The forecast was for temperatures to get as low as 15F here along the Gulf shore and even colder inland.  We spent some time winterizing the refuge buildings and re-acquainting with shut-offs.  Finding winterization supplies was a real challenge since everyone needed them.  The forecast temps were about right but the added freezing rain/sleet and snow just shut the region down for several days. NO snow removal equipment.  The electric outage started in the middle of Sunday night with the temp around 15.  Stayed below freezing all day Monday and back down to 15F Monday night.  Lots of places started getting really cold really quick.  I even had to get up in the middle of the night and push the generator start button.  Electric was pretty intermittent from Monday thru Thursday.  At one point nearly half of Texas was without power. It warmed enough on Tuesday to expose a couple of frozen/burst refuge water pipes which we patched Wednesday.  We will need some additional fittings to repair permanently but, we restored water to the complex.

Things were really good here based on the Houston and Dallas news reports. Thousands of homes (4,900+ in Houston) have reported broken pipes and the city lost control of water pressure leading to water shortages and boil orders. They are going to be cleaning this up for a year.

As we discussed here in the Volunteer Village, “it is a good time to live in a self-contained RV”.