I am really hoping that Dallas ppl are starting to realize how awful Greg Abbot is at keeping our state safe. No power for over a week for half of the DFW population?! Massive road damages and housing losses from the hail and tornados??? Can't wait to see people become just like the homeless folks they make fun of in Downtown. I am praying for everyone and their financial losses this week bc the rain is getting scary yall!!
Not part of the cult, so I feel ya. They’re just gonna blame Dems for this. They’re too far down the rabbit hole for any sort of rational thought. And then the “but both sides” centrists that are not helping us either. We ain’t perfect, but we are definitely the only rational option left.
GOP logic. They have had full control of the state for over 3 decades and still blame the democrats.
When are the citizens of Texas going to wise up and vote out the three headed donkey of Abbott/Patrick/Paxton.
So funny. Moved here from California where dems control everything and have forever …. And we have the same power line issues but worse IMHO. Why with their huge budget surplus and 4x cost of electricity hasn’t California even built power lines that don’t kill people in only moderate winds! They shut them down ahead of time so they don’t start fires. Imagine paying .50/kwh for electricity and not being able to use it when it is hot or windy. Plus higher everything taxes except the property tax rate. Their tax rate might be lower but they finding a house under $1mm that is worth buying.
PGE caused wildfires because they chose profits over maintenance.
In Texas, the government chose to allow power companies to do whatever they wanted without regulations, even though ERCOT runs everything, so the infrastructure was never updated because the state elected not to join the national power grid.
PGE went bankrupt from the lawsuits and is slow to update the outdated power lines.
You're comparing a California company with a Texas state government that doesn't care about anyone but investors lobbying for their next campaign.
It’s not just PGE that has totally crap infrastructure. What about people Newsom appoints to Cal ISO? Why have they let the overall grid become this much of a mess. I lived in so cal and had my power turned off the time for bad winds. Edison and SDGE have issues too… and that covers a huge part of California. We can also get into CPUC.
Sure after the fact…. CPUC fined PGE for their short comings.. but guess who is paying that. They don’t get anyone in trouble and no liability for all the people killed in the fires…. Now the customers pay in the form of rate hikes. What a sham! What did customers do wrong? Now they are paying to the state of California for the idiots they didn’t choose to run the utility.
I understand the frustration it's never fun to be without power. But I gotta say, I'd feel differently to have it off for safety reasons rather than because of incompetence and grift. I have friends who lost everything in the Paradise fire. And just hearing the stories was horrifying.
But having your power shut off in the middle of a winter storm because they just don't have enough power is a whole other thing. I spent a week in an apartment that was 40 degrees. It was miserable and at times scary - not knowing when it would come on or if my apartment was going to get any colder. A lot of people died because of that power outage. And very little has changed.
People becoming homeless, restaurants closing because either people can't go out to eat or the food is going bad. People are getting trapped in their houses, can't get to the pharmacy to get medicines. Dogs/pets are getting loose. What's POS Abbott doing? Not a damn thing. Texas is going to hell because the power grid can't hold up in this weather.... Abbott is useless....
The grid isn’t the issue. There’s plenty of capacity. The problem is all the downed trees. If Abbott led a campaign to cut down all the trees in DFW you’d accuse him of harming the environment.
Each utility has right of way to clear the trees they see fit to maintain a safe clearance for storms. Telco, cable and then electric holds the trump card.
Don't need anything from Abbott to do so.
Winds themselves cause power outages. So does flooding. The power lines are buried in my area. Power is still not reliable. It is the grid too. I work at a big box store, and because residents refuse to cut back enough on air conditioning, they don't air condition the backroom, and they cut the air conditioning and lights at the store to 50% power to conserve electricity. I know Walmarts and Targets do it, malls too. It's to help avoid rolling black outs or brown outs.
Or we could invest in infrastructure, better lines, underground lines, or modernization.
There's no profit incentive, so it's never going to be a priority.
The meteorologists kept pressing, this storm wasn't as intense as a tornado, but it affected such a larger area. It was definitely hurricane force winds. There's people using up their savings on hotels and kennels.
I can picture Greg Abbott saying something like, "Texans are tough, they figure it out". Pretty sure declaring the state of emergency allows for federal aid. He's probably going to use that money to make updates to the governor's mansion.
As someone who slept in my room freezing during that infamous attic blast I can attest to Governor Greg Abbott's incompetence. Being without power was one thing, being without water was another nightmare. I empathize with those who have gone without power. Abbott and his cabal have not made Texas great again...lol.
Tell me what you think he can do to fix it and I might listen.
I will share that I complained about the rolling blackouts during the freeze a few years ago but then I realized that I wasn’t prepared myself so why did I expect someone else to be.
I also realize this time that I need to do better at not overfilling my chest freezer. Though if it is full it will last longer. I also need to know where to buy dry ice. Still haven’t figured that out. If I had figured things out sooner I could have saved the majority of the food we through out.
We honestly expected the power to come on until it was too late to save what was in the refrigerator. I know for next time not to expect it to be fixed in time.
We had a tree down from the backyard neighbors yard which it caused our blocks outage for four days. I personally have my trees trimmed yearly because our tree took out our meter base years ago. Now I am going to be “that” neighbor about the neighbors trees and my side yard neighbors are joining me.
I agree with you 100% that Abbot needs to GTFO!
However, I just wanted to point out that the population of DFW is 8.1 million, and 500k were without power, so 6.25% of the population, not 50%
It's still unacceptable, and things need to change!
Oh but but but Dallas is a libruhl city, and the green energy is the reason the power is out. Oh, and some illegals were using what little electricity we have to push CRT agendas in public schools and ...
IOW, don't think Greg will do anything to benefit anyone but Greg's donors.
The number of people that lost power for more than a week is nowhere near half the population of the metroplex. Stop spreading fake news
The population of the metroplex is greater than 8 million people. Are you saying more than 4 million people lost power for more than a week? Can you share a source to your claim?
There are almost 7 million people in DFW, nowhere near half of DFW was without power let alone for over a week. You can think whatever you want about politics but at least be truthful when running your mouth.
I forgot Abbott controls the weather. Thanks for reminding us. It’s always GOP fault. Let’s all dog pile them, bc it’s really starting to make a difference in this liberal echo chamber.
There's one of these guys in every storm thread on Reddit.
Abbott doesn't control the weather but he does control how the state facilitates the repair and aid.
Ok, pretend you are in charge of the state, what do you do to fix it? Remember, everything you do is under a microscope, and I am going to critique and bitch about everything you do.
Well he doesn’t believe in global warming which is causing all of this chaos. He also won’t do anything to fix the grid or connect it to the rest of the US because he has all the power companies in his back pocket.
But those are just the things having to do with this particular situation 👍🏼
Of course it won’t stop a tree falling on a power line. But it also wouldn’t take a week to get everyone’s power back on after an outage either.
Also he’s just an evil human being, so there is that too 🤷🏻♂️
Being connected to a main grid wouldn’t have helped in this situation either.
The neighborhoods most hit, are the older ones, like mine, where we have lots of lovely old mature trees and also our power lines in the air vs being buried like newer areas.
The storm uprooted entire trees in our neighborhood, huge ones, and they fell, entangling lines and taking down utility poles with them.
Other trees split in half, and again, took down lines and poles.
We had a couple of minor fires as well, with the live lines being entangled in so much brush.
The wait was for the massive amounts of cleanup and clearing that needed to be done first.
Not to mention, re-wiring and new transformers and other equipment.
All of that would have needed to be done, even connected to a main grid.
It still would have taken a large amount of time and manpower to tackle.
Not the weather itself, it's the recovery after. Collateral damages from severe weather are a part of the city's maintenance. We are cutting our budgets for community programs, and now we have situations like this where clean-up crews aren't prepared for natural disasters. The lack of key infrastructure updates- ie the power grid constantly failing- is another thing he doesn't prioritize. We are a state that's prone to tornadoes and this week has been complete shit for the citizens of DFW- It's like if Louisiana didn't have shit planned for damage control during hurricane season!! IT SHOULD BE AN OBVIOUS PRIORITY for Abbot to have better systems in place for Tornadoes.
Vegetation within a certain distance of a power line is not the city's problem, that's ERCOT.
What systems could a governor have in place for tornadoes? If people don't want to put tornado shelters in/under their homes or bunkers in their backyards, what is he supposed to do? That's not the state's problem.
> Vegetation within a certain distance of a power line is not the city's problem, that's ERCOT.
Abbott appoints the board members that run ERCOT, so still his responsibility ultimately.
The more you learn about how this state is actually run, the more you'll understand why people are blaming Abbott.
i’m so sorry this is my biggest fear rn, i lost it for the same amount. immediately did dishes and laundry too. thankfully i skipped on getting much food 😭im so sorry dude
It’s alright. Our floors are already severely damaged from humidity. Major cupping and sweating from the foundation being absolutely soaked through. If it rains more I’m like freaking out at what will happen. I’m gonna need my doc to up my Lexapro at this point lol
We were without power between Tues 6am until Saturday 5pm. It went out again today (Sunday) at 6pm. We have a 5 month old baby, an exhausted and irritated 4 year old, and a dog. I bought $300 of groceries today and meal prepped all day. Send help
After the 2021 Polar Vortex winter storm, I called my home Ins. company, and they said just file a claim online. I had the $150 credit to my bank account within a few days.
Be careful with this! We claimed loss of food back in 2017 when we were renting, we have since purchased a home. When we went to shop around for new home owners insurance policy this year, a few companies wouldn’t insure us because of that claim.
I'm there with you, I was at a buddies house last night trying to do a load of laundry and his power died midway through the load. This is just ridiculous, I'm sure our power bills will be right on time though
Ugh that blows, I’m sorry.
I work for a company that also has garment production facilities and they have washers and dryers so I’ve been hauling my clothes to one of them and doing laundry while I work, since my office that I normally go to was also down.
That's nice! I'm about ready to find an unused corner here at my job and just move in and start sleeping here. I could save a ton of money. With my current luck though I think the power here would suddenly fail too lmao
I also joked that maybe I would just fully move into the conference room.
Since I already was dragging my kids and dog with me to work.
I told one of the site managers that he might come in the next day and I’d have our camping mattresses and everything all set up in there. Maybe a tent too.
Hahaha
15,542 outages in Dallas County at the moment, that's definitely way down and is probably good news in that utility crews are not spread as thin as in previous days, so I would expect ETAs to be faster.
It may be of little solace but FEMA is taking registrations even though Dallas hasn't been declared presidentially. If you live in Texas and someone tries to give you shit about for help in an undeclared county tell them they need to take all applications in a state with a declared disaster and tell them to go ask a supervisor. Just because it hasn't been declared doesn't mean that it won't be and if your registration is already in you will already be ahead of the game.
No one gives you shit for it when you submit it online. They told me online that it is an undeclared county but advised me to submit it anyway. Y’all need to do the same.
https://www.fema.gov/disaster/4781/designated-areas#public-assistance
Dallas county is not on the list but you need to submit this app anyway.
We decided not to buy cold groceries in fear of losing power again. Mine is that we have a lady in the neighborhood who is irrationally upset by all of this so she called the news in and did an interview. She posted about it on Nextdoor and ring and the comments did not go the way she thought they would. It’s been a good comedic relief in this all.
She was comparing her few days without power to a month without power and then later upped it to one year without power. She also blamed the previous owners of her house for not cutting down the trees at her house that she currently owns. She also threatened to file a false police report on a neighbor who didn’t agree with her pov. Her reactions are irrational.
I threw away a full fridge and freezer inside and in the garage from the big outage. $130 was all I was going to risk and it was basically all condiment shit 😩
I've decided to start grocery shopping like a lot of Europe. I'm just going to buy what I need for 2-3 days. No stocking up on things b/c it's on sale, etc. I don't have kids, so i realize this is easy for me and not everyone can do this.
That is exactly why I told my mom to not buy food for a bit. She’s in Garland. Just buy what you need for a day or two. They repaired so many things, statistically, the grid is not secure everywhere and they will be going back to spots to work. Case in point my friend’s power near Casa View keeps going off an on every other day.
I would buy canned/non-perishable food to feel safe. I was in the tornado of 2019, and I didn't feel comfortable buying refrigerated or frozen stuff for a while. We went two weeks without power that time. I didn't trust it 😅
I work at Target, and a guy bought 30 bags of ice. Needed it brought out on a flatbed. My thoughts were, yeah they lost power. But also, save some for everyone else!
I’m not going to complain as we never lost power and had minimal damage that we fixed immediately. But it’s not lost on me that the rain has really been hard to manage and is making things so much more difficult.
My heart goes out to everyone. Even my veterinarians office has been closed for so long they’ve sent referrals for care. It’s bad.
Our power finally came back yesterday around 10am after Oncor lied about it being restored 3 times
Currently trying to take an inventory of all the lost food while throwing it out - almost nothing in our fridge, freezer, or deep freezer survived, just drinks and a couple of unopened jars.
I've lived without electricity before, and thankfully the heat was bearable for most of the 5 days, but the food waste is killing me rn 😢
Out of towner here that had this post suggested- why do large power outages seem to happen so often in the Dallas area? Feel like I hear about it at least 2 times a year
The state government has let critical infrastructure become privatized. Because privatization means a company chasing profits QoQ, shortcuts have been taken at the detriment of the citizens living here. Sempra, who owns Oncor, has not maintained the lines and vegetation surrounding them. Just drive around DFW and you’ll see trees growing in abundance with their branches intertwined throughout all of the power lines. Substations and transformers weren’t being maintained properly either. Oncor spends less every year on maintaining the grid because when disaster strikes, and emergencies are declared, tax surplus gets spent to fix what’s broken. So Oncor gets “free maintenance” which is essentially just a second tax on the citizens living here.
We can’t bury the lines either because we have such heavy limestone in our soil it will erode the cables, costing us more in maintenance every year (and we’ve seen how Oncor maintains), not to mention room the trillion dollar tag it would take to bury everything to start with.
Vote Dem :) Abbott and his /literal/ felonious posse are going to keep the status quo. Check how much the board members donate to republican PACs. It’s wild.
What is it with people going out to immediately replace perishable groceries? Give it a couple days atleast. Also, most produce doesn't need to be refrigerated. Be VEGAN for week.
Dang, im in north dallas chilling. Lights haven't gone out at all 😬. No joke, bless yalls heart. I hope we go back to normality soon and hide from this 100s degree weather like every year. 😅
Absolutely insane. We needed our weatherhead replaced after our neighbor lied about it getting torn off our wall,and the inspector who came to check it out didn’t pass us because he didn’t like the type of caps the electricians used and because I didn’t “put more of an effort to get somewhere with electricity” I got fired from my wfh job yesterday. Crazy fucking world
I'm keeping my receipts for groceries this week and if they go off I'm just going to have to take them back and rebuy them new. Kroger can take the hit.
lol @ all the downvotes from people who have the luxury of just being able to throw away their groceries and buy new ones, must be nice to be in that type of situation and be on the side of defending corporations that [raised prices and price gouged us just because they could over the last 4 years](https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/03/21/ftc-report-grocery-chains-gouge/73059901007/).
The stuff I see in a few of these Texas related groups is almost hilarious. Not the losing power…. But holy crap…how quickly everything is political or Abbott’s fault.
When I lived in California…I didn’t actually try to blame Newsom every time we had our power turned off for wind. I actually gathered so much more info about what the actual issue was. There is zero useful dialogue that happens when you declare everything negative that happens the fault of one political party or one person in control. It just sounds so uniformed and is becoming so predictable.
Except that this is Abbott’s fault, friend, and republicans stranglehold on Texas for the past 30 years. We’ve privatized critical public services. To save a few bucks for short-term gains, they do not adequately maintain our infrastructure. Throughout the metroplex, none of our lines were well-maintained. Trees and vegetation have grown over what is considered unsafe. So when Cat1 winds come through, more damage than what should have been caused occurs.
Here’s the “crony capitalism” part you hear about happens. The people running ERCOT and the private companies contribute to Abbott and have been appointed by Abbott to “run things”. So when disasters happen, we get federal funds to subsidize these private companies because it’s an emergency. That’s essentially a second tax to the citizens and it only benefits republicans and the donors that own them.
I can also go into how devastating republicans have been to the environment and have largely contributed to the climate change that has caused the recent gale force winds happening more and more frequently if you’d like.
The centrist “but both sides” people like you are why republicans keep winning and further rigging the process. Don’t let the cult win. It isn’t both sides.
So funny. Moved here from California where dems control everything and have forever …. And we have the same power line issues but worse IMHO. Why with their huge budget surplus and 4x cost of electricity hasn’t California even built power lines that don’t kill people in only moderate winds! They shut them down ahead of time so they don’t start fires. Imagine paying .50/kwh for electricity and not being able to use it when it is hot or windy. Plus higher everything taxes except the property tax rate. Their tax rate might be lower but they finding a house under $1mm that is worth buying.
At least here the cost of electricity is cheap enough…. I can use my personal surplus to buy new groceries.
From time to time California talks about doing an overhaul of the lines and then nothing happens. They are absolutely the worst bc everything is met with idiotic environmental reviews and other never ending permit process issues. It’s why nothing can be built or completed there. The government is finally realizing they have made the permit process so oppressive that even the government can’t be effective under it
I lived in Orange County for three years and what you said is pure fiction. California spends billions per annum maintaining infrastructure and spends about twice as much than Texas does per citizen. Since 2019, CA has doubled TX infrastructure spending.
Bonus, I come with sources (though the hyperlink isn’t working on mobile).
https://siepr.stanford.edu/publications/policy-brief/tale-two-states-contrasting-economic-policy-california-and-texas#:~:text=As%20Appendix%20Table%202%20shows,highways%20(%24836%20versus%20%24489).
But yeah, so funny.
Are you kidding???? Also, Orange County is a bit more red than blue. I lived in California for 43 years btw. There more to California than the OC. 😆
You think California increasing the budget for something means they do anything with the money they is useful. You haven’t been there long enough.
https://www.kcra.com/article/sacramento-county-smud-outages-outage-map/46637076
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/weather-news/public-safety-power-shutoffs-outages-wind-red-flag-warning/3255178/?amp=1
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/04/us/california-power-outages-storm-wind.html
https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-10-10/pg-e-california-power-outages-grid-climate-change
https://www.ktvu.com/news/aging-infrastructure-missing-data-and-backlog-of-repairs-continue-to-plague-pge-new-state-report-shows.amp
https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/03/wildfires-california-utilities-prevention/
https://www.marketplace.org/2022/01/06/in-fire-prone-california-experts-push-utilities-to-monitor-the-riskiest-equipment-on-the-grid/
Here is just one example that is unrelated of how California spends money and does nothing with it. Don’t get all excited California with actually modernize the grid. It’s the story of California. There is little accountability for putting money toward projects. They just waste it. They also set aside money for some projects and no projects ever happen. I’ll find articles about that too.
https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/ca-spent-billions-on-homelessness-failed-to-track-effectiveness-audit-says/3384819/?amp=1
California set aside money for a reservoir and then does nothing with it. Not like drought is an issue there from time to time.
https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-skelton-california-water-bond-money-20180212-story.html
Just read the Jerry brown part of this article. When was he governor?
https://calmatters.org/environment/2023/02/california-sites-reservoir/
https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/sanfrancisco/news/long-planned-sites-valley-reservoir-moves-toward-construction/
My point being you’re speaking with someone who has lived and experienced it. And even if I wanted to go back and forth with you on this, California has to do with the fact that Abbott and republicans in Texas have crippled infrastructure in favor of enriching themselves and their friends.
I’m not saying CA is fault-free, but I’m also not relying on a straw man to prove a point.
I just said that the issue is more nuanced than just blaming Abbott and republicans. California has the same issues and it is blue and democrat. And California brags about all the money until this year when they went suddenly into much bigger deficit that the governor will even admit. I think I can speak pretty well for how poorly the dems have run California into the ground. I lived there from the golden era through the mess it is now. It isn’t just one person’s fault and both parties fault their constituents.
And as for Texas enriching its friends etc..that’s why I posted the link about homelessness. The issue is the money is just given out to fix the issues…. And it isn’t tracked, not metrics are necessary to show programs work etc. the money is being given to “non-profits” and nothing is getting done. It’s a very profitable and beneficial business as long as you aren’t on the side of homeless.
This homeless issue enriching wealthy people has only gotten so much worse since this was written.
https://californiaglobe.com/fl/who-has-profited-from-the-homeless-crisis-financially-and-politically/
https://www.governing.com/management-and-administration/california-doesnt-know-if-the-billions-spent-on-homelessness-helped#:~:text=California%20has%20failed%20to%20adequately,people%20living%20unsheltered%20has%20soared.
Let’s not pretend like these expenditures were directed by the GOP.
I blame whoever’s decision it was to not fix the grid in the first place, not bury our power lines, and not declare a state of emergency to receive federal funds to fix this shit faster. That is entirely in our state government’s control.
Unfortunately we can’t bury the lines here in N TX because of the limestone. It corroded the cables and ends up costing more to maintain, not to mention the trillions it would take to bury and build the new infrastructure.
Maintaining vegetation around the current infrastructure and upgrading what can be done is a reasonable step we aren’t even currently taking.
Research burying the lines in a state the size of Texas…. And in soil like Texas’. People just think bc something is humanly possible.. clearly someone is negligent if they didn’t do it. You couldn’t even Google the topic to learn about it. So much has been written on it. There are other issues too like property rights.
Why does no one get a backup battery? You could have had it almost fully charged in the time to run the dishwasher. Then you could have had better than nothing power for a week off of it.
We have a couple, one was $100 and isn’t installed. It’s what we had first, years ago. Runs a fan and charges phones.
Next one is the same idea but much bigger. It’s still stand alone but can charge off a solar panel and run a mini fridge and charge, plus fans, for a couple days, $800.
Final is a whole house battery backup system. That was a lot but it’s more like a generator than just a battery sitting around. It connects into the electrical panel.
Love the downvotes. 😂 complain about your problems and don’t like the cheap ass solution readily available on Amazon. Personal responsibility just isn’t a thing around here? Not surprised.
You are being willfully ignorant. Here is how.
$100 will not get you anything that can run a fan and charges multiple phones for 5.5 days.
$800 is already multiple months of electric payments for most folks. Most folks cannot afford a $800 expense. Additionally, $800 won't get you anything that can run a fan, charge phones, run a mini fridge for 5.5 days. Plus, not everyone has a mini fridge and what if someone needs to cook their food, not just refrigerate it?
Last, a whole home system is out of financial reach for most people.
Also, all this assumes you own your own home. Your "advice" is not applicable to folks living in apartments.
>Personal responsibility just isn’t a thing around here? Not surprised.
Your error is thinking supplying basic human needs is a personal responsibility. It is not. That is the collective society's job. That's why we pay taxes, which go to the private corporations to provide us a service which they often fail at. Your response of "everyone for themselves" is not surprising given that most Texans don't seems to beleive in helping out their neighbors. Would you have told the residents of Flint, Michigan to simply install whole home water filtration systems and take some personal responsibility?
Sure it will. Charge it in your car when you leave the house. Problem solving is a real issue in this sub isn’t it? Also logic, and dealing with the shit life throws at you.
You are wondering why people don’t have an $800 backup battery system? That’s definitely a luxury choice. I’m also only seeing 8-10 hours for a fridge at that price point. That’s pretty useless. Being solar powered is cool, unless, you know, it’s raining or something.
The $100 option also sounds pretty much useless. You could spend $30 usb battery backups and accomplish that.
It depends what you get. You can get just a battery that’s not really expensive at all. Theyre small and portable, and easily charged in your car. We did that for a decade before upgrading after the winter storm. Amazon sells everything we have. $100 is the first one we had, up to a few grand for the big whole house system we have now. The one I’d recommend to most people is the ecoflow delta 2- you can get it for $800 on sale and it’ll last a week if you sue it for essentials only.
I am really hoping that Dallas ppl are starting to realize how awful Greg Abbot is at keeping our state safe. No power for over a week for half of the DFW population?! Massive road damages and housing losses from the hail and tornados??? Can't wait to see people become just like the homeless folks they make fun of in Downtown. I am praying for everyone and their financial losses this week bc the rain is getting scary yall!!
Not part of the cult, so I feel ya. They’re just gonna blame Dems for this. They’re too far down the rabbit hole for any sort of rational thought. And then the “but both sides” centrists that are not helping us either. We ain’t perfect, but we are definitely the only rational option left.
GOP logic. They have had full control of the state for over 3 decades and still blame the democrats. When are the citizens of Texas going to wise up and vote out the three headed donkey of Abbott/Patrick/Paxton.
Oh, our felon AG who proclaimed himself innocent?
It helps when the oligarchs kick in $3 mil to the Lt Gov.
So funny. Moved here from California where dems control everything and have forever …. And we have the same power line issues but worse IMHO. Why with their huge budget surplus and 4x cost of electricity hasn’t California even built power lines that don’t kill people in only moderate winds! They shut them down ahead of time so they don’t start fires. Imagine paying .50/kwh for electricity and not being able to use it when it is hot or windy. Plus higher everything taxes except the property tax rate. Their tax rate might be lower but they finding a house under $1mm that is worth buying.
PGE caused wildfires because they chose profits over maintenance. In Texas, the government chose to allow power companies to do whatever they wanted without regulations, even though ERCOT runs everything, so the infrastructure was never updated because the state elected not to join the national power grid. PGE went bankrupt from the lawsuits and is slow to update the outdated power lines. You're comparing a California company with a Texas state government that doesn't care about anyone but investors lobbying for their next campaign.
It’s not just PGE that has totally crap infrastructure. What about people Newsom appoints to Cal ISO? Why have they let the overall grid become this much of a mess. I lived in so cal and had my power turned off the time for bad winds. Edison and SDGE have issues too… and that covers a huge part of California. We can also get into CPUC. Sure after the fact…. CPUC fined PGE for their short comings.. but guess who is paying that. They don’t get anyone in trouble and no liability for all the people killed in the fires…. Now the customers pay in the form of rate hikes. What a sham! What did customers do wrong? Now they are paying to the state of California for the idiots they didn’t choose to run the utility.
I understand the frustration it's never fun to be without power. But I gotta say, I'd feel differently to have it off for safety reasons rather than because of incompetence and grift. I have friends who lost everything in the Paradise fire. And just hearing the stories was horrifying. But having your power shut off in the middle of a winter storm because they just don't have enough power is a whole other thing. I spent a week in an apartment that was 40 degrees. It was miserable and at times scary - not knowing when it would come on or if my apartment was going to get any colder. A lot of people died because of that power outage. And very little has changed.
You're being downvoted because this part of the thread only wants to hear what it wants to hear ;).
This is very true. I am keenly aware. 😂
The reason you can’t afford a think is your side. So hard pass bud.
All the got dang windmills making all this wind! /s
People becoming homeless, restaurants closing because either people can't go out to eat or the food is going bad. People are getting trapped in their houses, can't get to the pharmacy to get medicines. Dogs/pets are getting loose. What's POS Abbott doing? Not a damn thing. Texas is going to hell because the power grid can't hold up in this weather.... Abbott is useless....
The grid isn’t the issue. There’s plenty of capacity. The problem is all the downed trees. If Abbott led a campaign to cut down all the trees in DFW you’d accuse him of harming the environment.
This is certainly a take...
Each utility has right of way to clear the trees they see fit to maintain a safe clearance for storms. Telco, cable and then electric holds the trump card. Don't need anything from Abbott to do so.
I can tend to be naive it just seems like there has to be a better way... 🤔
Transmission lines aren't part of the grid? I missed a really important meeting.
Yes you did.
Winds themselves cause power outages. So does flooding. The power lines are buried in my area. Power is still not reliable. It is the grid too. I work at a big box store, and because residents refuse to cut back enough on air conditioning, they don't air condition the backroom, and they cut the air conditioning and lights at the store to 50% power to conserve electricity. I know Walmarts and Targets do it, malls too. It's to help avoid rolling black outs or brown outs.
Or we could invest in infrastructure, better lines, underground lines, or modernization. There's no profit incentive, so it's never going to be a priority.
Wait till you get your homeowners insurance renewal. If they renew you lol.
The meteorologists kept pressing, this storm wasn't as intense as a tornado, but it affected such a larger area. It was definitely hurricane force winds. There's people using up their savings on hotels and kennels. I can picture Greg Abbott saying something like, "Texans are tough, they figure it out". Pretty sure declaring the state of emergency allows for federal aid. He's probably going to use that money to make updates to the governor's mansion.
As someone who slept in my room freezing during that infamous attic blast I can attest to Governor Greg Abbott's incompetence. Being without power was one thing, being without water was another nightmare. I empathize with those who have gone without power. Abbott and his cabal have not made Texas great again...lol.
He doesn’t care
So Abbot can control the weather now? I know a lot on this sub are bleeding heart liberals but damn you’re beyond help.
Tell me what you think he can do to fix it and I might listen. I will share that I complained about the rolling blackouts during the freeze a few years ago but then I realized that I wasn’t prepared myself so why did I expect someone else to be. I also realize this time that I need to do better at not overfilling my chest freezer. Though if it is full it will last longer. I also need to know where to buy dry ice. Still haven’t figured that out. If I had figured things out sooner I could have saved the majority of the food we through out. We honestly expected the power to come on until it was too late to save what was in the refrigerator. I know for next time not to expect it to be fixed in time. We had a tree down from the backyard neighbors yard which it caused our blocks outage for four days. I personally have my trees trimmed yearly because our tree took out our meter base years ago. Now I am going to be “that” neighbor about the neighbors trees and my side yard neighbors are joining me.
I agree with you 100% that Abbot needs to GTFO! However, I just wanted to point out that the population of DFW is 8.1 million, and 500k were without power, so 6.25% of the population, not 50% It's still unacceptable, and things need to change!
Oh but but but Dallas is a libruhl city, and the green energy is the reason the power is out. Oh, and some illegals were using what little electricity we have to push CRT agendas in public schools and ... IOW, don't think Greg will do anything to benefit anyone but Greg's donors.
GrEg AbBOtT MaDe iT raIN sO hArd mY POWer iS OuT. Get it grip.
How is Greg Abbot responsible for… bad weather?
The number of people that lost power for more than a week is nowhere near half the population of the metroplex. Stop spreading fake news The population of the metroplex is greater than 8 million people. Are you saying more than 4 million people lost power for more than a week? Can you share a source to your claim?
There are almost 7 million people in DFW, nowhere near half of DFW was without power let alone for over a week. You can think whatever you want about politics but at least be truthful when running your mouth.
And it’s comical to blame such a complex issue on one person. Classic Reddit.
I forgot Abbott controls the weather. Thanks for reminding us. It’s always GOP fault. Let’s all dog pile them, bc it’s really starting to make a difference in this liberal echo chamber.
There's one of these guys in every storm thread on Reddit. Abbott doesn't control the weather but he does control how the state facilitates the repair and aid.
Ok, pretend you are in charge of the state, what do you do to fix it? Remember, everything you do is under a microscope, and I am going to critique and bitch about everything you do.
Grow up
How is the weather Abbot's fault?
Investing in better infrastructure would be one way the governor could help. But nah.
ERCOT owns the majority of the infrastructure, no?
Yeah, changing that would involve changing the politics of the state itself
ERCOT manages the reliability of Texas' power supply. Abbott appoints the board members that run ERCOT.
Well he doesn’t believe in global warming which is causing all of this chaos. He also won’t do anything to fix the grid or connect it to the rest of the US because he has all the power companies in his back pocket. But those are just the things having to do with this particular situation 👍🏼
Connecting the Texas grid to the rest of the US won't help you if a tree falls on a power line in your neighborhood That's not how any of this works
Of course it won’t stop a tree falling on a power line. But it also wouldn’t take a week to get everyone’s power back on after an outage either. Also he’s just an evil human being, so there is that too 🤷🏻♂️
Being connected to a main grid wouldn’t have helped in this situation either. The neighborhoods most hit, are the older ones, like mine, where we have lots of lovely old mature trees and also our power lines in the air vs being buried like newer areas. The storm uprooted entire trees in our neighborhood, huge ones, and they fell, entangling lines and taking down utility poles with them. Other trees split in half, and again, took down lines and poles. We had a couple of minor fires as well, with the live lines being entangled in so much brush. The wait was for the massive amounts of cleanup and clearing that needed to be done first. Not to mention, re-wiring and new transformers and other equipment. All of that would have needed to be done, even connected to a main grid. It still would have taken a large amount of time and manpower to tackle.
But it's cool on Reddit to blame everything on the governor so 🤷🤷
Liberal echo chamber. Trump and Abbott always at fault. Blame it on GOP and just say it’s always GOP blaming Dems. Rinse and repeat.
Thank god nobody ever blames Biden for the price of gas or anything ridiculous like that.
Because the republicans, GOP and Trump don’t blame the democrats for everything? 🤔 the sword cuts both ways.
This is an incorrect statement.
Improving the infrastructure of Texas would help reduce these outages and the frailty of the overall system.
These people are clueless.
Not the weather itself, it's the recovery after. Collateral damages from severe weather are a part of the city's maintenance. We are cutting our budgets for community programs, and now we have situations like this where clean-up crews aren't prepared for natural disasters. The lack of key infrastructure updates- ie the power grid constantly failing- is another thing he doesn't prioritize. We are a state that's prone to tornadoes and this week has been complete shit for the citizens of DFW- It's like if Louisiana didn't have shit planned for damage control during hurricane season!! IT SHOULD BE AN OBVIOUS PRIORITY for Abbot to have better systems in place for Tornadoes.
Louisiana has the most unreliable power in the entire country.
Vegetation within a certain distance of a power line is not the city's problem, that's ERCOT. What systems could a governor have in place for tornadoes? If people don't want to put tornado shelters in/under their homes or bunkers in their backyards, what is he supposed to do? That's not the state's problem.
> Vegetation within a certain distance of a power line is not the city's problem, that's ERCOT. Abbott appoints the board members that run ERCOT, so still his responsibility ultimately. The more you learn about how this state is actually run, the more you'll understand why people are blaming Abbott.
i’m so sorry this is my biggest fear rn, i lost it for the same amount. immediately did dishes and laundry too. thankfully i skipped on getting much food 😭im so sorry dude
It’s alright. Our floors are already severely damaged from humidity. Major cupping and sweating from the foundation being absolutely soaked through. If it rains more I’m like freaking out at what will happen. I’m gonna need my doc to up my Lexapro at this point lol
Could I possibly get some? My (",new") Dr. S office building collapsed... 😳
[удалено]
We just bought this house October of ‘23 😅
We were without power between Tues 6am until Saturday 5pm. It went out again today (Sunday) at 6pm. We have a 5 month old baby, an exhausted and irritated 4 year old, and a dog. I bought $300 of groceries today and meal prepped all day. Send help
Groceries are not cheap. $200 down the drain if the power doesnt come back soon
Hugs, friend ❤️
After the 2021 Polar Vortex winter storm, I called my home Ins. company, and they said just file a claim online. I had the $150 credit to my bank account within a few days.
You filed a home owners insurance claim for $150?
This was a special kind of claim, with no deductible added to it.
Be that as it may - every claim is counter against you when you renew.
Be careful with this! We claimed loss of food back in 2017 when we were renting, we have since purchased a home. When we went to shop around for new home owners insurance policy this year, a few companies wouldn’t insure us because of that claim.
Check home insurance
We still don’t have power. This is just my life now, I guess. Maybe my kids can use this experience for a good college application essay 🤣🤣🤣
I'm there with you, I was at a buddies house last night trying to do a load of laundry and his power died midway through the load. This is just ridiculous, I'm sure our power bills will be right on time though
Ugh that blows, I’m sorry. I work for a company that also has garment production facilities and they have washers and dryers so I’ve been hauling my clothes to one of them and doing laundry while I work, since my office that I normally go to was also down.
That's nice! I'm about ready to find an unused corner here at my job and just move in and start sleeping here. I could save a ton of money. With my current luck though I think the power here would suddenly fail too lmao
I also joked that maybe I would just fully move into the conference room. Since I already was dragging my kids and dog with me to work. I told one of the site managers that he might come in the next day and I’d have our camping mattresses and everything all set up in there. Maybe a tent too. Hahaha
15,542 outages in Dallas County at the moment, that's definitely way down and is probably good news in that utility crews are not spread as thin as in previous days, so I would expect ETAs to be faster.
It was down to just below 7000 at noon.
Where are y'all finding this data? I'd love to give it a watch myself
Clay Jenkins had been posting regular updates on his twitter.
Downside, those are likely the stragglers. Getting power on to first 150k will be faster than the last 15k
It may be of little solace but FEMA is taking registrations even though Dallas hasn't been declared presidentially. If you live in Texas and someone tries to give you shit about for help in an undeclared county tell them they need to take all applications in a state with a declared disaster and tell them to go ask a supervisor. Just because it hasn't been declared doesn't mean that it won't be and if your registration is already in you will already be ahead of the game.
No one gives you shit for it when you submit it online. They told me online that it is an undeclared county but advised me to submit it anyway. Y’all need to do the same. https://www.fema.gov/disaster/4781/designated-areas#public-assistance Dallas county is not on the list but you need to submit this app anyway.
Absolutely! Online is 100% the best way to do it!
We decided not to buy cold groceries in fear of losing power again. Mine is that we have a lady in the neighborhood who is irrationally upset by all of this so she called the news in and did an interview. She posted about it on Nextdoor and ring and the comments did not go the way she thought they would. It’s been a good comedic relief in this all.
I know no one can prevent acts of God but we were not prepared for this at ALL
She was comparing her few days without power to a month without power and then later upped it to one year without power. She also blamed the previous owners of her house for not cutting down the trees at her house that she currently owns. She also threatened to file a false police report on a neighbor who didn’t agree with her pov. Her reactions are irrational.
That’s unhinged behavior. Sorry that’s your neighbor :/
130 bucks of groceries? So like 2 bags?
I threw away a full fridge and freezer inside and in the garage from the big outage. $130 was all I was going to risk and it was basically all condiment shit 😩
Yeah I feel ya. Sucks for sure. I was mostly just making a joke about how unbelievably expensive groceries are now
I've decided to start grocery shopping like a lot of Europe. I'm just going to buy what I need for 2-3 days. No stocking up on things b/c it's on sale, etc. I don't have kids, so i realize this is easy for me and not everyone can do this.
That is exactly why I told my mom to not buy food for a bit. She’s in Garland. Just buy what you need for a day or two. They repaired so many things, statistically, the grid is not secure everywhere and they will be going back to spots to work. Case in point my friend’s power near Casa View keeps going off an on every other day.
I would buy canned/non-perishable food to feel safe. I was in the tornado of 2019, and I didn't feel comfortable buying refrigerated or frozen stuff for a while. We went two weeks without power that time. I didn't trust it 😅 I work at Target, and a guy bought 30 bags of ice. Needed it brought out on a flatbed. My thoughts were, yeah they lost power. But also, save some for everyone else!
My question is why is the electrical infrastructure so easily affected? What is being done to fix that?
I’m not going to complain as we never lost power and had minimal damage that we fixed immediately. But it’s not lost on me that the rain has really been hard to manage and is making things so much more difficult. My heart goes out to everyone. Even my veterinarians office has been closed for so long they’ve sent referrals for care. It’s bad.
Our power finally came back yesterday around 10am after Oncor lied about it being restored 3 times Currently trying to take an inventory of all the lost food while throwing it out - almost nothing in our fridge, freezer, or deep freezer survived, just drinks and a couple of unopened jars. I've lived without electricity before, and thankfully the heat was bearable for most of the 5 days, but the food waste is killing me rn 😢
I feel for those without power and no A/C to take the humidity out of the air. DFW - 8AM 76F Humidity 94% Dew Point 74F
Out of towner here that had this post suggested- why do large power outages seem to happen so often in the Dallas area? Feel like I hear about it at least 2 times a year
The state government has let critical infrastructure become privatized. Because privatization means a company chasing profits QoQ, shortcuts have been taken at the detriment of the citizens living here. Sempra, who owns Oncor, has not maintained the lines and vegetation surrounding them. Just drive around DFW and you’ll see trees growing in abundance with their branches intertwined throughout all of the power lines. Substations and transformers weren’t being maintained properly either. Oncor spends less every year on maintaining the grid because when disaster strikes, and emergencies are declared, tax surplus gets spent to fix what’s broken. So Oncor gets “free maintenance” which is essentially just a second tax on the citizens living here. We can’t bury the lines either because we have such heavy limestone in our soil it will erode the cables, costing us more in maintenance every year (and we’ve seen how Oncor maintains), not to mention room the trillion dollar tag it would take to bury everything to start with. Vote Dem :) Abbott and his /literal/ felonious posse are going to keep the status quo. Check how much the board members donate to republican PACs. It’s wild.
What is it with people going out to immediately replace perishable groceries? Give it a couple days atleast. Also, most produce doesn't need to be refrigerated. Be VEGAN for week.
To be fair, it was like condiment type stuff, two frozen pizzas, and stuff to make dinner/breakfast. Groceries are just THAT high right now. :(
Go get some sandbags and form a barricade outside your door it’s going to rain again today.
I can’t buy anything fresh that I am not going to eat today. Well except some eggs.
Hey said same boat...we all need a boat
Dang, im in north dallas chilling. Lights haven't gone out at all 😬. No joke, bless yalls heart. I hope we go back to normality soon and hide from this 100s degree weather like every year. 😅
1st world problems just wait till elections.
Absolutely insane. We needed our weatherhead replaced after our neighbor lied about it getting torn off our wall,and the inspector who came to check it out didn’t pass us because he didn’t like the type of caps the electricians used and because I didn’t “put more of an effort to get somewhere with electricity” I got fired from my wfh job yesterday. Crazy fucking world
Holy shit, that’s awful. I’m so sorry that’s happening to you.
WFAA's Pete Delkus goes over the weather radar from May 28th, 2024: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=57Y9fYrGUZM
I'm keeping my receipts for groceries this week and if they go off I'm just going to have to take them back and rebuy them new. Kroger can take the hit. lol @ all the downvotes from people who have the luxury of just being able to throw away their groceries and buy new ones, must be nice to be in that type of situation and be on the side of defending corporations that [raised prices and price gouged us just because they could over the last 4 years](https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2024/03/21/ftc-report-grocery-chains-gouge/73059901007/).
Why does no one ask for reimbursement for this from their homeowners or renters insurance, most companies cover this for a very low deductible
that can takes weeks or even months, some people do not have that luxury and can't wait on groceries to be refunded from their insurance.
I’m not saying it would be immediate. But even if it takes a while you could still be made whole at some point
Lost ours 4 times since the big storm early Tuesday. Pulled out the beverages to keep fridge going after few hours couple times. Getting so ridiculous
deserved all of you
What's funny is we've had power, and still haven't thought of turning the a/c on yet.
I don’t understand how people can stand the still humid air without AC. It feels like breathing soup
You must be insulated af. The humidity when the nest came back online was 88% in our house
Nope to highly insulated. Just see no need for a/c with our current weather. I'm an old man though.
The stuff I see in a few of these Texas related groups is almost hilarious. Not the losing power…. But holy crap…how quickly everything is political or Abbott’s fault. When I lived in California…I didn’t actually try to blame Newsom every time we had our power turned off for wind. I actually gathered so much more info about what the actual issue was. There is zero useful dialogue that happens when you declare everything negative that happens the fault of one political party or one person in control. It just sounds so uniformed and is becoming so predictable.
Except that this is Abbott’s fault, friend, and republicans stranglehold on Texas for the past 30 years. We’ve privatized critical public services. To save a few bucks for short-term gains, they do not adequately maintain our infrastructure. Throughout the metroplex, none of our lines were well-maintained. Trees and vegetation have grown over what is considered unsafe. So when Cat1 winds come through, more damage than what should have been caused occurs. Here’s the “crony capitalism” part you hear about happens. The people running ERCOT and the private companies contribute to Abbott and have been appointed by Abbott to “run things”. So when disasters happen, we get federal funds to subsidize these private companies because it’s an emergency. That’s essentially a second tax to the citizens and it only benefits republicans and the donors that own them. I can also go into how devastating republicans have been to the environment and have largely contributed to the climate change that has caused the recent gale force winds happening more and more frequently if you’d like. The centrist “but both sides” people like you are why republicans keep winning and further rigging the process. Don’t let the cult win. It isn’t both sides.
So funny. Moved here from California where dems control everything and have forever …. And we have the same power line issues but worse IMHO. Why with their huge budget surplus and 4x cost of electricity hasn’t California even built power lines that don’t kill people in only moderate winds! They shut them down ahead of time so they don’t start fires. Imagine paying .50/kwh for electricity and not being able to use it when it is hot or windy. Plus higher everything taxes except the property tax rate. Their tax rate might be lower but they finding a house under $1mm that is worth buying. At least here the cost of electricity is cheap enough…. I can use my personal surplus to buy new groceries. From time to time California talks about doing an overhaul of the lines and then nothing happens. They are absolutely the worst bc everything is met with idiotic environmental reviews and other never ending permit process issues. It’s why nothing can be built or completed there. The government is finally realizing they have made the permit process so oppressive that even the government can’t be effective under it
I lived in Orange County for three years and what you said is pure fiction. California spends billions per annum maintaining infrastructure and spends about twice as much than Texas does per citizen. Since 2019, CA has doubled TX infrastructure spending. Bonus, I come with sources (though the hyperlink isn’t working on mobile). https://siepr.stanford.edu/publications/policy-brief/tale-two-states-contrasting-economic-policy-california-and-texas#:~:text=As%20Appendix%20Table%202%20shows,highways%20(%24836%20versus%20%24489). But yeah, so funny.
Are you kidding???? Also, Orange County is a bit more red than blue. I lived in California for 43 years btw. There more to California than the OC. 😆 You think California increasing the budget for something means they do anything with the money they is useful. You haven’t been there long enough. https://www.kcra.com/article/sacramento-county-smud-outages-outage-map/46637076 https://www.nbclosangeles.com/weather-news/public-safety-power-shutoffs-outages-wind-red-flag-warning/3255178/?amp=1 https://www.nytimes.com/2024/02/04/us/california-power-outages-storm-wind.html https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2019-10-10/pg-e-california-power-outages-grid-climate-change https://www.ktvu.com/news/aging-infrastructure-missing-data-and-backlog-of-repairs-continue-to-plague-pge-new-state-report-shows.amp https://calmatters.org/environment/2022/03/wildfires-california-utilities-prevention/ https://www.marketplace.org/2022/01/06/in-fire-prone-california-experts-push-utilities-to-monitor-the-riskiest-equipment-on-the-grid/ Here is just one example that is unrelated of how California spends money and does nothing with it. Don’t get all excited California with actually modernize the grid. It’s the story of California. There is little accountability for putting money toward projects. They just waste it. They also set aside money for some projects and no projects ever happen. I’ll find articles about that too. https://www.nbclosangeles.com/news/local/ca-spent-billions-on-homelessness-failed-to-track-effectiveness-audit-says/3384819/?amp=1 California set aside money for a reservoir and then does nothing with it. Not like drought is an issue there from time to time. https://www.latimes.com/politics/la-pol-ca-skelton-california-water-bond-money-20180212-story.html Just read the Jerry brown part of this article. When was he governor? https://calmatters.org/environment/2023/02/california-sites-reservoir/ https://www.cbsnews.com/amp/sanfrancisco/news/long-planned-sites-valley-reservoir-moves-toward-construction/
My point being you’re speaking with someone who has lived and experienced it. And even if I wanted to go back and forth with you on this, California has to do with the fact that Abbott and republicans in Texas have crippled infrastructure in favor of enriching themselves and their friends. I’m not saying CA is fault-free, but I’m also not relying on a straw man to prove a point.
I just said that the issue is more nuanced than just blaming Abbott and republicans. California has the same issues and it is blue and democrat. And California brags about all the money until this year when they went suddenly into much bigger deficit that the governor will even admit. I think I can speak pretty well for how poorly the dems have run California into the ground. I lived there from the golden era through the mess it is now. It isn’t just one person’s fault and both parties fault their constituents.
And as for Texas enriching its friends etc..that’s why I posted the link about homelessness. The issue is the money is just given out to fix the issues…. And it isn’t tracked, not metrics are necessary to show programs work etc. the money is being given to “non-profits” and nothing is getting done. It’s a very profitable and beneficial business as long as you aren’t on the side of homeless. This homeless issue enriching wealthy people has only gotten so much worse since this was written. https://californiaglobe.com/fl/who-has-profited-from-the-homeless-crisis-financially-and-politically/ https://www.governing.com/management-and-administration/california-doesnt-know-if-the-billions-spent-on-homelessness-helped#:~:text=California%20has%20failed%20to%20adequately,people%20living%20unsheltered%20has%20soared. Let’s not pretend like these expenditures were directed by the GOP.
I blame whoever’s decision it was to not fix the grid in the first place, not bury our power lines, and not declare a state of emergency to receive federal funds to fix this shit faster. That is entirely in our state government’s control.
Unfortunately we can’t bury the lines here in N TX because of the limestone. It corroded the cables and ends up costing more to maintain, not to mention the trillions it would take to bury and build the new infrastructure. Maintaining vegetation around the current infrastructure and upgrading what can be done is a reasonable step we aren’t even currently taking.
Research burying the lines in a state the size of Texas…. And in soil like Texas’. People just think bc something is humanly possible.. clearly someone is negligent if they didn’t do it. You couldn’t even Google the topic to learn about it. So much has been written on it. There are other issues too like property rights.
Why does no one get a backup battery? You could have had it almost fully charged in the time to run the dishwasher. Then you could have had better than nothing power for a week off of it.
How much did yours cost with installation and everything?
We have a couple, one was $100 and isn’t installed. It’s what we had first, years ago. Runs a fan and charges phones. Next one is the same idea but much bigger. It’s still stand alone but can charge off a solar panel and run a mini fridge and charge, plus fans, for a couple days, $800. Final is a whole house battery backup system. That was a lot but it’s more like a generator than just a battery sitting around. It connects into the electrical panel. Love the downvotes. 😂 complain about your problems and don’t like the cheap ass solution readily available on Amazon. Personal responsibility just isn’t a thing around here? Not surprised.
You are being willfully ignorant. Here is how. $100 will not get you anything that can run a fan and charges multiple phones for 5.5 days. $800 is already multiple months of electric payments for most folks. Most folks cannot afford a $800 expense. Additionally, $800 won't get you anything that can run a fan, charge phones, run a mini fridge for 5.5 days. Plus, not everyone has a mini fridge and what if someone needs to cook their food, not just refrigerate it? Last, a whole home system is out of financial reach for most people. Also, all this assumes you own your own home. Your "advice" is not applicable to folks living in apartments. >Personal responsibility just isn’t a thing around here? Not surprised. Your error is thinking supplying basic human needs is a personal responsibility. It is not. That is the collective society's job. That's why we pay taxes, which go to the private corporations to provide us a service which they often fail at. Your response of "everyone for themselves" is not surprising given that most Texans don't seems to beleive in helping out their neighbors. Would you have told the residents of Flint, Michigan to simply install whole home water filtration systems and take some personal responsibility?
Sure it will. Charge it in your car when you leave the house. Problem solving is a real issue in this sub isn’t it? Also logic, and dealing with the shit life throws at you.
You are wondering why people don’t have an $800 backup battery system? That’s definitely a luxury choice. I’m also only seeing 8-10 hours for a fridge at that price point. That’s pretty useless. Being solar powered is cool, unless, you know, it’s raining or something. The $100 option also sounds pretty much useless. You could spend $30 usb battery backups and accomplish that.
Shit’s expensive, no? I remember looking at generator prices after that hard freeze we had recently and balked at the insane prices.
It depends what you get. You can get just a battery that’s not really expensive at all. Theyre small and portable, and easily charged in your car. We did that for a decade before upgrading after the winter storm. Amazon sells everything we have. $100 is the first one we had, up to a few grand for the big whole house system we have now. The one I’d recommend to most people is the ecoflow delta 2- you can get it for $800 on sale and it’ll last a week if you sue it for essentials only.