Texas ain't got building codes. Some cities do. We boast about minimal regulations. Unfortunately consumer protection laws are few. Money talks and bullshit walks. Our land is one of milk and honey.Originally Posted by Trooper224
Texas ain't got building codes. Some cities do. We boast about minimal regulations. Unfortunately consumer protection laws are few. Money talks and bullshit walks. Our land is one of milk and honey.
The idea of not having a simple gate or ball valve where water service enters the house is bizarre to me. I’ve always had the street shutoff owned by the utility, and the house shutoff immediately inside where their responsibility ends and mine begins.
Ken
BBI: ...”you better not forget the safe word because shit's about to get weird”...
revchuck38: ...”mo' ammo is mo' betta' unless you're swimming or on fire.”
A possum, road runners, now this. I don't know Willie personnaly, but I know I like him.
Those are two separate observations. Yes, Texas does think highly of itself. But, having pride does not necessarily translate into being prepared for the worst winter weather, statewide, in recorded Texas history.
There would be a lot of political discussion to explore "unpreparedness." Without political pressure and government subsidies, there would be no wind farms in the first place, whether or not those contributed. Also, without political pressure Texas might still have a considerable amount of our production produced by coal.
People plan for the 1-100 year flood, but they don't plan for the extraordinary event outside of that. I think the same would be true with regard to ERCOT here. This is an extraordinary event. Texas will be just fine.
My wife just told me about a news article that reported we were very close to losing our grid for months, plural. Now that would have been an adventure.
Last edited by Shotgun; 02-19-2021 at 12:17 PM.
"Rich," the Old Man said dreamily, "is a little whiskey to drink and some food to eat and a roof over your head and a fish pole and a boat and a gun and a dollar for a box of shells." Robert Ruark
As a Texan, I fully agree. So many folks did not prep their homes, in the least. Shutting off the water supply, and opening all the faucets, before the freeze, is not rocket science. So many folks did not have warm clothing or bedding, or other supplies. ERCOT, which controls the power grid for most of Texas, may well have done the best they could, with what they had, but the local power plants let them them down, by not being winterized, or trained, or otherwise prepared, in spite of ample warning.
We broke an aging iron pipe, trying to turn a shut-off valve, so we have a minor water issue, now that things are thawed, but if we had water pressure, and intact pipes, we would still have to boil it, anyway, due to local water system problems, which includes the political side of things, which do not belong in General Discussion.
Retar’d LE. Kinesthetic dufus.
Don’t tread on volcanos!
Someone with a lot more knowledge about the electrical grid than me needs to explain this. I'm assuming that the only thing that could cause a months-long outage would be widespread physical damage distributed across the grid. It doesn't seem that they're referring to ice pulling down powerlines or something like that, because the problem was supposedly resolved by shutting down part of the grid. So what exactly could have happened to cause such a long outage?
It sounds more than a bit like "Yeah large parts of the grid went down, but it could have been so much worse, you guys! Aren't we so great?"
I would agree with you. https://www.texastribune.org/2021/02...outages-ercot/ Sounds like we were saved just in the nick of time.
"Rich," the Old Man said dreamily, "is a little whiskey to drink and some food to eat and a roof over your head and a fish pole and a boat and a gun and a dollar for a box of shells." Robert Ruark
Sun's out and things are starting to thaw here which is welcome but brings it's own set of issues. Was outside clearing some snow and a large oak branch fell nearby. I didn't hear the crack of the branch breaking so I think it had snapped earlier but was resting in the tree. With the thaw it came down. So be careful under trees.
That's not good. I suspect a lot of people don't even know where their meter shut off valve is.
In the P-F basket of deplorables.
We have a few acres and our responsibility starts at our property line. That's about 150' from the meter. The meter is in the road right-of-way so when the utility has to shut your water off for non payment they can do it after sundown without going onto your property.
They also now have meters that broadcast the reading electronically but I'm not sure what the range is on those. It has to be pretty scary out here for meter readers because some people have large dogs and there are some real reclusive types among us.
In the P-F basket of deplorables.
https://www.ksat.com/news/local/2021...ll-smoldering/
Huge fire at far North Bexar County apartment complex still smoldering
Firefighters have had problems due to water outages
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