since the china virus supply chain issues, they’re almost impossible to find. I imaging this storm will only make that worse.
When one looks back and realizes that they HAD, in fact, survived the TERRIBLE weather thing that was SO bad the last time, the urge to take out insurance against the NEXT time lessens.
So, history repeats itself.
“Those that do not LEARN from... blah, blah, blah.”
Which helps very little.
Yes we’re putting one in the new house on our rural property. Up in that area everyone has one and a woodstove.
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