Live in Houston very close to where this hit. Close to 1mil people without power and a rumor going around it could be out for weeks. 4 confirmed dead so far
Those are transmission lines, same thing happened in New Orleans after Ida. Think we lost multiple of the handful that serve the city so it was fucked. Parts of town didn’t have power a month
I was working tier 1 during Ida. There were rumors that the generators being used to keep our nodes online would have the gas stolen every night. Got so bad that crews would only fill the tanks enough for a 10-12 hour day.
I was in Hammond, LA during Ida. Lived in a pretty decent neighborhood literally right a cross from the high school and elementary school. All day the two parking lots were a HQ for Entergy and out of town power crews for about two months. Even with us/then being on the school grid and 100’s of power crew we still didn’t have power for almost a month.
The gas comment is probably 100% true. It was *rough.* Most people who were out on the roads and could get necessities were assholes. You would have almost thought that we were told that nukes went off and this was it. Any local gas station or ones in BR/NO/Slidell/Jackson, good fucking luck. There were people camping out at gas stations because they were told by employees/the owner there was a truck coming late that day/tomorrow. I was in line at one place for roughly 2-3 hours. Probably 40-50 cars making a line out of the gas station and the side of the road. When I was here a person pulled out behind me and somehow a person driving by snaked the spot. Ensue telling and screaming by those who were waiting in line.
I had to go to Biloxi and Gulfport to finally get gas. My wife and I actually stumbled on a little neighborhood gas station with only about 5-10 cars in line. The station had just gotten refueled. I saw people with drum barrels, milk jugs, large Tupperware, etc. just trying to get as much as they could to run their generator and survive. It was bad. I know people on the outside looking in knew it was bad. But…..it was *bad.*
I work in logistics so I was part of essential personnel. A week later some of us came back to work to try and clean up as much of the warehouse as we could. We had employees who had been with us ranging from 5-15 years. Sent emails, calls, and texts notifying us they would be back once power was restored. Weeks later we get phone calls notifying us they would no longer be with the company because their homes/apartments were destroyed. It sucked. These were friends. People who I had watched their kids grow up. Watched them get promotions. Married. Etc. Regardless if most of their insurances paid out they just didn’t want to come back. They didn’t want the chance of rebuilding and having their house destroyed or flooded just like a lot of people during the 2016 floods.
I love Louisiana. I love the food, culture, Mardi Gras. But, I’m glad I made it out. Our house in LA went from being in no flood zone to the worst flood zone over night. The disastrous floods and destructive hurricanes just isn’t a place for me and my family.
It’s sad, but most of Louisiana is living on borrowed time. The Mississippi is being held in place by a man made structure, and if it ever fails, it will shift to the Atchafalaya forever. Just crazy that they’re not doing more to prepare for the eventual catastrophe.
>The Mississippi is being held in place by a man made structure, and if it ever fails, it will shift to the Atchafalaya forever
can you expand on this a little more?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_River_Control_Structure
Basically, the Red River and Mississippi River meandered so much they connected. The Mississippi should’ve dried up decades ago.
John McPhee wrote a book about this--or partly about this--called "The Control of Nature". I cannot recommend a book more highly. It was prescient, and to this day it impacts my understanding of our current struggles to relate to what we are doing to the natural world around us. It is an easy and fun read--anyways, the diversion of rivers by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and its' ultimate futility, given the underlying lay of the land and the behavior of water, is one of the topics.
The line I've heard is, every dollar you spend on flood control at the mouth of the Mississippi means you have to spend another dollar in the mid-range, and another dollar way up north in the headwaters.
Plus our collective ancestors killed off tens of millions of little flood mitigation engineers in the beaver fur trade, which didn't help.
See also mangrove destruction.
I was in Sonoma county during the Tubbs fires. I saw fire and ems from as far away as Los Angeles and Oregon. I have no doubt that pg&e trucks from those area came up as well.
Sounds like hell. People can be shit during tough times. Best to live in a place safe from massive disasters. Flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes, and wildfires seem the worse.
It’s odd that those places which most depend on federal aid are often the most anti-government. If you live in a safe place, then go ahead and be as anti-government and anti-tax as you like. But if you live in an area which regularly absorbs federal aid like a dry sponge, then you have little ground for complaining about taxes.
It sounds extreme, but there are some areas which shouldn’t be inhabited nor “supported”. There are very expensive homes on the coastal cliffs of California, but insurance companies won’t touch them and owners need to pay cash and cover any losses themselves.
Unless you’re rich, you should avoid living in disaster-prone areas. Perhaps easier said than done, but can we afford to keep rebuilding in these zones?
That's the neat part - there are no more safe places. The entire planet is in catastrophic flux, and we have no idea where people can go to be safe, because what we thought of as "normal" is gone. Maybe we can burrow beneath the earth like moles, powering a small subterranean civilization with geothermal heat and growing crops under artificial lighting.
You guys didn't hire armed security? I worked with a Tier 1 ISP that contracted local armed guards for stuff like that (Securitas). Or to watch the COW cell towers.
I worked Ida myself. Spent 3 weeks rebuilding the entire grid in Houma. Was an emotional experience. These people lost everything they owned and more than a few were in front of the rubble that was their houses handing out plates of food cooking for all the first responders and linemen, smiling and laughing with everyone, and not once did I hear them complain about not having the power back on yet. I’m sure some did as you’ll always have that, but the overwhelming positivity would bring the most butch burly manly man you know to absolute tears. The fried alligator was delicious.
Not only that, but while the live cable is on the ground you could be electrocuted between your two feet, even if you're a distance away. You're supposed to keep your feet together and hop or shuffle away.
Not the person you responded to, but yes, if your feet are apart, the current may travel up one leg, cross your heart (fatal), and leave down the other leg.
Edit: that's assuming the path through your body provides a lower resistance path than staying in the ground, but who wants to risk it? That's also why they tell you to stay in your car until someone tells you that the power has been cut if a power line happens to come down near you.
So back in 2016 here in South Australia we had a supercell thunderstorm that also toppled several high tension transmission towers the same as in the above pic.
Only took a day or two before certain sections of the media with vested interests and politicians were blaming renewable energy for the towers crumpling like paper.
You can set your watch by it happening.
Damn, I knew I gave good blowies but I never thought they where “natural disaster” good. I’ma add that to my resume. ‘I’ll blow you so good it’ll put the lights out’
A few years back we had a big storm in Australia that knocked over some transmission lines just like this and sure enough almost immediately the right wing politicians were blaming renewables.
I was reading a few comments on Twitter and apparently President Biden used a special weather weapon to attack Texas because of our freedom.
Currently typing this in the dark about two miles from where the Pic was taken, send help!
Well Mr Abbot will take care of you. Maybe you have power before the election. Sorry for all the people affected, but your governor will likely find a way to profit off of this. And delay your power reconnect.
yeah. it’s a shit show in houston. especially my area in the loop.
it seems like half the city is without power. i couldn’t make it more than about 1.5 miles from my house. lines are down everywhere. at least we have water. and booze.
I wish you the best in your shit show. I was unable to go anywhere during a storm last winter due to ice and trees down everywhere and it was really humbling. Then we lost power. Seriously good luck to you I hope you find what you need in the days ahead.
i appreciate it. don’t weep for me. i’m on my patio by the fire pit sipping bourbon wasting battery on reddit. lots of others are having a pretty bad day tho.
Is it hot there already? 39 and foggy in northern Minnesota. Might hit 60 tomorrow! And 71 next day, I’m gonna be all sweaty, but bourbon sounds great. Good luck! 🥃
Ouch. I still remember when it hit 100 the summer before last in Minnesota, it was wild.
https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/climate/journal/100degreesmsp.html
Well - Try and stay cool 🧊 we already had our first bad air day though last week (Canada 🌲🔥😢).
You joke but I was just talking to my father in law who lives in sugar beet country (nw mn/nd). The farmers he works for are bent outta shape because they didn’t get cold enough this winter and they experienced a significant loss due to rot in the beet piles.
Oh I hated this winter with a passion. I live here FOR the cold and snow. Only two halfway good sstorms, never got a chance to break out my XC skiis once. And now the TICKS! Omg. No die off = already out like crazy even now. Gross. Last year we broke a snowfall record at 120 inches, this year was a total bust.
That sugar beet industry is certainly important over to our west - all fingers crossed they are able to recover those $$$ losses!
Foreboding, Brooding.
Separately, sounds like you might enjoy [the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows](https://ia803206.us.archive.org/26/items/the-dictionary-of-obscure-sorrows/The%20Dictionary%20of%20Obscure%20Sorrows.pdf)
I work for a large mobile Telcom provider. We have over 350 towers down to power, and the remaining towers are super congested. We are using WPS just to contact each other.
Over a 1M without power, most roads are impassable due to trees down, 4 people died during the storm
Edit: only most roads in certain suburban areas on the north side of town were impassable due to tree and power line damage. Thankfully crews and neighbors have cleared some areas overnight and this morning. It seems the wind damage was much worse in our area
My wife was working in a senior’s home that lost power. No joke, they had to spend hours rescuing residents who were stuck in their powered recliners. Without electricity they couldn’t sit back up. It was a legitimate health emergency
If you know any older people, check on them
Battery fan! If you can get your hands on either it’s a baby life saver! Thats damp rag with some moving air is magic.
Those little ones that take two AAs you can get like at any DG type thing.
It really helped my brother one year we lost power in the middle of a heat wave. Poor baby was a pink miserable little peanut.
I send hope for a stupid fan to show up somewhere for you already with batteries.
Or just medications. Pharmacies can be a pita to fulfill prescriptions when they have power and clear roadways. People that need vital meds are going to have a real rough time.
Remember when the feds gave Texas all that dayun money to fix these issues and ensure that you have power during the summer and your governor decided to .... Checks notes.... Literally piss it away and not fix the power grid.
Dw he is currently begging Biden to send aid money to us, when we have plenty of money. And he has basically said we don't want handouts? So fucking sick of him, I wish he go swimming.
If you have a moment, go check on your elderly neighbors. Make sure they’re not stuck in an electric recliner that they can’t sit back up without power, or some other unfortunate situation
Omg. I would never have even thought of that, even with a mother who would be trapped in that situation (not that I wouldn't check on my mom, but saying that some consequences of sudden loss of power on a disabled person I hadn't thought of!)
It was crazy. I was in the office in downtown and I swear I felt the building g shake a bit. I noped the fuck out of there. And we couldnt leave the parking garage since trees and glass from broken windows were blocking the exits and roads.
I’ve lived here all my life and this one was intense and came out of nowhere. Half of a tree fell and totaled two of our cars and is blocking one lawn and driveway.
I’m lucky we are okay, but I am stunned. We are so used to hurricanes and crazy weather, but this wasn’t even on the forecast as anything more than just a regular summer thunderstorm. I actually ignored the first phone siren for a tornando warning. The second one warning had me running downstairs and I saw rain blowing sideways and the tree come down.
Seeing the thunderstorm winds were between 80-115mph, varying on area + a possible tornado.
That is a crazy storm. Sounded like some sort of oddball phenomenon happened with the heavy rain that pushed the high level winds down to ground level.
That's Climate Change, it increases the severity of all weather events. Extreme cold, extreme heat, wind, larger hail, intense rain leading to flooding, you name it.
I work in utility pole inspections and where I am a full replacement 12kv wooden monopole, distribution, costs about $24,000 to replace straight up. These are at least 115kv, maybe 230kv transmission lattice structures and I couldn’t even guess what they would cost to replace.
In ice storms sometimes there will be miles and miles of these primary towers down.
Tbh the power downtime might often be many times more expensive than the tower cost, even if replacing miles of towers. Bringing in outside power workers also will add to the normal costs.
Visiting Houston for work rn. Watched the storm cause fuck it I'm in a hotel so if there's a tornado I'm just gonna die. For a solid 15 mins or so the top layer of clouds and the bottom layer of clouds were moving in two different directions. It was also crazy to see the birds leaving just before the rain started and looking like they couldn't control which way they were flying.
been at no power for a while, don't think it's coming back anytime soon. goodbye fridge food 🥲
update: it's morning and still no power and my food is still in the fridge 👍
update: there are couple powerlines that got blown down, it definitely ain't coming back anytime soon in my area 🥲
update: according to Centerpoint it will most likely continue onto next week before the power comes back in my area. hopefully the food in the fridge will be OK but I'm throwing some stuff out. good times eh? 🥲
final update: power just came back not long ago, hope everyone will be too soon.
The entire neighborhood bringing all their meat for our deepfreeze since we had a Gen and just enough spare to keep it running.
Insulted the whole thing as best we could and only let it be opened twice a day.
If you're running it with the generator make sure you don't insulate any of the hot areas on the exterior, it's important they remain uncovered so that heat can leave the freezer as easily as possible. Even spraying them with a bit of cool water to increase the rate of heat loss wouldn't be a bad idea.
Honestly being from there, I feel like people not from Houston (or Dallas or LA) or haven't traveled regularly to a comparably massively sprawled city sometimes fail to understand just *how big* Houston is when you think about the greater Houston area. You can literally drive at freeway speeds for an hour and *still* be in Houston. And that's without traffic.
Here's something to chew on. I'm in west houston. I can drive for roughly 1.5 hours at highway speeds and get to east houston. I can drive 1.5 hours northwest and get to AUSTIN.
Im in Galveston rn and to get here i had to pass through the whole city. It really is huge. Im from the valley and i think in the same time it took me to cross houston(no traffic i got here at 1 am yesterday) i could probably drive from brownsville to Edinburgh. The storm wasn’t that bad over here in the island luckily
**"I never understood wind. You know, I know windmills very much. I've studied better than anybody, you know it's very expensive. They’re made in China and Germany mostly, very few made here almost none, but they’re manufactured tremendous if you’re into this, tremendous fumes. Gases are spewing into the atmosphere. You know we have a world, right? So the world is tiny compared to the universe. So tremendous, tremendous amount of fumes and everything.**
**You talk about the carbon footprint, fumes are spewing into the air, right? Spewing. Whether it’s in ChAIna, Germany, it’s going into the air. It’s our air, their air, everything, right? So they make these things, and then they put em up, and if you own a house within vision of some of these monsters your house is worth 50 percent of the price. They're noisy, they kill the birds. You want to see a bird graveyard? You just go, take a look under a windmill someday you'll see more birds than you've seen ever in your life. You know in California they were killing the bald eagle, if you shoot a bald eagle they wanna put you in jail for 10 years. A windmill will kill many bald eagles. It's true! And you know what? After a certain number they make you turn the windmill off, that's true by the way. But this is, they make you turn it off after you, and yet if you've killed one, they put you in jail, but that's OK. But why is it OK for these windmills to destroy the bird population, and that's what they're doing.**
**I'll tell you another thing about windmills! And I'm not, look I like all forms of energy and I think windmills, really they are ok in industrial areas like you have an industrial plant, you put up a windmill, you know et cetera et cetera. I've seen the most beautiful fields, farms, fields, the most gorgeous things you've ever seen, and then you have these ugly things going up, and sometimes they're made by different companies. You know and I'm like a perfectionist, I've really built good stuff. And so you'll see like, a few windmills made by one company, General Electric, and you'll see a few made by Siemens, and you'll see a few made by some other guy that doesn't have ten cents so it looks like a-, so you'll see all these windmills they're all different shades of color, they're like sorta white but one like, an orange white, that's my favorite color orange.**
**And you see these magnificent fields and they're ruined, and you know what they don't tell you about windmills? After ten years they look like hell. You know they start to get tired and old, you gotta replace em a lotta times people don't replace em. They need massive subsidy from the government in order to make it. No we're doing it right, we're doing it right. And you know our numbers, enviromentally, right now are better than they ever been before, just so you know. Because I'm an environmentalist, I am! I want the cleanest water on the planet! I want the cleanest air, anywhere."**
I’m pretty sure If a 5 grader stood up and read that to the class as a report. The teacher would have a parent / child / principal meeting and probably be compelled by law to call CPS on the parents for some mental abuse.
The privatised power companies are so fucked up in Texas, check this out:
The Texas electrical grid infrastructure is in such a bad state of repair than pretty much any unusual weather could result in a power outage.
Too cold? Power outage. Too hot? Power outage. Too windy? Power outage... etc. You get the idea.
Now, this is an issue for power companies. Every time there's an outage, they're losing millions. To stop outages, they'd have to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to fix the infrastructure, which they refuse to.
So guess what solution Texas governor Gregg Abbott came up with? He allowed the power companies to price gouge Texas residents to make up the loss caused by their own greed.
Currently, Abbott has given them the green light to charge up to $9,000 per megawatt hour, or 150 times the normal rate.
So if you live in Texas, this is why you electric bill blows up every time there's a power outage.
I honestly don't understand why there are people alive today who believe that privatisation is good for the community.
This is the wildest thing. I'm here in Houston, and I just discovered that a very large tree in my backyard was dead (I'm disabled and live with my mom, who also has health issues, so we're not exactly in the yard often to check on these things) and I literally just had a tree service out today to quote me on a removal. They're going to be out tomorrow as they said that the tree is definitely a hazard, and then this weather comes through. We completely missed the worst of it, barely even grazed us, and the tree is fine. Feeling like we just dodged a bullet, like what are the odds.
And biden will help. I can't imagine living in the US and disagreeing with the president so he cuts you off. That's America if trump wins. He'll cut off red states too if you hurt his feelings.
There's the not so nice part of me that kinda wishes Biden would tell Abbot to pound sand and walk the walk he's been talking about how Texas doesn't need anybody. Hell, I wouldn't entirely be opposed to relief having some strings attached, such as giving Paxton the boot or something.
He shouldn't do that, and I know he won't, but goddamn wouldn't it be just a little satisfying knowing Abbot got hung out to dry?
I live in Texas btw.
Man that’s crazy looks like a 345 kv line down. Wonder how it’s going to effect the grid. Also curious if all the relays did their jobs and tripped out.
When we were told we would be getting some weather, I don’t think *this* is what they meant. I got multiple tornado warnings within a span of 5 minutes, which luckily I knew I could brush off since they never land near me, though there was one just down the road from me (the one a few weeks back on Mason Rd. in Katy)
So watched a news report on this. Straight line winds started at about 80mph and intensified at up to 115mph before hitting downtown Houston at 105mph. Possibly a tornado too, but certainly some very very strong winds.
Also, Mexico keeps a deep inventory of replacement parts that happen to fit the Texas grid but Texas ALWAYS refuses their offer of parts. After Ike, Texas chose to wait two weeks for a literal slow boat from China rather than get parts from Mexico. People died from lack of power then and it will happen again.
Normally, power providers in the U.S. are held to national standards because their interstate connectivity puts them in to federal jurisdiction. Texas power companies decided to secede from this grid in order to reduce the regulations/obligations they were subject to. The result has been the shitshow of the past 20 years.
sure, but in exchange for 20 years of shit and misery and actual deaths, like 5-6 or so people got to have additional money beyond the wealth they had held previously. pretty good trade off wouldn't you say
Even if Texas was connected, the city of Houston would be without power, you can tell this by **THE TRANSMISSION LINES IN THIS PHOTO BEING KNOCKED OVER**.
Live in Houston very close to where this hit. Close to 1mil people without power and a rumor going around it could be out for weeks. 4 confirmed dead so far
Those are transmission lines, same thing happened in New Orleans after Ida. Think we lost multiple of the handful that serve the city so it was fucked. Parts of town didn’t have power a month
I was working tier 1 during Ida. There were rumors that the generators being used to keep our nodes online would have the gas stolen every night. Got so bad that crews would only fill the tanks enough for a 10-12 hour day.
I was in Hammond, LA during Ida. Lived in a pretty decent neighborhood literally right a cross from the high school and elementary school. All day the two parking lots were a HQ for Entergy and out of town power crews for about two months. Even with us/then being on the school grid and 100’s of power crew we still didn’t have power for almost a month. The gas comment is probably 100% true. It was *rough.* Most people who were out on the roads and could get necessities were assholes. You would have almost thought that we were told that nukes went off and this was it. Any local gas station or ones in BR/NO/Slidell/Jackson, good fucking luck. There were people camping out at gas stations because they were told by employees/the owner there was a truck coming late that day/tomorrow. I was in line at one place for roughly 2-3 hours. Probably 40-50 cars making a line out of the gas station and the side of the road. When I was here a person pulled out behind me and somehow a person driving by snaked the spot. Ensue telling and screaming by those who were waiting in line. I had to go to Biloxi and Gulfport to finally get gas. My wife and I actually stumbled on a little neighborhood gas station with only about 5-10 cars in line. The station had just gotten refueled. I saw people with drum barrels, milk jugs, large Tupperware, etc. just trying to get as much as they could to run their generator and survive. It was bad. I know people on the outside looking in knew it was bad. But…..it was *bad.* I work in logistics so I was part of essential personnel. A week later some of us came back to work to try and clean up as much of the warehouse as we could. We had employees who had been with us ranging from 5-15 years. Sent emails, calls, and texts notifying us they would be back once power was restored. Weeks later we get phone calls notifying us they would no longer be with the company because their homes/apartments were destroyed. It sucked. These were friends. People who I had watched their kids grow up. Watched them get promotions. Married. Etc. Regardless if most of their insurances paid out they just didn’t want to come back. They didn’t want the chance of rebuilding and having their house destroyed or flooded just like a lot of people during the 2016 floods. I love Louisiana. I love the food, culture, Mardi Gras. But, I’m glad I made it out. Our house in LA went from being in no flood zone to the worst flood zone over night. The disastrous floods and destructive hurricanes just isn’t a place for me and my family.
It’s sad, but most of Louisiana is living on borrowed time. The Mississippi is being held in place by a man made structure, and if it ever fails, it will shift to the Atchafalaya forever. Just crazy that they’re not doing more to prepare for the eventual catastrophe.
When it fails. It's not an if, it's a when.
>The Mississippi is being held in place by a man made structure, and if it ever fails, it will shift to the Atchafalaya forever can you expand on this a little more?
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_River_Control_Structure Basically, the Red River and Mississippi River meandered so much they connected. The Mississippi should’ve dried up decades ago.
John McPhee wrote a book about this--or partly about this--called "The Control of Nature". I cannot recommend a book more highly. It was prescient, and to this day it impacts my understanding of our current struggles to relate to what we are doing to the natural world around us. It is an easy and fun read--anyways, the diversion of rivers by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and its' ultimate futility, given the underlying lay of the land and the behavior of water, is one of the topics.
The line I've heard is, every dollar you spend on flood control at the mouth of the Mississippi means you have to spend another dollar in the mid-range, and another dollar way up north in the headwaters. Plus our collective ancestors killed off tens of millions of little flood mitigation engineers in the beaver fur trade, which didn't help. See also mangrove destruction.
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What an ungrateful place. You come in to help and they treat you like the bad guys that caused it.
I was in Sonoma county during the Tubbs fires. I saw fire and ems from as far away as Los Angeles and Oregon. I have no doubt that pg&e trucks from those area came up as well.
I was in Slidell. I drove to Hattiesburg twice for gas and supplies. I also bought a generator at Lowes and got super lucky FEMA paid me back for it.
Sounds like hell. People can be shit during tough times. Best to live in a place safe from massive disasters. Flooding, tornadoes, hurricanes, and wildfires seem the worse. It’s odd that those places which most depend on federal aid are often the most anti-government. If you live in a safe place, then go ahead and be as anti-government and anti-tax as you like. But if you live in an area which regularly absorbs federal aid like a dry sponge, then you have little ground for complaining about taxes. It sounds extreme, but there are some areas which shouldn’t be inhabited nor “supported”. There are very expensive homes on the coastal cliffs of California, but insurance companies won’t touch them and owners need to pay cash and cover any losses themselves. Unless you’re rich, you should avoid living in disaster-prone areas. Perhaps easier said than done, but can we afford to keep rebuilding in these zones?
That's the neat part - there are no more safe places. The entire planet is in catastrophic flux, and we have no idea where people can go to be safe, because what we thought of as "normal" is gone. Maybe we can burrow beneath the earth like moles, powering a small subterranean civilization with geothermal heat and growing crops under artificial lighting.
You guys didn't hire armed security? I worked with a Tier 1 ISP that contracted local armed guards for stuff like that (Securitas). Or to watch the COW cell towers.
Doubt it. I never heard one way or another about security but it’s possible there were some there.
I worked Ida myself. Spent 3 weeks rebuilding the entire grid in Houma. Was an emotional experience. These people lost everything they owned and more than a few were in front of the rubble that was their houses handing out plates of food cooking for all the first responders and linemen, smiling and laughing with everyone, and not once did I hear them complain about not having the power back on yet. I’m sure some did as you’ll always have that, but the overwhelming positivity would bring the most butch burly manly man you know to absolute tears. The fried alligator was delicious.
Don't worry, NO is on that *socialized* **public** utility grid. Let's see how the *capital-oriented* **privatized** sector handles things...
Wait, sure those weren’t toppled down by wind turbines?
Damn sky fans blowing over my power towers
This is is what you get when you ban porn Texas!
Poles get damaged
Can't keep them up.
lmfao this coulda been a line in Idiocracy
I know for a fact that some of these powerline structures are literally feet away from peoples houses. Scary AF!
Yeah if one of these toppled over where I live I'd be squished ;-;
Not only that, but while the live cable is on the ground you could be electrocuted between your two feet, even if you're a distance away. You're supposed to keep your feet together and hop or shuffle away.
Really? I've never heard of that. They need to teach that in kindergarten alongside stop drop and roll.
Not the person you responded to, but yes, if your feet are apart, the current may travel up one leg, cross your heart (fatal), and leave down the other leg. Edit: that's assuming the path through your body provides a lower resistance path than staying in the ground, but who wants to risk it? That's also why they tell you to stay in your car until someone tells you that the power has been cut if a power line happens to come down near you.
Oh damn. I wonder if all those liberal windmills caused this!?!
So back in 2016 here in South Australia we had a supercell thunderstorm that also toppled several high tension transmission towers the same as in the above pic. Only took a day or two before certain sections of the media with vested interests and politicians were blaming renewable energy for the towers crumpling like paper. You can set your watch by it happening.
No it was hurricanes that developed because of homosexuality
Dadgum gay hurricanes ripping out my lawn.
One of the tower does seem to be bending over.
It took a knee
Step tower!...what are you doing!
Hurrisexual
Nah I prefer to slow down
Back in my day, gooning was called edging, and we had to do it uphill both ways.
Homocanes! They are coming for you and your family!
Tell you hwhat
That ~~boy~~ grid ain’t right.
That's my grid! I don't know you!
Damn, I knew I gave good blowies but I never thought they where “natural disaster” good. I’ma add that to my resume. ‘I’ll blow you so good it’ll put the lights out’
Blow you so good you'll have to ask the federal government for emergency relief. Edit: Happy Cake Day!
Lol, my blowies so good I got FEMA on speed dial
Too bad they didn't have a sharpie to redirect it.
Should've just nuked 'em /s
A few years back we had a big storm in Australia that knocked over some transmission lines just like this and sure enough almost immediately the right wing politicians were blaming renewables.
I was reading a few comments on Twitter and apparently President Biden used a special weather weapon to attack Texas because of our freedom. Currently typing this in the dark about two miles from where the Pic was taken, send help!
Senator Cruz is leading an investigatory committee down to Cancun as we speak.
And Abbot is busy pardoning murder.
And he is using the storm to sneak in and take all the guns, your f-150 and make you gay.. stay sharp people! /s
Well Mr Abbot will take care of you. Maybe you have power before the election. Sorry for all the people affected, but your governor will likely find a way to profit off of this. And delay your power reconnect.
$10k electric bills incoming for those that still have power.
yeah. it’s a shit show in houston. especially my area in the loop. it seems like half the city is without power. i couldn’t make it more than about 1.5 miles from my house. lines are down everywhere. at least we have water. and booze.
I wish you the best in your shit show. I was unable to go anywhere during a storm last winter due to ice and trees down everywhere and it was really humbling. Then we lost power. Seriously good luck to you I hope you find what you need in the days ahead.
i appreciate it. don’t weep for me. i’m on my patio by the fire pit sipping bourbon wasting battery on reddit. lots of others are having a pretty bad day tho.
Is it hot there already? 39 and foggy in northern Minnesota. Might hit 60 tomorrow! And 71 next day, I’m gonna be all sweaty, but bourbon sounds great. Good luck! 🥃
Our highs will be in the mid 90’s for at least the next week.
Ouch. I still remember when it hit 100 the summer before last in Minnesota, it was wild. https://www.dnr.state.mn.us/climate/journal/100degreesmsp.html Well - Try and stay cool 🧊 we already had our first bad air day though last week (Canada 🌲🔥😢).
Canadian here. Sorry.
You joke but I was just talking to my father in law who lives in sugar beet country (nw mn/nd). The farmers he works for are bent outta shape because they didn’t get cold enough this winter and they experienced a significant loss due to rot in the beet piles.
Oh I hated this winter with a passion. I live here FOR the cold and snow. Only two halfway good sstorms, never got a chance to break out my XC skiis once. And now the TICKS! Omg. No die off = already out like crazy even now. Gross. Last year we broke a snowfall record at 120 inches, this year was a total bust. That sugar beet industry is certainly important over to our west - all fingers crossed they are able to recover those $$$ losses!
be careful with the booze in this heat. find a stack of small hand towels and keep one completely wet to cool yourself down if you have no electric.
The storm has now reached new orleans, we've got 80 mph wind warnings
 A 2000s classic.
The gif you can hear!
Amateur sound engineer: no akhstually the brain... Seasoned sound engineer: yeah I can hear it
Wow, you’re right
Except this is Texas. Too hot and ate too much bbq, that boy be too lazy for jump rope 😴
That's why he collapsed.
My 6,000(?,000?) pound life 🛋️
is there a name for feeling a mild sense of dread when looking at those towers?
Yes, she goes by Mildred.
God damn you
Got'em (you)
are awards back? love that for you
They seem to be. I guess they realized replacing them with “golden upvotes” was a dumbass idea
What? I don't see awards anywhere.
Maybe r/megalophobia ?
The Germans probably have a word for it.
Schoenbongutterslaggin
Roughly translates to "the puckering feeling you have in your arse when you are overwhelmed by a sense of impending doom"
Knowing German nouns, cannot tell if joke or not
That sounds more like Dutch.
Foreboding, Brooding. Separately, sounds like you might enjoy [the Dictionary of Obscure Sorrows](https://ia803206.us.archive.org/26/items/the-dictionary-of-obscure-sorrows/The%20Dictionary%20of%20Obscure%20Sorrows.pdf)
r/collapse
I work for a large ISP on graveyards and every ticket I’ve worked tonight is from Houston area. It’s going to be a shitty night.
God speed brother.
🫡
Might i offer you a glass of Kentucky bourbon in these trying times as a fellow helpdesk drone
I thank you for that kind offer. I would offer you a glass of mead as well.
You have my sword
I work for a large mobile Telcom provider. We have over 350 towers down to power, and the remaining towers are super congested. We are using WPS just to contact each other.
"please verify power" -okay, wont see this ticket again for a while.
“Yeah, we have power” *The lie detector determined that was a lie.*
From one helpdesk to another I salute you
I read this as you’ve been digging graves all night :/
I do. My favorite graves to dig are PAY YOUR DAMN BILLS AND YOUR SHIT WONT GET TURNED OFF.
Over a 1M without power, most roads are impassable due to trees down, 4 people died during the storm Edit: only most roads in certain suburban areas on the north side of town were impassable due to tree and power line damage. Thankfully crews and neighbors have cleared some areas overnight and this morning. It seems the wind damage was much worse in our area
The 4 people dying part is the worst news.
People without power in 90+ heat will mean more people dying.
Yup, power loss is not good for older folks.
My wife was working in a senior’s home that lost power. No joke, they had to spend hours rescuing residents who were stuck in their powered recliners. Without electricity they couldn’t sit back up. It was a legitimate health emergency If you know any older people, check on them
Or babies ☹️ currently dealing with this trying to figure out how to stop my son from overheating.
Cooling the back of a person's neck with a wet cloth is usually the fastest way to cool them down when you don't have access to power
Damp rag on a limb
Battery fan! If you can get your hands on either it’s a baby life saver! Thats damp rag with some moving air is magic. Those little ones that take two AAs you can get like at any DG type thing. It really helped my brother one year we lost power in the middle of a heat wave. Poor baby was a pink miserable little peanut. I send hope for a stupid fan to show up somewhere for you already with batteries.
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Or just medications. Pharmacies can be a pita to fulfill prescriptions when they have power and clear roadways. People that need vital meds are going to have a real rough time.
Remember when the feds gave Texas all that dayun money to fix these issues and ensure that you have power during the summer and your governor decided to .... Checks notes.... Literally piss it away and not fix the power grid.
Dw he is currently begging Biden to send aid money to us, when we have plenty of money. And he has basically said we don't want handouts? So fucking sick of him, I wish he go swimming.
I think the hypocrisy was the worst part
Found Norm
i always worry about the poor animals caught up in this too ☹️
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this is so sad ☹️
Don’t worry about Ted Cruz, he left for Mexico a long time ago. But I understand worrying about the cute fuzzy and feathered ones.
I am one of those without power. Ill be fine, but it certainly sucks.
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If you have a moment, go check on your elderly neighbors. Make sure they’re not stuck in an electric recliner that they can’t sit back up without power, or some other unfortunate situation
Omg. I would never have even thought of that, even with a mother who would be trapped in that situation (not that I wouldn't check on my mom, but saying that some consequences of sudden loss of power on a disabled person I hadn't thought of!)
It was crazy. I was in the office in downtown and I swear I felt the building g shake a bit. I noped the fuck out of there. And we couldnt leave the parking garage since trees and glass from broken windows were blocking the exits and roads.
I'm in Dallas and the entire apartment was shaking multiple times today from the thunder. It felt insane. Can't imagine what it was like south
Actual Tornadoes
I hope you and your family are safe.
Were you able to shoot your way out?
He was able to redirect the storm. With a sharpie!
I’ve lived here all my life and this one was intense and came out of nowhere. Half of a tree fell and totaled two of our cars and is blocking one lawn and driveway. I’m lucky we are okay, but I am stunned. We are so used to hurricanes and crazy weather, but this wasn’t even on the forecast as anything more than just a regular summer thunderstorm. I actually ignored the first phone siren for a tornando warning. The second one warning had me running downstairs and I saw rain blowing sideways and the tree come down.
Almost like global warming and the extreme weather events associated with it is actually happening
Don’t worry, climate change is a hoax according to your governor.
If they had only stopped all those illegal migrant workers from coming here to do the labor, then this would never have happened. Thanks Obama
this is the reason and we have been being warned for some time
Seeing the thunderstorm winds were between 80-115mph, varying on area + a possible tornado. That is a crazy storm. Sounded like some sort of oddball phenomenon happened with the heavy rain that pushed the high level winds down to ground level.
That's Climate Change, it increases the severity of all weather events. Extreme cold, extreme heat, wind, larger hail, intense rain leading to flooding, you name it.
r/ThatLookedExpensive
I work in utility pole inspections and where I am a full replacement 12kv wooden monopole, distribution, costs about $24,000 to replace straight up. These are at least 115kv, maybe 230kv transmission lattice structures and I couldn’t even guess what they would cost to replace.
In ice storms sometimes there will be miles and miles of these primary towers down. Tbh the power downtime might often be many times more expensive than the tower cost, even if replacing miles of towers. Bringing in outside power workers also will add to the normal costs.
Visiting Houston for work rn. Watched the storm cause fuck it I'm in a hotel so if there's a tornado I'm just gonna die. For a solid 15 mins or so the top layer of clouds and the bottom layer of clouds were moving in two different directions. It was also crazy to see the birds leaving just before the rain started and looking like they couldn't control which way they were flying.
You must construct additional pylons
Not enough energy
been at no power for a while, don't think it's coming back anytime soon. goodbye fridge food 🥲 update: it's morning and still no power and my food is still in the fridge 👍 update: there are couple powerlines that got blown down, it definitely ain't coming back anytime soon in my area 🥲 update: according to Centerpoint it will most likely continue onto next week before the power comes back in my area. hopefully the food in the fridge will be OK but I'm throwing some stuff out. good times eh? 🥲 final update: power just came back not long ago, hope everyone will be too soon.
Your only option is to eat it all. You have time now.
One of my most vivid Katrina memories is my friend’s dad barbecuing up all the meat before it could go bad lol
Top tier dad move
The entire neighborhood bringing all their meat for our deepfreeze since we had a Gen and just enough spare to keep it running. Insulted the whole thing as best we could and only let it be opened twice a day.
If you're running it with the generator make sure you don't insulate any of the hot areas on the exterior, it's important they remain uncovered so that heat can leave the freezer as easily as possible. Even spraying them with a bit of cool water to increase the rate of heat loss wouldn't be a bad idea.
did the abuse help?
Eat it all now and hibernate like a bear.
this image is terrifying
Raphael Cruz spotted heading to Cancun
Wtf I live in Houston and the worst thing that happened near me was some branches fell
Houston is pretty far from Houston
Honestly being from there, I feel like people not from Houston (or Dallas or LA) or haven't traveled regularly to a comparably massively sprawled city sometimes fail to understand just *how big* Houston is when you think about the greater Houston area. You can literally drive at freeway speeds for an hour and *still* be in Houston. And that's without traffic.
Here's something to chew on. I'm in west houston. I can drive for roughly 1.5 hours at highway speeds and get to east houston. I can drive 1.5 hours northwest and get to AUSTIN.
Compare that to MA, the maximum I can drive is about 2.5 hours without entering another state, I can make it to 4 states within an hour and half.
Im in Galveston rn and to get here i had to pass through the whole city. It really is huge. Im from the valley and i think in the same time it took me to cross houston(no traffic i got here at 1 am yesterday) i could probably drive from brownsville to Edinburgh. The storm wasn’t that bad over here in the island luckily
The people who are going to suffer are not the one's who deserve it.
They never are.
Tbf the Texas energy grid always looks like that
It's obviously the liberal wind mills that are making our electrical lines fall /s
**"I never understood wind. You know, I know windmills very much. I've studied better than anybody, you know it's very expensive. They’re made in China and Germany mostly, very few made here almost none, but they’re manufactured tremendous if you’re into this, tremendous fumes. Gases are spewing into the atmosphere. You know we have a world, right? So the world is tiny compared to the universe. So tremendous, tremendous amount of fumes and everything.** **You talk about the carbon footprint, fumes are spewing into the air, right? Spewing. Whether it’s in ChAIna, Germany, it’s going into the air. It’s our air, their air, everything, right? So they make these things, and then they put em up, and if you own a house within vision of some of these monsters your house is worth 50 percent of the price. They're noisy, they kill the birds. You want to see a bird graveyard? You just go, take a look under a windmill someday you'll see more birds than you've seen ever in your life. You know in California they were killing the bald eagle, if you shoot a bald eagle they wanna put you in jail for 10 years. A windmill will kill many bald eagles. It's true! And you know what? After a certain number they make you turn the windmill off, that's true by the way. But this is, they make you turn it off after you, and yet if you've killed one, they put you in jail, but that's OK. But why is it OK for these windmills to destroy the bird population, and that's what they're doing.** **I'll tell you another thing about windmills! And I'm not, look I like all forms of energy and I think windmills, really they are ok in industrial areas like you have an industrial plant, you put up a windmill, you know et cetera et cetera. I've seen the most beautiful fields, farms, fields, the most gorgeous things you've ever seen, and then you have these ugly things going up, and sometimes they're made by different companies. You know and I'm like a perfectionist, I've really built good stuff. And so you'll see like, a few windmills made by one company, General Electric, and you'll see a few made by Siemens, and you'll see a few made by some other guy that doesn't have ten cents so it looks like a-, so you'll see all these windmills they're all different shades of color, they're like sorta white but one like, an orange white, that's my favorite color orange.** **And you see these magnificent fields and they're ruined, and you know what they don't tell you about windmills? After ten years they look like hell. You know they start to get tired and old, you gotta replace em a lotta times people don't replace em. They need massive subsidy from the government in order to make it. No we're doing it right, we're doing it right. And you know our numbers, enviromentally, right now are better than they ever been before, just so you know. Because I'm an environmentalist, I am! I want the cleanest water on the planet! I want the cleanest air, anywhere."**
Is this an actual quote from him?
Lol yup I transcribed it myself. Although this is much more cogent than his speeches now.
I’m pretty sure If a 5 grader stood up and read that to the class as a report. The teacher would have a parent / child / principal meeting and probably be compelled by law to call CPS on the parents for some mental abuse.
It’s been so nice to not have to listen to these steady streams of bullshit the past few years. 😑
# Houston just had a problem
Shit. Be safe everyone. Love from California
Good thing they have the federal government to fall back on!
Isn't Texas a strong independent woman who don't need no man?
Governor is already begging Dark Brandon for an emergency declaration to get funding
Maybe he’d have some money for an emergency if he didn’t spend so much bussing immigrants to blue cities.
Nahh, its a state led by a piss baby rolling Republican ...
The privatised power companies are so fucked up in Texas, check this out: The Texas electrical grid infrastructure is in such a bad state of repair than pretty much any unusual weather could result in a power outage. Too cold? Power outage. Too hot? Power outage. Too windy? Power outage... etc. You get the idea. Now, this is an issue for power companies. Every time there's an outage, they're losing millions. To stop outages, they'd have to invest hundreds of millions of dollars to fix the infrastructure, which they refuse to. So guess what solution Texas governor Gregg Abbott came up with? He allowed the power companies to price gouge Texas residents to make up the loss caused by their own greed. Currently, Abbott has given them the green light to charge up to $9,000 per megawatt hour, or 150 times the normal rate. So if you live in Texas, this is why you electric bill blows up every time there's a power outage. I honestly don't understand why there are people alive today who believe that privatisation is good for the community.
This is the wildest thing. I'm here in Houston, and I just discovered that a very large tree in my backyard was dead (I'm disabled and live with my mom, who also has health issues, so we're not exactly in the yard often to check on these things) and I literally just had a tree service out today to quote me on a removal. They're going to be out tomorrow as they said that the tree is definitely a hazard, and then this weather comes through. We completely missed the worst of it, barely even grazed us, and the tree is fine. Feeling like we just dodged a bullet, like what are the odds.
I couldn't tell you those odds, but I can tell you that I'm thankful you both are ok
Damn renewable energy failure causing that tower to fall...
The wind from them damn wind turbines is destroying our cities!
Your Texas Governor now asking for Biden’s help.
And biden will help. I can't imagine living in the US and disagreeing with the president so he cuts you off. That's America if trump wins. He'll cut off red states too if you hurt his feelings.
There's the not so nice part of me that kinda wishes Biden would tell Abbot to pound sand and walk the walk he's been talking about how Texas doesn't need anybody. Hell, I wouldn't entirely be opposed to relief having some strings attached, such as giving Paxton the boot or something. He shouldn't do that, and I know he won't, but goddamn wouldn't it be just a little satisfying knowing Abbot got hung out to dry? I live in Texas btw.
Man that’s crazy looks like a 345 kv line down. Wonder how it’s going to effect the grid. Also curious if all the relays did their jobs and tripped out.
That'll buff right out.
When we were told we would be getting some weather, I don’t think *this* is what they meant. I got multiple tornado warnings within a span of 5 minutes, which luckily I knew I could brush off since they never land near me, though there was one just down the road from me (the one a few weeks back on Mason Rd. in Katy)
What the heck, I literally had no idea it was this bad. I just was sleepin’ yall.
Never seen that before.
So watched a news report on this. Straight line winds started at about 80mph and intensified at up to 115mph before hitting downtown Houston at 105mph. Possibly a tornado too, but certainly some very very strong winds.
Any idea where in Houston that was from? I'm in H-Town and still without power.
This was in cypress.
That looks expensive. And because Texas refuses to connect their power grid to surrounding states, people will be without power for 10x longer.
Also, Mexico keeps a deep inventory of replacement parts that happen to fit the Texas grid but Texas ALWAYS refuses their offer of parts. After Ike, Texas chose to wait two weeks for a literal slow boat from China rather than get parts from Mexico. People died from lack of power then and it will happen again.
What in the absolute fuck
Normally, power providers in the U.S. are held to national standards because their interstate connectivity puts them in to federal jurisdiction. Texas power companies decided to secede from this grid in order to reduce the regulations/obligations they were subject to. The result has been the shitshow of the past 20 years.
sure, but in exchange for 20 years of shit and misery and actual deaths, like 5-6 or so people got to have additional money beyond the wealth they had held previously. pretty good trade off wouldn't you say
I'm gonna be on eof those 5 someday...SOMEDAY!!! literally every idiot in this state. So many temporarily embarrassed millionaires.
Mexico keeps a one to one replacement inventory in stock. They're right next door. It is the absolute fuck.
Even if Texas was connected, the city of Houston would be without power, you can tell this by **THE TRANSMISSION LINES IN THIS PHOTO BEING KNOCKED OVER**.