Individual Responsibility in disasters

[hchntr]

We didn’t lose fuel supply(NG), instruments and controls started freezing up when the precipitation hit. And once we were down, no coming back up until everything could thaw out, because of some of the damage, some of our assets still aren’t up.
That was somewhere around 500-600 MW/H total, tripped offline.
At that time MW were $8k-$10k per MW, today we’ve seen negative MW prices, so I can assure everyone, the last thing we wanted to do was shutdown. You not only lose money in loss of MW production, but also the damage to equipment associated with the unit trips.

[Copanocruisin]

As for being an Eagle Scout for more than fifty years, being prepared is part of my daily routine as has it has been most of my life. Just saying......cC

[tvc184]

Living on the upper Texas coast, in the last 15 years I’ve been through several major storms. Some such as Hurricanes Rita, Ike, Harvey and others have caused up to several weeks without power and food. Working at my police department, we could not leave during the mandatory evacuation. I would think in most cases the people that evacuated might have been displaced and not happy (like my mother parents using Rita as an example), many were still relatively comfortable staying in hotels and having access to food.

Those of us who had to stay (and there were many of the now called essential workers and not just government workers, God Bless the linemen and other civilians who were just as important) lived without public water supply, easily obtain food, drinking water, air conditioning (in high 90’s with nearly 100% humidity), mosquitoes, medical facilities, etc.

That is OK because that is what we signed on for. But.....

Even with our plans laid out up to years in advance, we were told for at least the first three days we were on our own. FEMA from the federal government and state assets would probably not be there for the first three days. We packed our own food, cots, water, cleaning supplies, etc. We could not go home, could not clean our clothes and so on. Most of us during Rita went about two weeks without clean clothes. It kind of reminded me of the Johnny Cash song, Sunday Morning Coming Down where in the song he said, I went to the closet to get my cleanest dirty shirt.

Our police uniform of the day was the cleanest uniform shirt you could find and whatever pants you have including bluejeans.

No big deal because again, that is why we took the job. The point of this long winded diatribe however is, even though we were the government representative, had years to plan and definitely have plans in place, we still had to go several days on our own. Yes eventually help will show up but if you can’t go for the first several days on your own, you are not prepared like you should be in my opinion.

Waiting in line at Walmart the day before the known disaster is going to hit and complaining because the shelves are empty, is not a good plan. Unfortunately probably 75% of the public is in that position.

[Duckologist]

Unfortunately probably 75% of the public is in that position.

And will be next time

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[SJP51]

Deleted

[tvc184]

And will be next time

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Kinda like the ammo shortage???

[kaizen]

I spent February 13 weatherizing my camp in Port O'Connor. I hadn't had to do that in several years. I spent February 14 running around prepping friend's homes here in central Texas because they didn't know what to do or have capability to do basic things to prevent damage from a freeze. But, what surprised me the most was how many people I knew that were totally unprepared for any hiccup in the system. I had a houseful of people all week once power started going out. They had little kids with no way to heat or prep food, sometimes no food to prep, cpaps but not power, etc.

[Dusty Britches]

I agree with the OP.

Here's something else to add to it -

Yes, I rely upon the government to provide basic infrastructure services- utilities, transportation, basic defense. But when the government fails, I take it upon myself to intercede and provide for myself and my family. I guess I expect at some point everything to fail.

[JMart76]

Agree with OP and many others. This past week we were comfortable as we have a generator and we’re able to run our gas furnace and keep food in fridge and freezers. Had gas but if this lasted longer then we may be in a different position especially if this lasted weeks. I’m thankful that hunting has helped to develop skills that obviously others in my neighborhood lack.

Moving forward we’ll be getting more containers for fuel and have more canned foods available for the future. Thankfully we have plenty of meat in our deep freezer. Also considering getting another (duel fuel) generator and running a line from our NG meter. We were definitely better off and shared our home with friends and family but did find how ill prepared others were around us.

[Mudslinger]

I lived in Lubbock from 75 till 2020 and do not remember EVER seeing anything like this in Lubbock much less in the Temple/Rogers area. Yes we had some ice, snow and cold temps, but nothing like 2 massive storms of ice then snow then ice and very cold temps. I admit i got caught off guard and had no firewood for the fireplace no a backup plan for the electricity being out. 28 hours without electricity or water the first Thursday and Friday and 31 hours without this past Friday and Saturday. Not near as long as a lot of others, but never again. A cord of wood will be bought and stacked and a backup generator wil be added. Thankfully our house is sprayed foamed so the lowest ir got in the house was 58. Water was an issue for longer but that was due to the rural water company loosing power at their pumps and not being able to get the water out and supply to the storage tanks slowed to a trickle. Live and learn. Now it is 70+ outside!!!!! Texas weather!