I really don't watch the news or regular TV anymore, it just seems so full of itself and the commercials are endless. Wife wanted an update of what was going on around town so we looked for a news station. We didn't have much luck until we jumped on the Roku and looked for something with local news. We found one reporting on the day's events and things do not look good at all. It is a complete mess all over the state, it is not even focused on any one part. People are suffering all over. I am sure many elderly people will be found dead once we get past the cold days and we start accounting for everyone. It has to happen, some parts of town lost power on Sunday and never recovered. If that wasn't bad enough, losing power means the pipes aren't being minded and focusing on keeping the water running just doesn't seem to matter. I am sure half of those places without power are going to have busted pipes afterwards. We are already seeing many examples in apartments, homes, stores, businesses, pretty much everywhere that has water pipes.
I have been running my water since Sunday, I am fearing the water bill now, but what is the option, if we shut it off, we risk the pipes freezing and water damage can easily get in the thousands of dollars. The city announced tonight (Wednesday) that the largest water supply facility has been compromised so the city water should now be boiled before consuming, to be safe. If houses have no power, how are they supposed to boil water? To add insult to injury, the few local stores that have opened have not been restocked because trucks can't get here, so even after waiting up to six hours in line, there isn't much food on the shelves. I am worried about my folks, my mom was confident that they had enough food to get through the weather then they lost power. Food spoils without power, and I don't think it is really cold enough to put it outside over there, but I don't know. They are simply too far away to try and bring them over to my house where we have been lucky and been without power for less than an hour all week.
Some people are using their cars to at least keep them warm, but that only works while they have gas in their tanks. The news was showing cars in lines for hours to get gas and they were reporting that many gas stations are simply running out of gas. This in itself is dangerous because cars do produce carbon monoxide and it will silently kill people, there have already been reports of people in Houston dying this way.
The last part to this tragic week is Texans suck at driving in icy conditions and even if the sun was out today, we have a lot of ice on the road. There are car crashes everywhere and stories of people being saved from ditches along the road by people in 4x4 trucks. I want to be mad at the people venturing out, but if they don't have food or are trying to get to a friend or relative with power, people have to risk the streets. This is a horrible cascade of failures that seems to be never ending and we are expecting another round of snow tomorrow afternoon, so the ugly part is not over. Hopefully, the weather is supposed to settle down by the weekend, I can only hope everyone can find the strength and hope to realize that we can get through this.
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