The 2021 Texas Deep Freeze - A Failure on All Levels - A Retrospective & Analysis

[@Alferia]

Correction: It took about 6-7 months for someone to point this out but this was due to poor wording. The I35 pileup DID NOT occur on the "bridge" but rather the expressway exclusively. The part of the Expressway that was involved, and a large portion of the crash extended back onto a bridge that is part of I35. The segment of I35 where it occurred, WAS on a bridge that crosses over West Fork Trinity River and over a turnaround road before connecting back to the "Road" part of I35. I do apologize for not being specific about it being only in the expresslane, but the crash DID extend back onto the bridge itself. I've never been to Dallas-Forth Worth, and I went onto Google Maps to check where the crash happened, and it extended PASS the bridge expresslane, but it goes back 1000ft on the southbound lane according to WFAA. I apologize for not being specific enough there, and I apologize for any confusion. Since this video is almost at 500,000 views, I want to address one of the...LOVELY comments that seem to be constant with every spike this video gets. "Why did the interviews suck/Why did you interview the people who weren't hit the hardest?" I want to say that I agree with most of the critiques regarding Hufflepuff's interview as I agree, that was problematic due to her going on one massive tangent responding to everything I sent in the email which was the list of questions I planned on asking. Normally I ask the questions first, and then they respond, but that didn't happen. By the end of the interview I was on the verge of not putting it in the video at all because of how much of a mess it was, but I went with it because I didn't want it to be a waste, and I didn't want to be a dick to her for setting an hour of her time aside to be interviewed. Regarding the interview with Helix, yeah I don't get what people are complaining about there. His interview was much shorter and stuck to the facts without going on a tangent. As to why I didn't interview people hit harder or actual meteorologists...well let me put it this way, at the time the video was being produced, February 2023, my channel had about 17k subscribers and I live in Georgia, having barely any knowledge on the meteorologists who cover local tv stations in Texas. I asked for names and didn't get many in response. My emails or requests that I sent out through Twitter dms were ignored, and so I asked my fans if they had any experiences that they would like to share. I would have loved to interview meteorologists or victims that had more stories to tell than what I had, BUT I'm one person, and when my requests went ignored, I went with the next best thing. I apologize if the interviews dragged, or flat out sucked, they are normally not this divisive regarding their reception. There are more but I will cover those at the end of the year retrospective of all my projects that I do in December.

[@nothingkills2518]

I think you did a great job, the production on this is amazing, with how in depth you went thank you for it I didn’t know how bad this really was

[@countrysister700]

Your report here beats out 99% of the reporting we got from major media and is like a scrapbook of memories for me proving it really did happen. While this wasn't wartime, hurricane, tornado etc., it was a slow motion avalanche of horror that's impossible to explain to ones not effected. You've helped, my friend.

[@pamelaibarra790]

You did great. Thank you for covering this. People lost a lot here but nothing compared to the lives lost and the families that had to grieve because texas wants to be self sufficient. And still, nothing has been done to prepare the grids for the possibility of this happening again. Mainly because those that suffered the most were the lower class and we all know how much abbott loves the lower class. Also, thank you for throwing in how shitty our state politicians are. They had a job and an obligation to us and they failed us. And continue to do so.

[@raynejay6602]

still a good video! glad you learned from the experience and know not to send questions in advance/interview over email goin forward- it’s only gonna help your reporting

[@Zielmann633]

I thought the interviews were completely fair. You can't control who from your audience has time and interest in contributing. I lived through this, and my mind went straight to 'wow, Hufflepuff was lucky', not that her input wasn't valuable because her experience wasn't 'bad enough'. I felt lucky having only been without power for 24 hours. It was still down to 45 degrees inside when power did come back. My hot water heater (gas) also remained functional, so I spend a lot of time under multiple blankets holding a jar I'd periodically refill with hot water. And I could use a lighter to get my gas stove going to make tea and hot meals. It was easily the worst weather-related experience I've had, and yet there are always people who had it worse. I had coworkers who were without power for several days, and without water for over a week. All that is to say that no matter who you talked to, I think people would complain. Some people probably would find my experience not 'bad enough' to represent the magnitude of the event as a whole.

[@jmanning586]

People who aren't from Texas usually fail to understand our homes are built to dispel heat, not keep it in. When the blackouts started I moved our 8 seater dining table into the center of our living room and completely covered it with as many blankets as I could spare. I took what I had left and made a pallet underneath. We layered up and that's what me and my toddler slept under for 5 nights.

[@AssassinDevil34]

I’m from Chicago but currently SW WI for college I understand most southern homes layout is to keep heat out but in the north being made to keep heat in so summer is a pain for me who heat limit is 75 degrees when we get 90 where tue inside feel like 100 and my parents refuses to turn on the ac till June

[@OumuamuaOumuamua]

Seems comfy, uncomfortable and annoying but comfy

[@Altoclarinets]

A lot of us at least in the south of the state also only have a heat pump (AC running in reverse) rather than a proper furnace in our central heating, and while those are fine for normal weather around here, they get really inefficient at subfreezing temps... which means more energy consumption, which means goodnight Vienna for the grid

[@longlivebeans]

Yep. I grew up in Vegas & housing is built the same so when I moved upstate where it snows, first thing I noticed was the architectural differences. Everything from roofing, flooring, windows, doors, insulation, you name it. That’s why my heart broke when I heard this was happening in Texas.

[@kurotsuki7427]

I hadn't thought of that but it does make sense. F man, that sucks.

[@ProzacParker]

I was a firefighter in Austin at the time. I went 4 days without sleep, surviving off of hot pockets in the engine. We had calls constantly waiting for us and we ignored bystanders that were stuck in the snow because they were considered non-emergencies. Our priority was people living on home oxygen and busted water pipes. There were so many people that relied on electricity to survive and the blackouts took out their ability to breathe on their own. We had about 10 calls holding constantly, we would leave one call and go to another that was placed hours ago and waiting. The first call of the snowstorm was an obese hoarder that died in her house with no electricity. That was a really rough week.....

[@bakedpotato1717]

Thank you for the work you did

[@kurtbarks6270]

Thank you for all you do! We’d be lost without you

[@michaelswami]

Thanks for what you did and also preventing an even deeper tragedy.

[@ladyhumblebee2784]

God bless you for your hard work and may you know His peace and hope thru all of the sorrow.

[@samellis2304]

God bless our 1st responders!

[@maxjmh795]

I remember walking out of my house on day one and hearing absolutely nothing. For the first time in my life the highway was quiet, dogs weren’t barking, and not a soul could be heard. It was strikingly peaceful.

[@thebirdman6593]

Yeah, I live next to a major crossroad and I just walked down the middle of the road, it was apocalyptic

[@AtlanticGiantPumpkin]

Same here! No dogs, no cars, no trains, no sirens, nothing. Thankfully my power and the power for my neighbors never went out, so I felt safe enough to spend time outside bundled up under a blanket and just sitting in the peace in the middle of the night.

[@fmslick7586]

yeah same here all the stupid ppl off the roads and it was nice

[@yoursleepparalysisdemon1828]

wait what? were the roads closed too? or did they stop salting them? im confused.

[@justisolated5621]

Just you mentioning it makes me picture you just walking down the street like if you were walking through a ghost state

[@Buoyant_Bear]

I remember this. I was teaching at the time, and school was cancelled for the week. My apartment kept power throughout this time period, but my parents' area didn't, they were without power for 2 days (they are elderly). Multiple people died during this due to not being able to heat themselves. Meanwhile, one of our two senators was boarding a flight to Cancun. That was really something else.

[@melissak0813]

Good Ol’ Teddy Cruz..

[@samesouthwest8674]

@@melissak0813 it was never supposed to be “that bad”. Typically how Texas disasters go.

[@mlbrooks4066]

Deplorable is what it was.

[@rarreyna3971]

Man this video made me appreciate my dad more. Dude was ready for the storm. We had prepared generators as well as food and water for days as soon as he heard speculation on the news. We also were able to help my grandparents who live down the street as well since we all gassed up ahead of time.

[@v3ck1n]

Shout out to your dad 🙌❤️ He probably had been through a severe winter storm before

[@SniperGamingHD1]

My dad was the same. We had tons of food, water, generators, and even a space heater. Man was clutch af

[@ayanomar1408]

shout out to your dad, we watched helplessly in CA while my brother in law and his family were stuck trying to keep their home warm. it made me realize we should also be prepared and up to date for ememrgencies

[@Zb_Calisthenic]

Sounds like Every man for himself down there.

[@sorcererberoll4641]

It’s a similar yet opposite situation for Britain our houses are built to retain heat due to the moderately cold weather we have so when last years summer heatwave hit even rivers dried and every bit of grass I could see was gone

[@Hootowlsonly]

Man. Being a Canadian I did NOT understand the severity of what went down in Texas in 2021. This has made it so much clearer. That sounds like a nightmare

[@Youthful_Beauty]

Yeah it was😅 no power, and couldn't leave the house. People were dying of hypothermia.😭😭

[@yochitoranaga]

As a Quebecker who lived through the 1998 ice storm disaster, I knew exactly how severe this Texas thing was. at the same time, I couldn't fathom how hard it was for them to cope with this. In Quebec, well most of Canada really gets to face the harsh cold for 4 to 6 months every year. We "mostly" know how to drive on black Ice, we've got thick warm blankets, layers upon layers of winter clothes, and most houses of a certain age had a fire stove or fireplace as a secondary heat source generation. We are used to it and we are equipped for it. Our houses are usually built to keep heat in, not out... Texas? Not really. Most Texans rarely experience snow. It takes 10 inches + of snow precipitation in a night for us to close school, in the south USA, a small douse of white glitter is enough to jam the roads. Back in 1998, we lost power for two weeks to a month and a half depending on the region during the coldest months of the year. The damage was quite extreme, those high-tension towers were collapsing left and right. Most of what was described in this video, we experienced it. And yet we were "blessed" by the fact we are equipped to deal with it for the most part. Hyrdo-Quebec has learned a lot from it and has been upgrading its infrastructure to deal with a repeat event better. I fear ERCOT and Texas government will not.

[@briana1242]

Yeah it was definitely rough for is for about 8 days. Our homes are built to expell heat. We can deal with up to 115 degree weather, which our homes will expell enough heat to keep it around 95. Extreme cold we have only had 3 times in the last 25 years and I'm 30 so.... this year is supposed to get cold again so my family is preparing now just in case.

[@kristinethibodeaux619]

It was horrible. Texas concentrates more on dispelling heat. My family was fortunate, because we knew the storm was coming for well over a week and prepared. Just as terrible, people in northern climes were dropping like flies when the experience summer temps that are quite normal for Texas. There were many simple things people could have done to help themselves stay warm. A simple heater made from a lottery flower pot and some tea lights can prevent o e from freezing to death.

[@handsupbud]

It was a nightmare. We had no clue as to how we were going to survive. I now have a nice Generator and Propane tank as a result of that terrible week.

[@Saddletramp1200]

I am 68 now. I damn near froze to death in Houston. Ercot just voted themselves a raise. My Neighbor saved me. I have no words to describe how I feel. 3 people on my street froze to death.

[@kennethpace9887]

2 days before the storm hit, he governor requested permission from the department of energy to fire up coal plants as needed. THEY DENIED THE REQUEST! Greg Abbott should have fired them up anyway.

[@Candice_Lynn]

There is a special place in hell for the elected officials who DELIBERATELY MURDERED the people and animals who suffered and died in this preventable tragedy.

[@Candice_Lynn]

​​@@kennethpace9887 More lies from Abbott. He ordered the grid shut down. He's a domestic terrorist along with Rafael Cruz.

[@scarlettjoehandsome6130]

​@@kennethpace9887 yes, Abbott wants Texas to operate autonomously and has no regard for the environment anyway, but then the one time he should, he doesn't. He's a hateful little man with obvious contempt and disregard for the people of his state.

[@sg8953]

​@@kennethpace9887False. The request came from Ercot and the DOE approved it. Abbott just twiddled his thumbs and let y'all freeze.

[@NeuMoon]

As a Texan who actively lived through this entire event, it was terrifying, stressful and cold. Our homes weren't built for the cold, they're meant to keep the heat out. Neither my mom or dad's home had water for days, our pipes had frozen over and I had gotten sick over the course of the freeze. It became harder to function because of how bad it had gotten that month.

[@jasonreyna7615]

@MidwesternCracker_2000 make your way out here to south texas and stay the summer then. See how long you last. Some of us have fireplaces and are better prepared

[@jasonreyna7615]

@@MidwesternCracker_2000 try further down than that

[@jasonreyna7615]

@MidwesternCracker_2000 SA is not south texas, shares some stuff with the south sure, but it ain't south. Big difference when you actually live here in the south

[@SimplyCece24]

Same here pipes froze over and we had to use water bottles to take baths and then once the freezing was over we had to have plumbers come to the house to fixed the pipes and it cost huge amount of money that we didn’t have and my mom had to pull from her retirement funds to pay the plumbers

[@archangelmusic13]

you should know to run the water when a freeze is coming, i heard 91 people died from this freeze

[@dejaolumba3138]

I was in college in central Texas when this storm hit. I was living in cheap student housing that did not stand up to the harsh conditions well. We lost power and cell service for a week, and water for a week and a half. It was freezing with no heat, and none of us had the proper clothes to protect ourselves against it. The pipes in the apartment above us burst the first day and flooded out apartment, which didn’t exactly help our heat situation. We also didn’t stock up on food- we were young and stupid, and there was no precedent for this kind of storm. Almost no one thought it would last more than two days. Stocking up wouldn’t have helped much anyways; we had electric stoves and microwaves to cook with, both of which were completely useless to us until they implemented rolling blackouts about 3 days in. When the lights would come on 3 or 4 times a day we would rush to the stove and microwave to try and heat up anything we could in the 10 minute window. We ended up running out of food completely, luckily only a day before the roads melted and we could make it to a grocery store. Our water was out longer than the power, and even after the storm had passed my apartment complex turned it off again for another two weeks to “fix pipe damage.” They turned out to never actually do this, and we received an email about two weeks after the storm telling us our leases had been terminated due to the extent of the damage and we had until the end of the week to find a new place to live. It feels childish to call the experience traumatic, but it sent my roommates and I into a months-long mental spiral. One of the worst parts I think is when after we regained service, we found out that the people across town living in the expensive apartments on the university’s power grid didn’t experience any of this. One of my classmates said his wifi didn’t even go out. That and Ted Cruz’s flight from the situation as a whole was so demoralizing to hear.

[@winteryblackfyres]

it was traumatic and it's so irresponsible for the texas "government" (lol) to just ignore that 🙏

[@yamiarisu49]

Don't ever feel like it was childish to call the Winter storm traumatic; you were in a cold building without water, heat, electricity, or a hot meal. The lack of any of those four things can break a person. I knew friends and family in South Texas, and the Valley area was anxious. They could not get to HEB because they were trapped in their house, the roads were too icy, or they were slowly running out of cell phone battery, food, and water. I was living in an old house where the pipes broke, and water was lost. Surprisingly we had heat and electricity, but I had started bringing in the snow for waste.

[@icannotbeseen]

I would probably have cried through most of this event. I've never been in this situation but it would feel like a breakdown of society to me? like when you think something is safe and will stay that way forever and suddenly this feeling of safety is shattered completely. and you don't know when it ends - I'd say that's traumatizing alright.

[@bananamanstrikesback1793]

The college station wellborn main incident?

[@bradthunderpants3283]

I mean, no offense but I do think it does kind of show how weak westerners have gotten for being so pampered by modern luxury. I have friends in the country who have no heating, no plumbing, no electricity at all, who are snowed in by 6+ft of snow in the winter.

[@FischerFilmStudio]

The scariest part was that there wasn’t much you could do. My family slept downstairs and we were constantly using the fireplace. We had all of our faucets dripping to avoid our pipes freezing.

[@darkchoco1836]

We had to get wifi at McDonald’s 🤣 then we slept by th fireplace but th wood was so smoky 😭😭

[@SonGojit456]

Yeah that's the life.

[@musesatie4566]

@@darkchoco1836 We couldn't even drive anywhere. The roads were too iced over (and too rural to be deemed worth taking care of). Thankfully, we had power most of the time, though.

[@joshvigranmusic]

My old place didn't have a fireplace, we just lit the gas stove and stayed close to it in the kitchen. Now my new place has no fireplace and is all electric so I'm installing a woodstove because I don't trust that they fixed anything for this upcoming winter.

[@KS-zl9cd]

We had pipes freeze anyway (despite dripping them), though thankfully, it was only a couple of exterior pipes that we were able to fix ourselves. The water pressure in our city dropped substantially due to most households dripping their pipes, so it ended up being a pretty useless action.

[@Zanaan]

I will always remember the anger over houston. Because downtown had a hospital the entirety of downtown was considered essential. So while people in the nearby neighborhoods were freezing, the nearby office buildings were lit up like Christmas trees.

[@thiscommentwillbedeletedso5211]

False

[@goosem944]

@@thiscommentwillbedeletedso5211 True and it happened in Austin as well rich neighborhoods and large corporations kept their power

[@Dr.Dre3000]

@@thiscommentwillbedeletedso5211 the lies you tell

[@cmpenny2011]

That’s COMPLETELY false. I was downtown for a considerable amount of this storm and we had no power at all. This is in no way true whatsoever

[@ItzKryptek64]

I was living in downtown San Antonio when this happened and I had no power in my home for an entire week… we call this Event Snowvid lol

[@gustavogaming6692]

As a resident of the valley, this was terrible for us since we lived without electricity for almost 4-5 days. I can't even imagine what the homeless people were going through while this happened

[@innocehnt75]

definitely put a dent in the texas homeless population as you'd imagine

[@arthas640]

They burrow and hibernate like hamsters, ready to pop out and start panhandling again once the temps rise above freezing.

[@Trahzy]

​@arthas640 Wow, almost like many of them have to live that way to survive. True privileged and sheltered comment you made there buddy. Hope your gated suburb didn't freeze too bad.

[@mlbrooks4066]

@@arthas640 Your compassion is underwhelming.

[@arthas640]

@@mlbrooks4066 I can be right and be compassionate. They _do_ end up basically hibernating in hiding spots in winter when there isnt shelter available. In NYC and the PNW they end up in tunnels and under bridges when the weather gets bad because much like a foraging animal looking for food there's less to be found in the snow and rain as fewer people are on foot to panhandle from and people are less willing to open their windows to give handouts leading to a drop in returns, so it forces the panhandler to do some risk v reward calculations and think if its worth getting wet and cold to pan handler or if its better to hunker down and conserve your energy/resources. A theory for why California specifically has such a massive homeless population is the mild winters making living on the street and pan handling year round easier whereas in the Northeast they may have to survive a lean winter with fewer handouts and worse weather. Much like a hibernating animal too they also sometimes end up saving up in summer to last those lean winters since they may need to find a heated structure to live in or may have to scrape together money for some time in a motel or something, so they end up stockpiling some money, goods, or even just favors to call in. The comparison to animals is actually pretty apt since we tend to treat them like animals. We prefer to ignore the problem with the government trying to get private charities to shoulder the burden while silently hoping the problem will solve itself so they wont need to do anything while regular citizens are forced to adapt and have to figure out how to get the government to do anything bout it without making the problem worse. So we wind up giant colonies of feral cats in the subway and homeless colonies in the park while voters yell at the government and the government switches off their hearing aids and ignore the situation for as long as possible.

[@septembercereal]

I'm from North Texas and this was easily one of the worst weeks of my life. Me and my siblings slept in my parent's room and during the night my dad would wake up and make sure we were still breathing. Shout out to my dad's boss, he gave us a generator on day 4 of the storm 😭 We were all freezing, and it was scary.

[@leeallen3202]

Did you lose oxygen in the house ?

[@cyo_gollyna]

​@@leeallen3202 I'm pretty sure their Dad was checking if they had died from hyperthermia, and had to check their breathing

[@leeallen3202]

@@cyo_gollyna Yeah, right 🤦‍♂️

[@eileenheath1968]

@@leeallen3202 Dude. "The early morning of February 16 2021 dropped to 12 degrees. Cristian Pavon age 11 was found lifeless." He went to bed under 4 blankets, wore 2 shirts, a sweater and sweat pants under his pants. If you reach over and your child isn't moving or breathing during hypothermic situations, start rubbing the limbs while attempting to wake them up. This is what we were taught in Alaska. Chiufuu's dad probably went hunting a few times. It's basic info for sportsmen.

[@outsidekillz]

I live in North Texas and i lived in Rowlett during this time, and our house went out of power and we had to stay in a hotel for a couple days. I never really knew how lucky i was until i reas other’s stories

[@sierragray4674]

Me and my mom started playing out in the snow when my step dad, who was from Colorado, literally yelled at us to get back inside. I'm glad that he did because our power did not come back one for a couple more days and we would've have already lost a ton of body heat if it wasn't for him.

[@Nice-qi5cf]

Good point! Dad knew better.💛

[@imblue9839]

an 11 y/o died in my county due to this, he was never able to get warm once he came in, he fell asleep wrapped in blankets and his parents thought he'd warm up, but he never woke up

[@t.dig.2040]

If playing in the cold one has to embrace "comfortably cold" Big poofy warm coats are dangerous. it's so easy to build up a sweat, then once you stop moving you get chilled to the core.

[@ThatGirlJD]

​@@imblue9839If you're talking about the child in Conroe, the autopsy determined he died from Carbon monoxide poisoning.

[@ThatGirlJD]

None of us excepted this storm too be this crazy, we just thought we'd have frozen roads and maybe a short power outage or two. We always play in the snow when it snows, because we've never had the power go out for days. I had to ride out the storm at work. I left my 18 year old at home with a bunch of HEB meals, snacks and water, that's what we always winter storms I had to ride out. We lived in an apartment so we didn't have any way to hook up a generator. I freaked out when their phone died and I couldn't get in contact with them. Thankfully when they finally contacted me they were smart enough to pack a bag, bundle up, gather snacks and walk to a trusted neighbor's apartment when they got too cold. They rode the rest of the storm out with the neighbor family and got to charge their phone in their car so they could warm up a bit and let me know where they were and they were ok. None of us that lived through that storm will be the same. I rode out Hurricane Harvey at work, this winter storm was by far scarier because while I was safe and warm I was worried about my family and friends here in Houston, in Central Texas and South Central Texas.

[@ezioal42]

I live in Beaumont Texas and that week was the worst of my life the day after everything froze I lost my dog I searched for 16 straight hours I used all types of movement I knew even my longboard I couldn’t stop he was my best friend and I was forced by my family after severe fatigue and being completely numb but I kept searching.. then on one of the last days my sister went to work at like 6am and heard a jingle and called out his name and he came running wagging his little tail when we checked the ring he had found his way home and sat at the front door for a whole 7 hours shivering the whole time when she dropped that sopping wet dog on my bed and me sleeping all I did was hug him for hours and keep him warm he’ll always be my good boy. My best boy

[@FirstNameBunchANumbers]

I'm so happy he came back to you ❤️

[@CatladyKiefFingers_deLarios]

Damn u just made my eyes all extra wet 🥹

[@jimdugan7240]

A happy story… I’m a dog lover too and I was worried about reading the end.

[@able880]

That was worth reading - I presently have 6 dogs - 3 little ones and three big ones - and yes they stay in the house and have recked it - But there worth a recked house to me -

[@goGothitaLOL]

When you said you lost your dog, I thought you meant was frozen and possibly dead Glad to see that he’s still alive.

[@ash-kh9fp]

Thank you for bringing awareness to this. I lived through this and it was genuinely one of the worst experiences of my life. My house was 30 degrees for a good 4 or 5 days. We lost power for maybe a week. One of the worst experiences of my life, we could NOT get warm. I remember being so mad at our governor. I will NEVER forget this.

[@jaygosev3589]

"30 degrees for a good 4 or 5 days." I STILL have trouble even understanding how that could cripple what is basically an entire country. I know, I know, I know, you folks are NOt used to that and I'm sorry people died. I just I just don't GET IT. Infrastructure SHOULD have been rated to what is considered mild to somewhat chilly weather here in Minnesota. In Jan & Feb, it's routine for temps to be in the -20 to -30's for at least 4-5 days, sometimes longer. kids waiting for the bus in -17 weather. Then after a few days it would get back up into positive temps, even up to 27 or 30 and we were all in t shirts. No kidding.

[@internallyscreaming8444]

@@jaygosev3589 sorry mister individual, our state must be separated from the national grid for... Reasons. No we will not upgrade our grids to ensure that another freeze doesn't cripple our state, that's what global warming is for, God bless.

[@zarekjones8263]

I remember this not because of the struggles it caused, but because it was when my great grandmother died. I was fortunate in having power most of the time in our dorm. We still couldn't take showers or go to the bathroom. It was few days into this freeze that I decided to call my great grandfather to see how they were doing. When he picked up, I could hear his voice failing. The only things I could get out of him besides his situation being okay was that grandmother didn't look good, that she looked terrible. I remember asking my mother about going to drive over to them. She told me that the roads were probably frozen, but it was ultimately up to me. I was always afraid of driving on frozen roads, so I told him I would drive over when the roads got better. The next morning, I got like three missed calls from my mother. When I called back she was annoyed that I didn't pick up sooner. She finally told me that my Nana had passed away. I almost can't describe the feeling I felt. I didn't cry, there was just this low sinking feeling welling up inside me as I found myself on my bed. I had always visited them every monday the prior school year, but as this new school year started, I had hardly visited them at all. The guilt of not visiting one last time began to sink in. If I had known, I would've driven there in a heartbeat through the ice and everything. But that time had passed. I would visit my great grandfather after the freeze. It wasn't the same, but we had some good times as well. Many times he would tell me of the empty feeling he had. I remember walking to his room. He was showing me a hand-knitted blanket on his with all of his family members names on it. He found his wife's name on it: Joyce. He told me how sad he felt waking up without her beside him. In that moment, I broke down and hugged him. I cried every tear I held back and told him I was sorry. I told him how sorry I was for not driving over to see them together one last time. He said he knew and assured me it was okay. They're both gone now. I hope they both know I love them wherever they are. I'm sorry for how far away this is from the topic of the freeze, but this is one of the things I remember from it the most. Thank you for reading this, and please remember to hug your loved ones tight when you see them. You never know when they'll leave you.

[@spingleboygle]

my condolences

[@xollst]

I literally cried reading this... my heart goes out to you! Thank you for sharing such a hard and personal story.

[@JujusOracleMsgs]

Sending you love! 🙏🏾💕

[@amandareiche9083]

Grandma was killed by the Texas Railroad Commission.

[@scootermom1791]

I'm so sorry for your loss! Was it the freezing weather that caused her death?

[@isabee4929]

I lived in Texas for one year, and this happened during it. I have never been more happy to be a Michigander born and raised, because I was able to give a lot of good advice to coworkers on how to stay warm and safe in this kind of weather. Plus, it helped out my job a lot since I was one of the few people at HEB willing to run groceries out in the cold lol

[@Kevintendo]

Why’d you only stay for a year?

[@rodrigoblastburn7566]

Illinois born here yeah we also survived pretty well since we still had our winter gear and winter protection from ice and snow haha

[@Breathe-In-and-Out]

@@rodrigoblastburn7566 This Texan wore my ski jacket and snow boots for the **checks notes** third time since they were purchased in 2013.

[@michaelswami]

Thanks for doing that. Some might have laughed.

[@dazaiservicedog]

bless your heart

[@jackelinesierra1342]

I was traumatized after this years winter storm. I lost my apartment after a pipe burst which led to my entire apartment being covered in ice because we also lost our power/heating. I lost my TV, mattress, sofa, and everything in between and insurance didn’t give me nearly enough for everything I lost. I was living paycheck to paycheck at the time and now I didn’t have a place to live or a place to stay warm. This was the longest week and a half of my life and every year I fear the same thing will happen

[@indigopines]

I'm so sorry, I hope things get better for you 💖

[@wchristian2000]

Sorry to hear that, hang in there

[@Speed00007]

Wait until world war 3 starts. What you experienced during the 2021 winter storm will be a permanent reality for everyone. You as well.

[@indigopines]

@@Speed00007 Wow, thanks for being a downer when someone needs tangible help.

[@theoriginalkeepercreek]

@@indigopines Al Gore said we would not have snow. They gave him an award and lots of money for global warming if I remember correctly. 1970 was the last snow is what those politicians were telling us. How many years did they tell us we are all burning up? No cars no trucks no fireplace no campfires no natural gas. I may be wrong but that sure looks like snow.

[@octoberstorm3333]

This was traumatizing. From days without power to pipes bursting and our house flooding…I cannot believe how quickly survival instincts came in

[@CB-nv8bs]

And the wild part was you had NO IDEA when the power would come back on. Day 2 turned into Day 3 turned into Day 4...

[@octoberstorm3333]

@@CB-nv8bs the power had turned on for the first time in 18+ hrs and in less than 5 minutes it went off again and stayed that way for another day. I took that so personal, the heater didn’t have time to bring any warmth, no time to microwave foods

[@icepath_tv]

The scariest thing about this storm for me in Houston was the fact that I have reptiles. Cold-blooded animals require a hot side of their enclosure to regulate their temperature. When the power went out, I was terrified that I was going to lose my pets to the cold. I’d spend hours just holding them close to me to try and use my body temperature to warm them up. I’m thankful that they survived this, but it was terrifying

[@leiajiang7877]

Im gald the lil guy made it

[@thatfuzzypotato1877]

Damn fine pet owner my dude. They survived because of your hard work

[@Dave19812506]

I had a case of hamdwarmers that we used to keep the snake inclosure to temp

[@noeraldinkabam]

You should buy these dirt cheap handwarmers. They have some kind of chemical reaction, it doesn’t need energy. My cats love them. Theyre like hot stones.

[@chrisbarrera9481]

Just wait for ww3

[@Mesay20yr]

This was a traumatic experience. Friends and family outside of Texas didn't understand how bad it really was until I talked to them about it. So many people died who didn't have to. Two years later we're still having to deal with power outages due to cold weather. I don't believe those in charge will fix the situation. Thank you for covering this. People need to know how bad it really was.

[@NXTangl]

I mean, as long as y'all continue to elect a party that cares more about banning drag shows and letting vultures sue anyone who aids in not forcing a nine-year-old to give birth, than actually governing...

[@_zigger_]

Glad that Americans suffered.

[@coeie4912]

It’s not traumatic quit being so damn soft

[@ReformedSooner24]

Crazy. I only recently found out people actually died from it. This storm is actually one of my fondest memories for reasons I stated in another comment at length and won’t really go into here but I like winter weather, particularly snow, and I was well prepared. The worst part was the evenings when the power would go down for hours and boredom would set in.

[@matthiatt6834]

That’s what happens when the government becomes a for profit corporation. Not even trying to change. It’s why he border issue continues. Our “conservative” politicians are as in love with cheap labor as anyone else. Duty isn’t really a priority anymore.

[@Vlalyn]

For me, we were without power for 4 days and we were without water for 2 weeks! It was crazy, and seeing the loss of life, and the number of people in other states mocking us while our residents were DYING was awful. And seeing our politicians just up and fly somewhere else while the rest of us were stuck here was a blow as well.

[@scarlettjoehandsome6130]

Reminding me of what Ted Cruz did makes me want to punch holes in the Sheetrock with my fists.

[@egg00737]

i nearly lost my grandparents to this-they live far from anything

[@JupiKitten]

Still blows my mind that those same politicians managed to keep their seats despite everything. Pointed it out to my aging parents who said 'Wouldn't you fly away if you could?' Hell no! Not if I'm an elected official and my constituents are literally dying! If I was gonna fly anywhere it would have been to go get help and bring it back, or at least start banging down doors in Washington, literally anything to try to help the people I'm sworn to represent, not off to some tropical escape 😡

[@injeraenjoyer4570]

I was without power for about double that time. All we had was like 4 packs of bottled water for 6 people. Didn't see much mockery, but when I could get on Twitter for 2 seconds in a miraculous temporary return of cellular service, I was also infuriated to see Cruz simply fleeing the country

[@jesusislord3321]

Well Texans who voted for them shouldnt vote them back in

[@CHURCHISAWESUM]

I remember being absolutely furious to see the country mocking Texas as hundreds of people froze to death. I tried to explain to them that this was literally a life threatening emergency and it just did not register. They couldn’t imagine not being prepared for a freezing storm and total blackout..in Texas. One of the hottest states in the country with its own independent power grid

[@nrolevol2]

I'm in South Texas where it never snows for many years at a time. In 2021 I didn't even buy a coat for my kids because every coat would go unused.

[@pgbrown12084]

It goes both ways. Remember what Texans said about the people stranded in NOLA after Katrina? Remember Texans rallying to stop the migration of people from New Orleans to Texas? Remember when Texans threw bible verses at New York when an earthquake hit after passing a gay marriage law? Texans love forgetting about the awful things they've said about national tragedies, especially after something bad happens in Texas. And in case you were wondering, yes...I lived in Texas during this ice storm. No, I didn't have any power in my 6° house for the duration of the freeze. And the incompetence of ERCOT was on full display for the nation to see. This was a disaster that could have been fully averted. But Texans will forever vote the exact same negligent and incompetent leaders back into office simply because they said Jesus once or twice. Because people that say Jesus will always be the morally superior option and people that have said Jesus have never done anything wrong or morally depraved, ever.

[@shaunbrunett1649]

I smell Californian

[@CameronTV]

I think a lot of them laughed cuz majority of Texas is heavily against climate change & everyone was like ha welp ain’t that a coincidence sucks for them maybe now they will get it

[@BadstreetMI]

Dare I say, folks around the country weren't pointing and laughing at freezing, dying Texans. On the other hand, folks with brains around the country were definitely wondering out loud about how mentally deficient and stupid Texans have to be to vote for (representation that supports) a privatized, non-regulated power grid. This is one of the most avoidable disasters ever, and only possible in a state like Texas with it's cacophony of stupidity and self righteousness.

[@bahamakazi]

As a Texan, this was extremely crazy. And where I live our power lines are very old. We where certain to lose power. But somehow we didn’t it, begin one of the few lucky people to keep it.

[@AmandaSchnaare]

Same. We didn't lose power either and our area is... ancient lol. We are also very VERY rural. So it was surprising all the city areas were without power and we weren't. We are close to the red River.

[@bahamakazi]

@@AmandaSchnaare I live in the permian basin, ya know, middle of nowhere 😂 even the small towns in the Permian Basin have really old power lines. Almost everyone went with out power. I definitely counted my blessings with the storm in keeping power

[@cerdic9]

Same here, my power used to go out for hours during regular severe storms and once in a great while it would go out for a few days. I was certain my power would go out but it never did. I remember at one point my sister was told by someone she knows from our electric company that they would have to shut down power for my area for a few hours to prevent overloading the grid or something like that, but they never did.

[@Ojo10]

You might have been connected or zoned to an important power grid. Our electricity didn't go out because we're 3 minutes away from a hospital.

[@AmandaSchnaare]

@@Ojo10 We live in the middle of no where lol. We are VERY rural. Farm land for miles. That's it. Nearest major hospital is 45 minutes from my home.

[@Bee-qe5hm]

I work at a major Houston hospital affected during the storm and we had SO many carbon monoxide poisoning cases, all during covid too, from people lighting grills indoors or running generators inside with no airflow. Whole families came in bc it made them all sick just trying to stay warm :( I drove in to help at the hospital bc I'm from the midwest and feel ok driving on snow and ice but it was wild. We all slept in the basement and rationed water - thank you for covering this topic

[@Nice-qi5cf]

💛

[@meagafreak]

Hearing that shocked me because my family almost became one of those cases.. I was lucky to recognize the symptoms early enough to open enough windows to let out the smoke.... They make texas homes air tight to where if you light your fireplace or any fire in your home it backdrafts in or gets kept inside due to how the homes are made air tight...

[@Metsu_Nero]

Thanks for what you did. I live in Houston as well and oh man, that’s not something I want to experience again.

[@skateata1]

Thank you for helping at the hospitals and braving the danger. I live in New a England and even I avoid driving in snow.

[@hauntedshadowslegacy2826]

It boggles my mind that people STILL need to be told to not light grills or generators indoors. Isn't Texas the state of 'everybody is a redneck who knows nothing other than trucks and gas'? I'd expect, at the very least, that people in such a state would know about CO.

[@AutisticTomato26]

The worst part for me was that I have a dog who's legs were paralyzed during all this and she couldn't walk at all, so we had to take her to a vet, who said she might require surgery. So we had to drive all the way down to Fort Worth to an animal hospital to get into contact with a surgeon, and schedule her surgery. So even after the winter storms, I still had to deal with a disabled dog. The good news is she was slowly getting better in the coming weeks, and was eventually able to fully walk and act like her old self again!

[@skeletonbuyingpealts7134]

Yay!

[@boneyardghoul931]

I'm a Texan born and raised, this storm was beyond awful, my mom and I lost power for a few days and lost water for nearly 10 days, my grandma had to go to her brothers cause her power went out for a week. We have two small dogs that just shut down entirely during the storm, one of em is only 8 lbs, I kept him wrapped up next to me so he could stay warm. The cold was so brutal, it felt like it was seeping deep into your bones. Thank you for talking about this, a lot of people joke about it but the reality is if Texas is frozen, that's a sign of very bad things.

[@Abbinal]

Thank you for making a video about this. I am a Texan and I did suffer through the freeze, but I didn’t get the worst of it. I know friends who’s homes were uninhabitable after, their pipes bursting and being forced to live in a motel for two years. Many made fun of us because many don’t like southerners/Texans. Nobody really understood the severity of it.

[@baneverything5580]

Democrats are 100% pure evil. They`re not gonna survive what they`ve created. The end for them is very near.

[@topaz3452]

Yeah I hate people like that. They think they are sooo better than us cause they live in some over priced blue state when in reality their ego makes them just as bad.

[@Abbinal]

@@topaz3452 Absolutely. Maybe I’m a little critical of them, but I feel like they create the divide between us themselves. They very much can act egotistical and hold themselves to a higher image than us because they think we’re dirty racist farmers or something. I think it has to do with past history and divided beliefs, along with the ignorance to our culture or just downright belittling it. I couldn’t believe how many Northerners were offended by the terms “ma’am” and “sir”! It’s respect immediately given to a STRANGER and they despise it! It’s ridiculous.

[@FyTube12]

@@topaz3452 my friend your state abandoned you and all you can do is complain about “overpriced Blue States”

[@dustin0001]

​@@FyTube12 I moved to Texas a few months before the storm(s) hit. This is a perfect example of the Texan ideology. My mind was blown at just how much this state was willing to ignore its own people and the problems that are clear as day, yet everyone that has lived here for their whole life is so used to it that they see any comment on it as a personal attack. Texans have backwards logic and create excuses for the states lack of ability to take care of it's own people :D

[@alice_lh3678]

If I remember right, places like Highland Park and other rich neighborhoods didn't experience nearly the amount of rolling blackouts everyone else had. Interesting to think about.

[@darksong80]

Oh, of course not. Do we even need to say out loud why?

[@sweetesttaboo4061]

Highland park, oak lawn and cedar springs, Plano, Frisco and other parts of North Dallas like the esperanza area, spring valley, and Richardson all had power and water. My best friend lived in the Richardson area off belt line and westwood

[@astartes3280]

Capitalism

[@amandareiche9083]

@@astartes3280 Nope, pure Texas greed.

[@ethancurry1804]

Anybody near a hospital usually kept power as well. Thank God I had one down the road and I only had to deal with frozen water pipes.

[@SamtheIrishexan]

As a Texan and just a person I can tell you, be prepared to suevive 3 months without power. This event was nasty, but not even close to as bad as it could get. If it happened that the grid shut down and it wasnt too cold to go outside things would have got wild

[@mcsomeone2681]

That actually happened to my mom when she was staying at the pavilard mobile home park in Amarillo tx. The entire park lost power for at least a month, she never thought to call the power until weeks had gone by figuring somebody else had called and they were probably dealing with hundreds of complaints. She was super surprised to find out that she actually was the first one to call since everyone had the same line of thought as her, the utilities company had no idea the park was without power and it was quickly restored. She has crazy stories about people getting desperate and doing things burning those mosquito repellent rings indoors with the windows closed for some heat and little bit of light, some people basically lived out of thier car since those heaters still worked, some were lucky enough to have gas central heat that didn't fail but just as many people were relying on plug in space heaters.

[@kuzadupa185]

Id modify your tip to say "Be prepared to survive 3 months, at any point in the year"

[@kanamekiyru]

I was a food delivery guy back then and i remember a decent amount of my customers ended up moving into nearby hotels because of how bad it got. Some were there almost a year

[@RedHaloManiac95]

True but aside from infrastructure the cold was the reason there was no power. Mainly renewable energy couldn’t output anything but no one wants to blame renewables because that’s the “future”

[@olin9310]

@@RedHaloManiac95 Did you ignore the entire video? It was all energy sources that failed... Renewables still make up less than a third of our energy production.

[@annabella.grey444]

I’m from Texas & lived through this. No power for three days in my area. Luckily our pipes were okay however my friends apartment flooded with freezing water and absolutely ruined her apartment. She had a move. We were absolutely miserable

[@nightcrawler7_]

My family is beyond lucky to be living on the grid of a hospital- or we would’ve been screwed. This messed up everything. And has left texas with some serious winter anxiety- there’s a reason everyone freaks out now

[@ungabungus01]

The virgin Texas vs the Chad Midwest literally everytime when it comes to weather. Just got 2 feet of snow and all businesses were still open, if that happened in Texas the whole damn state would've shut down even IF the power grid survived

[@katzea.a7880]

@@ungabungus01 It depend on the infrastructure and how much people expect to live around snow

[@meteor_rain_]

@@ungabungus01 As someone from the midwest who moved to Tx, we never saw ice up north the way it happens here, it isn't snow, everything is covered in a thick, heavy, solid sheet of ice. Even living plants, it's a bit surreal

[@peggedyourdad9560]

@@ungabungus01 If we're talking about our winter infrastructure, then yes I agree.

[@KFrost-fx7dt]

Instead of freaking out why don't they do something about it? Texans act like Earth has never experienced cold winters before.

[@Evanx373]

I drove through Texas and Louisiana when this hit. I was a trucker and got stuck in Shreveport for several day, it was wild seeing the swamps iced over and frozen.

[@SandyCheeks1896]

I’m a trucker from the Shreveport area and I spent the night in Austin and then drove up to Dallas early in the morning. 35 southbound was completely halted and piled up, and I was one of the only souls driving northbound but there were so many cars on the side of the road it looked like an apocalypse movie or warzone.

[@Evanx373]

@@SandyCheeks1896 I passed through Dallas as it was still coming down and it was pretty wild. Wrecks everywhere, frozen pipes, food shortages. When we had to stop in Shreveport all the food we had was what we already had in the truck till we got out.

[@OneMuddyFeller]

I thank y’all for being the back bone of the nation, how would we get anything anywhere without y’all mfs

[@Teal-Menace]

@corypreedom8660 And we still have folks badmouthing truckers, do they not realize they'd starve without them?

[@AXWagon]

I was in Dallas as well for three days during all of it. Was not a good time, most places nearby had either no power or if they did, very low food supplies. Finally got out when my truck was close to being out of fuel and dispatch said screw it and take the load back to Phoenix.

[@michaelswami]

I am a part owner of a natural gas distribution company that serves the suburbs of Houston. I spent 48 hours outdoors, in near zero temperatures, making sure my customers, who are like family, remained in service. We lost a few (mostly because home generators were kicking on) but got them back in service quickly. I have really never felt that cold before.

[@a.g.r1350]

I’m not sure if this is the same company that served my family since were renters. But I thank you anyway for helping my neighbors through this

[@michaelswami]

@@a.g.r1350 most of us are dedicated to making sure the customer is safe and warm. Cost us a lot of overtime, cost of acquiring a temporary gas supply, and working with our community to make sure they were supplied with natural gas.

[@chuckinhouston9952]

It never got close to zero degrees. Me thinks you exaggerate a million times too much😝

[@a.g.r1350]

@@chuckinhouston9952 College Station got down to 5 and a kid died from hypothermia, me thinks you don’t know what your talking about

[@michaelswami]

@@chuckinhouston9952 it was 8 degrees where I was. Methinks you have no idea what you are talking about.

[@lizgreer6888]

I remember being on the phone with a customer service rep in Texas during this event. I don't remember what company it was or what I was calling about. The man was telling me about how they didn't know what to do with the cold. Everyone around them was losing power and they didn't know what to do. They were worried about the pipes freezing. Being a life long New Englander, I taught him what to do. I remember staying on with him for over an hour, explaining how to stay warm, how to make a fridge outdoors and how to prevent pipes freezing among other information. I like to hope he, his family and Everyone else in his apartment made it through.

[@HDTech22]

As a midwestern. I definitely understand what everyone was going through. Losing power in the winter is always dangerous. Happened to us again last winter.

[@Cycology_Major]

@@KenyonThatcher How did you boil water??

[@iceerox]

When my family lost power during the storms of 2021, it was in the 30's in our house during the first day. We had a blanket fort in the living room, did our best to trap in heat but honestly we had almost no warning that this would happen and very little time to prepare. We had a 9 month old baby, my niece. The kids cried all day and night. We stayed there for a night. Taking turns warming up in the car while trying not to run out of gas. (All gas stations were sold out) We had a fire in the back yard but put it out later when the city issued a burn ban. Two houses in our neighborhood burned down that night because of out of control fires. The water stopped working as pipes burst all across the city. It was 24 degrees in the house at the coldest. The next morning we had to flee to warming stations. The warming stations had 30-45 minute limits due to the amount of people in the same situation. I'm just glad we had friends who had power still in a nearby town and we made it there safely. It was very very bad. Abilene, Texas.

[@myshreksbox]

The problem is our houses aren’t built for this weather. I live in Houston and we are built for floods not snow

[@baneverything5580]

Here in Louisiana we prepare for winter storms. So do native Texans. This "disaster" affected newcomers to the state. The power also failed here in central Louisiana. The temperature that morning was near zero with several inches of snow and an ice storm. We had gas heaters and solar power for fans to circulate the heat and we left all the water faucets dripping rapidly, checked them regularly by turning them on full blast to clear ice, and we were fine. I have emergency gas and solar heat and air conditioning in my camper. We had 45 mph winds last December with way below zero wind chill...very low temperatures for a week. I powered my electric blanket from solar batteries.

[@jeffreymartens1963]

@phunkyessence2417 I am from the Midwest. I was baffled at a number of things all throughout this situation. One, that losing power was considered this impossible to navigate obstacle. Two, that nobody could drive. I chauffeured people around in a damn equinox, it was not a big deal. The only thing you had to watch out for was Texans trying to drive. Slamming on their brakes, driving way too slow, too fast, etc. these nimrods here also see fit to go to all stores and buy everything so you can’t get a ho-ho let alone gas. To this day I still don’t fully get it

[@rquinn0111]

I live in Houston, and this storm was terrifying. I was one of the extremely lucky ones who never lost power; I think it's because I live next to a hospital and share their grid. One thing this excellent report didn't mention was the few Texas cities not under ERCOT control. My family lives in El Paso, TX, and they received the same bitter cold storm, but they also never lost power. Their federally regulated electric company had winterized the grid. Ironically, much of the electrical insulation was made in Houston.

[@santiagoteneyuque80]

Yep I live in the Spring Branch area and lost power and water for 5 day's I sent my Senior Mom and Dog away somewhere better.

[@jonathanlemon544]

Which hospital? I lived literally across the street from west Houston hospital and never lost power either and I'm positive that the hospital being there made it so the power companies prioritized keeping the power up.

[@myshreksbox]

I live in the woodlands and my dad’s house had in a 3 day time period maybe 12 hours of power and that was with rolling black ours

[@myshreksbox]

@@jonathanlemon544the woodlands and spring are on a different grid than the rest of Houston

[@rquinn0111]

@@jonathanlemon544 I lived near the med center.Yes, I think it saved me from the freeze.

[@oliviarose6377]

I remember an online friend of mine in Texas keeping us updated about this, they said their family struggled to power their house for a long while even after the main storms because of how expensive they were with providers hiking their prices in order to make up for losses

[@Laurakicksbackside]

Yes! There were bills for as high as 10k in areas that still had power.

[@tallyp.7643]

I deliberately shut off some appliances at the breaker (like the dishwasher, washer & dryer, etc.) and kept the heater low on purpose for a week after the emergency was over because I wondered if we'd get that treatment in my neck of the woods. I have so many blankets and towels that me and the pets just relied on those mostly for heat. We still do that most of the time today.

[@frownyclowny6955]

Ah, even in dire conditions capitalism still feels the need to beat down already beaten people what a great fucking country we live in 😊👍

[@veramae4098]

Darn. I live in N.W. Michigan mitten, my electric supplier is a nonprofit coop. If there's a profit it's returned to the shareholders --- who are the customers. Great maintenance. People elected to the board, by the customers, see it as an honored public service. I don't know how this was setup but I really appreciate it. Do not trust capitalism for essential services.

[@Anti_uwo]

Should be illegal to hike up prices after disasters

[@q1uma]

Being from Michigan it just never occurred to me why Texas could struggle so hard from this, this video helped put it into perspective

[@wonuji]

Me and my family were dealing with covid during all this. Mom and dad had gotten covid before me and my siblings just a bit before the storm hit. When it did my mom had just got out of the hospital but still had to be on oxygen to breathe properly. When the power went out she had no oxygen and trying to get her to walk upstairs where it was warmer almost killed her. I still remember her gasping for air laying on the stairs while we desperately tried to help her out. I myself had been running a high fever and experiencing the worst of covid during all of this. I could barely move or keep myself awake so hearing my dad and brother try to keep her breathing while I felt like I was dying myself and was trying to call 911 was pretty traumatic.

[@wheelfan100]

Well I had just gotten the second covid shot a few days before I and my mother managed to get it early due to our work and her age. But I did not lose power. Lost a day of work and basically there was no school not even online school. It was like April 2020 again. Got to see snow for the first time in 5 years

[@Rell2601]

Goddamn dude, that’s horrible. My family went through their own Covid phase but nothing like you’re describing. I know words on the internet ain’t worth shit but I really do hope things are turning out much better for ya right now.

[@leklekjasmine416]

😢😢😢

[@CharliMorganMusic]

Fuck. That's really awful.

[@kiros13]

For future reference you can get canned oxygen from any place that has a pharmacy, and you don’t have to have a script or anything like that. CVS, Walgreens, Walmart, Albertsons, etc.. I realize because of the weather at the time that may not have been an option or even a thought. I’m sorry for what you and your family went through, and I hope they are all okay now.

[@EffingCherry]

I remember the day after the freeze I went to the nearby wafflehouse and it was so surreal seeing half frozen roads, empty roads. When we got our food the waitress started a small talk with us about the freeze, and mentioned that her neighbor had been found dead in her living room because of the lack of an AC. Many friends of mine who lived further away within Texas told me similar stories when they got their internet. It's sickening to think that ERCOT had so long to winterize their shit yet decided never to do so.

[@BirbyWirby852YT]

Ercot really sucks for making us Texans literally suffer because of their laziness to make their power grid less prone to shutting off in winter and anyways as of now their basically having the same issue BUT WITH HEAT. THE LITERAL THING THE GRID SPECIALIZED IN

[@scarlettjoehandsome6130]

They still haven't done much of anything

[@tonycave48]

As someone who lives in Austin, Texas. It was a horrible experience, but what was also horrible to me is how voters were able to ignore the events and still keep the government that failed us in power.

[@firghteningtruth7173]

Uhhh, that was mostly due to Beto being ABSOLUTELY NUTS. You can't say, "YES, WE ARE COMING FOR YOUR ARS, YOUR AK 47S," etc. etc. and expect to be elected in Texas. Never gonna happen. He tried to capitalize on the Waco shooting and lost his political career in the process. Dum bass. On the flip side, Ted Cruz and Abbot got enough heat from this, they not only winterized these last 2 years, they advertised they did it. 🙄 But yeah Beto is dumb. I work construction and in one porter I saw, "Beto, fake mexican, real pendejo." Which, I couldn't help but chuckle at, since the house it was placed at had a Beto sign in their front yard. Edit: for the record, I lean more left than right. But, I also don't associate myself with either extreme. It's just dumb. That's my opinion. 🤷‍♂️ And I didn't vote for either of them out of disgust. Even though I knew I was essentially throwing away my vote. Is what it is. Le sigh.

[@jesusislord3321]

Amen

[@tallyp.7643]

R'amen! That was one of the things that told me we were gonna have a storm and disaster like this again in probably 10 years. Why? Because we have a crazy short attention span and if there's money to be spent, they're gonna delay-delay-delay until we forget how bad things got and decide not to prepare... and then it happens again and we wail "why weren't we prepared?" Ugh--sucks all around.

[@Outlaw8908]

I was more pissed at the local leaders of the city. Those guys were idiots.

[@Natibe_]

Republicans voters don’t care if they freeze to death as long as they keep out the democrats. Remember “better Russian than democrat”? Delusional.

[@anitaloredo6466]

Honestly hearing you talk about it makes me want to cry…. It was such an awful time. My mom and I had gone to my sisters house for shelter and she ended up losing power too. When we woke up my nephew was in a full blown anxiety attack. My dad came to pick me and my niece and nephew to take us home because he got our generator working. My sister stayed behind in her house for a bit… as soon as I go home I started making ramen for everyone to eat something warm… even my dad ate and that’s cause he’s not a big fan of pasta…. I got my nephew to finally ground himself and take a nap. We stayed without power for a while but takes to the generator we were warm… With all the freeze going on there was still people messaging my boss to see if they could go in to get their nails done. She even posted that we were closed and people would still message her. We survived it but we were left traumatized. Mr. Ted Cruz, the person people voted into office to make decisions for us, left us. We felt like the little girl in Jurassic park when the adult left her. He just left us to deal with his failure.

[@KainobiN]

Im also from texas and i was there to no power no nothing i agree with you

[@ad6417]

I'm no fan of Ted Cruz but I'm curious as to what he failed to do? Isn't he a member of Congress? Couldn't the president have done something?

[@RebelNerd]

I’m a Texan, south of Houston. luckily I was ready for this. Had my own back up power, food and water, the basics from my hurricane kit. Lost power for 4 days. Most people in my community were not ready for this and it was sad to see some that died. Yes we are in the deep south but prepare for anything. Don’t forget, Houston was just coming back from Hurricane Harvey too. All I can say, people in charge completely dropped the ball on this one.

[@mindyschocolate]

Smart man.

[@Shinzon23]

Well, it wasn't just the government... because this same issue happened during 2011 if my memory serves and public enthusiasm for spending the money on Winter mitigation procedures for future events like this seems to have vanished, thus preventing winterization work from continuing...

[@milehighgambler]

Yet people keep voting them in.

[@KFrost-fx7dt]

So people just sat in their cold, dark homes and perished? Natural selection at it's finest.

[@YeetTheMeat]

They not only dropped but absolutely fumbled and destroyed the ball with how many lives they allowed to pass away.

[@SlientChaos]

Thank you, Alferia. I nearly watched my dad die 3-4 times over due to stress and poor health during this frozen hell. We lost $500 worth of groceries with our insurance carrier refusing coverage, and just this year's Winter storm reminds me of just how heartless our State's government and execs are when it comes to storms like this. This was cathartic, again, thank you.

[@MetaGuideMedia]

Just put the groceries outside...

[@indieoregano]

@@MetaGuideMedia and let out what little heat the home has trapped in?

[@MetaGuideMedia]

@@indieoregano uh... there wasn't much heat if you didn't have power...

[@indieoregano]

@@MetaGuideMedia I know, I lived through it too

[@MetaGuideMedia]

@@indieoregano idk that's what I did. Also packed snow in gallon size bags and stuck them in the fridge and freezer.

[@dreaming_cthulhu]

I lived in Houston for 10 years, lived through several hurricanes - including Harvey - but the winter storm of 2021 was too much. Made plans to leave Texas, and I got out the next year. That winter storm was the final straw.

[@tatarsauce6314]

And people want Texas to withdraw from the USA?

[@hahaimatree8343]

Good for you. Texas should be its own country

[@dreaming_cthulhu]

@@hahaimatree8343 That would be funny to see

[@tallyp.7643]

I'm eastward of Houston proper, but on the very edge of the metroplex on somewhat higher ground than a good chunk of what affected folks in Harvey (stranded b/c of the roads, home was fine in that). I got this new manufactured home in 2018 and got wind zone 2 protection (better insulation and more sturdy protection in winds). They told me where I was that didn't quite need the upgrade b/c of previous storms. I told them we hadn't had a direct hit over my house, either. They laughed and built it to spec. Think that extra insulation was a huge help. I covered the bird cages with thick blankets and moved them away from the windows and kept them covered (except my living room window a little bit). Had the fireplace going and some space heaters. We did lose some power on occasion, but not for days on end. Mostly where we were, the power was being redirected for emergency services, so I would go to my car and charge my phone and get updates when the charge was low in those times. Had an emergency radio going the whole time. We lucked out in my neck of the woods, but I had some dogs that needed to pee and used that chance to exercise them and check on neighbors. We were okay, just cold, but so many others had it far worse. I can understand why Galveston folks were super pissed off--they were completely cut off for days on end and folks were dying.

[@younghurricane1995]

And Texas has a very serious problem frfr

[@MemesSwitched]

I actually live in Texas, around the San Antonio area more specifically, and we were extremely lucky to be in one of her few areas that never lost power. It was still really wild to see something like this happen at all in my state, but I’m glad to see this being documented with this perspective/critical analysis

[@isaburntcake]

Prolly alamo heights, olmos park, and terral hills, maybe even the dominion haha

[@jmartinez1259]

We live in Schertz, we were having rolling power where both electricity and cell service only came on for about 10 minutes at a time. No where near enough time to warm the house or cook. We were lucky that I love camping so we had a bit of equipment to somewhat mitigate the effects. Our at the time 8 year old was priority number one and here and there I would go over to check on a couple of elderly neighbors. During the times where cell service was available, I would call to check on my parents. It was a surprise to hear that they weren't suffering any of the effects, they live right outside Kelly AFB so I'm assuming that little area was considered a priority.

[@Itried20takennames]

This multi-day failures apparently happens pretty regularly in Texas, spaced out every 5-10 years or so. It is know that this will happen again, unless they winterize. But Texas politicians will blame Federal regulation (despite Texas controlling its grids, specifically excluding the feds), or woke wind power (although winter outages still happened even before Texas had many wind turbines), or anything other than “we need to winterize the equipment.” And it will happen again.

[@gg_2315]

Didn’t have power for 4 days in the UTSA. Got suck at work the first day the snow came in

[@Dover939]

I arrived at Fort Sam Houston in san antonio on Feb 14th for AIT, and was wondering what everyone was talking about with snowvid. It was pretty hot.

[@kitsuneprincess4637]

I'm disabled and lived in a group home in Texas (specifically, right outside of Fort Worth) when this storm happened. The place I got housing though had ZERO plans for what to do in case of something like this. It was a stroke of sheer luck that I was able to find a cold weather shelter to go to for three days while power was out. My mom was able to arrange a ride for me... while my phone was at 1% battery, the power was out, it was near freezing in the house, and I had no access to food (basically everything I eat is a "take it out of the can and microwave it" kind of thing, because of said disability). The one night I had to spend alone in a freezing house without power was terrifying.

[@dntwachmewachtv]

❤❤❤❤

[@Nice-qi5cf]

💛 Glad you made it through. Your Mom is awesome.

[@kitsuneprincess4637]

@@Nice-qi5cf Isn't she? I forgot to mention that she was in Florida at the time (she lives there), so she did all of this from several states away, no less.

[@cattytxgal]

Thank you for your coverage on this. I'm from San Antonio. We are "preppers" so we were fine with food and water. So were our pets. I also have a medical condition where anything less than 75 degrees is too cold for me and sets off my Raynauds. I keep a stock of Hot Hands on hand so I was able to regulate my temperature and avoid any long term medical issues. We used melted snow to flush our toilets and were able to grill for hot food. When the local Dollar Store opened, my husband tracked a mile down the road to get his beer LOL.

[@StainsStainsStains]

Haha alcoholism will make you walk in snow yay alcoholism.

[@joeybleu66]

surviving in the sovereign state of texas is just like on the frontier. the sovereign government of texas is for big oil, by big oil and of big oil. so help me big oil.

[@asleepyb0i400]

Can also speak as someone who is from San Antonio. Most of us had everything prepared, and had 0 issues with the freeze, aside from things out of our control like frozen roads. In fact, our family from Copperas Cove drove down to us because their power went out and had no heating.

[@retard_activated]

An adequate supply of beer is a MUST for any prepper! LoL I don't blame him, I would have done the same hehe 😁😁😁

[@twist-96]

I also have Raynaud’s and live in SC, for my line of work I keep those Hot Hands in stock just in case. People don’t understand unless they have it. I’m so glad you and your family (pets as well) made it through safe! A little planning goes a long way.

[@trickzy456]

People who aren’t from Texas don’t understand how bad this really was for us. For a week straight my family at least probably had power for about an hour but for an entire week we had no water or power

[@squirrelsinjacket1804]

Yikes, I'm sure Greg Abbot fixed everything since then, he's a Republican after all and they're known for not being corrupt or incompetent.

[@realbrobo]

my family was stuck without power for 3 days and without water for an entire month

[@AnthonyHernandez-zj5vw]

Your right the rest of the country have no idea like any of the northern states. Good luck next week because here it comes again prepare now. And im not trying to scare ya. All weather models are predicting near zero degree windchill by next in about 9 to 10 days.

[@Zero2kxl]

​​​​​@@DTS45 Yes, Texas is a hot Southern state, which means we aren't used to harsh cold weathers. We aren't used to roads completely freezing. You being in a Northern state, which are usually colder, means you are used to living in all of those conditions you listed. While us being in southern states, which are usually hotter, are not, our infrastructure is not built for harsh winters, only mild winters, and even then, our homes, pipe etc, still have the risk of freezing over. While i don't believe you mean to, you are being kinda ignorant. Also, it was essentially life or death, as many people actually did die to the cold weather, 246 People to be exact, as many of them could not handle the cold weather, you are used to. So again you are being kinda ignorant.

[@Zero2kxl]

@@DTS45 From personal experience, moving around in a car was extremely difficult, as cars would freeze over, and take a few minutes to defrost, and the tires were not built for the snow so it was easy to slip around, and when all was said and done, there were expensive damages to our car that had to be fixed. There were many motor accident related fatalities due to the snow, so trying to get around was also very dangerous. There was case where a women's car broke down on a freeway, and she froze to death because the EMS couldn't get past to snow to get to her, if i remember correctly it took a whole night for the EMS to get to her, and she was unfortunately deceased by then. And while yes learning to drive in the snow is easy, it becomes hard when your vehicle is not built to drive in snow, and when it doesn't snow often enough for you to learn. Roads do freeze over easily because our infrastructure is not built for the cold, or the snow.

[@AstonN7v]

As a Texan this was such a wild period of my life, I remember my university cancelling everything mid class and then absolutely eating it on the icy sidewalk. We didn’t lose power, but being without water really puts in perspective how important it is.

[@Beaneabean]

It must have reeked in texas

[@wordforger]

​@@BeaneabeanYou'd think, buuuut... Luckily for us there was all this fluffy ice sitting around if we needed water. Not GREAT, but better than zilch. And those who lost power had a natural freezer to save their food.

[@Dwight_]

@@wordforger If you needed water? Why not smelt snow?

[@KainobiN]

@@Dwight_bro we hade no power it was so cold nobody was trying to drink the snow hell no my dad was driving and i saw even the traffic lights were off and everything my dad was tryna get the generator working to its way to cold

[@Dwight_]

@@KainobiN but if you had a generator, could you not smelt snow too room temperature? on a fire or something?

[@soap3318]

I'm a Texan. It was so surreal when it happened. I didn't experience the worst power outages, but it was still a rough situation. The grocery stores were empty. People bought out all the bottled water because the power outages meant the water wasn't clean. At one point, I stood in line in front of town hall to get clean water from a truck. I can't imagine how bad it was for people who had no heat whatsoever.

[@eileenheath1968]

When we were able to reach Wal Mart to get some groceries, we picked up an axe because some of the wood we had in the garage wouldn't fit in the fire place. The cashier told us people were buying axes to chop up closet doors for wood. (Incidentally, the axe we got was crap - it would have been a hard call to cut butter with it). Edit: this was up near Keller.

[@Laurakicksbackside]

We were fortunate to have a few cases of water, but with no heat it was frozen. That is when I got scared

[@rustyshackleford234]

Power was out for about 4 days for me (except for one random time when it turned on for about 30 minutes one night, waking me up.), heater didn’t work but I used a gas stove to heat the house. I got home from family gathering a couple hours before the storm REALLY hit, there wasn’t any snow yet but the roads were barren and frozen over. Somehow my dad was able to drive on them without crashing. When we got home, the power was already out, and my reef aquarium got completely wiped out from the temperatures. We didn’t have a water problem as before the storm really hit, we filled the bathtubs with water. The funniest part is, is that I have 0 pictures from this, as my phone went dead day one 😭

[@WeatherWitch]

I'm from San Antonio. At the time I was working at a very abusive hotel workplace. I was very numb and close to considering dark thoughts. When the snowstorm hit. It snapped me out of my mental funk. However, the snowstorm was worse than people imagined. My then boss was like don't book any rooms or let anyone in and your in charge of the hotel for the night, ALONE cuz I can make it and the 2 housekeepers cant. I knew we were booked but we had running water and warmth and food. Id secretly let people in who needed gallons of water refilled, something warm to drink, or just hang out in the lobby for warmth until the other hotels nearby have rooms. I never told my boss and never got in trouble. I left that place a month after the storm cuz i needed to more paychecks to gtfo. I couldn't reject people for help despite my hotel workplace being fully booked. Happy to announce when my bosses leaders found out of his abusive practices on me and others in our hotel, he got fired and I like to think, charged. Get bent Ernest!

[@saffrodon]

as someone from the upper midwest, it's hard to fathom how a storm like this could cause so much damage, since i've always lived in a place where things like this are common. This video and the comments of personal reports has really put it into perspective how terrible it was for places that weren't at all prepared for this kind of weather. My heart goes out to all of the people caught in this storm, and the massive amount of damages caused.

[@katrinascarlet5637]

We're use to hurricanes, not ice. My prominent memory from that is simply trying to get home. I was getting hit in the face by chunks of ice as I was stabbing the ice with my keys because it sealed my car shut. I hydroplaned going 10 miles an hour and passed several wrecks. The rest of the event was just as bad but the panic I felt at the thoughts of "Can I make it home? Is home even safe? Where IS safe?"

[@seh2850]

Yes, but your govt and grid operators prepare for bad weather. Texas grid operators charged to prepare for this, but pocketed the money instead. This was NOT a natural disaster. It was easily avoidable if the Texas grid was operated under the same utilities grid rules that your grid operates under. But NO! Texas cut itself off from the US GRID.. because they couldn't STEAL enough money under US grid regulations. ERCOT -the grid - knowingly killed all these people and knowingly allowed all the damage. They KNEW the grid would fail and warned no one.

[@Zenth-cq1tb]

Texans also have a hard time understanding when northerners die in heat waves when Texas may hit 115 daily for a month It’s a difference of perspective and Americans should never root for the downfall of others, but unfortunately many people do

[@HighWireDiver]

​@@Zenth-cq1tbThat's because this country is divided. You're right, it's bad to root for the downfall of others but I'll tell you this, if you hate America, I hate you enough to do something about it when the time comes.

[@trinitylivingston1286]

​​@@katrinascarlet5637that's how I feel almost every winter. Glad you got there safely though. It's never gotten that cold here though. I can't imagine losing power in that weather. I lost power when it was only 40°F out and was freezing. That was only maybe a month ago though. It rarely gets that cold here. I'm surprised that it got that cold there.

[@jokerson1316]

I was there... On day three, I woke up feeling like I was on fire. As I'm taking my clothes off, I realized in was the hypothermia kicking in. Then I noticed the small ice crystals on my arms. I drove nearly three hours to my mom's house (usually a 45 hour drive) figuring I'll either freeze to death in the apartment, die on the road, or make it where there's rolling power and a fireplace. Stayed an hour in a hot tub to make sure I had shaken the cold.

[@TruckWick]

I was in Dallas at a trucking terminal. We had one truck fail and I had to take that driver to the hotel. They wouldn't let me take my truck which was frustrating I'd have rather had 8 wheel drive. They had me use the stupid eco van. That 20 minute drive took me about 30ish.

[@natsumichan684]

As someone who lived through the 2011 and 2021 winter storms, this video explains everything so well that it's almost scary thank you! To give you a perspective for just how historically cold this event was, the lowest temperature in the 2011 event was 9 degrees, while in 2021, it was -1 that's how bad it was

[@theblueone_14]

Oh yo same! It was absolutely crazy

[@kimjohnson8471]

Yeah, alot of Yankees were amazed at our reactions. At those temps and no heat, people in Buffalo would die!

[@RAAM855]

2011 also had the hottest summer. Texas is very bipolar

[@kenoverbay-baker4653]

@KIM JOHNSON Texans always oversell themselves and undersell everyone else.

[@kimjohnson8471]

@@kenoverbay-baker4653 No matter where they are, you can ALWAYS tell a Texan. You just can't tell us much! 😁

[@ellieellie8465]

I remember my father leaving the stove burners on and the fireplace on the night before the power went out. I also filled the bathtub with water in case we ran out of bottled water. Next morning was absolutely fridged, my room being one of the worst rooms to be in for such an event. My room doesn't regulate temperature well in general, I don't get much AC when it's hot outside, i don't get much warmth when its cold outside, but this time it was like waking up in an ice castle (it made me think of the ice palace from Spy kids when I woke up lol). I stayed in my bed most of the day, I had preemptively stacked quilts on top of me the night prior, so i had a small heat pocket, but was still shivering some. If I left my bed, all the built up warmth would escape and I would be left with cold, and I wouldn't be able to generate as much heat as I lost, so I had to stay put. Eventually, being a Texan who has never seen so much snow before, my siblings and I had our fill of snow outside. I experienced snow blindness for the first time (very mildly), and eventually, once we tired ourselves out we went back inside and was met with the cold cold air inside the house; thats when things changed. My father taped the door to try to retain some heat, but it was like we realized just how grim the situation now was. It was like we had to now survive. That night my father had told us older kids that we needed to move into one room and make it as warm as possible, or else there would be a good chance we would not survive the night. I remember researching as much about hypothermia as possible and prepared myself for the idea that I could freeze to death, and tried to plan for ways to survive long enough to see to it that my siblings are taken care of before I am. Since I was preparing to be an EMT at the time, I was taking it upon myself to learn as much as I can about how hypothermia affects death, what happens in the final stages, and how to treat it. That night, we got power. Thats when we realized it was like shifts--daytime we'd have to make it through, and night time we could prepare for the next day. By this time, all the water in the tub had drained out unfortunately, and I had to move out of my room the next day because it was too dangerous to stay in there. That next day, we heard reports of people dying form carbon monoxide, and we began to worry because of our gas burners and gas fire place. We had turned off a burner to try and at least lower the chance of a poisoning, but that DRASTICALLY lowered the temperature of the house-- it was around 49 degrees (9C) inside (our usual was 75, or 23C), then went to 46 or 45 degrees (7C). But I remember later that afternoon, my two siblings and I stayed in the living room in an effort to conserve heat. I began falling asleep slowly, and my brother also began to fall asleep and doze off. I remember taking off my blanket, my mind going back to what I read about hypothermia (people tend to take off their clothes and layers before they die from hypothermia), but didn't care since I was *so* sleepy. My father bursting into the room is what woke us up, just a few seconds after we began dozing off. He said that we will risk taking the 45 min drive to our grandmothers. We got stuck on the road, but a very kind Samaritan helped us and other people get unstuck, since our vehicle wasn't built for icy roads. We made it safe and sound, and the rest of our family was okay (my mother however had a scare. she decided to wash her hands with HOT HOT water after being FREEZING FREEZING cold, she just about collapsed due to shock. she is fine now though). I remember I couldn't even handle AC for a while after that freeze. it brought back too many memories, and it felt FAR too cold for me, even though it was a simple fan. There was something about being prepared to die (I had always said before this how hypothermia would be a preferable way to die since you go to sleep after your body slows down. I retracted my statement during the snowmageddon), even going as far as to make plans to outlive your siblings so you can care for them if they passed, then eventually joining them once they had been tended to. it really messes with you, man.

[@oister1939]

As someone from Texas (baytown tx), this was devastating. We didn't have power for DAYS, my town looked like a ghost town for DAYS . I remember we went to help a friend and it was scary that it was dark on our way to our friends house. I almost thought something scary was gonna come out. My mom made sure that my dad was warm due to him being disabled. We honestly thought that it was my dad's last days. Thank goodness he's still alive now, but sadly on his last heart nerve (idk how to say it). At any point he could pass away and as I said we thought this storm was going to take him. Overall this was so badly managed, I wish our politicians in texas set aside their problems to help their state.

[@TheKracH3adJeff]

Hey u might want to edit the part out of saying which town u are in you are just doxxed yourself at that point.

[@_zigger_]

Lol you deserved it.

[@Lobonova]

​@@TheKracH3adJeff thats not doxxing yourself. I live in dallas. Goodluck finding me after doxxing myself.

[@TheKracH3adJeff]

@@Lobonova idk man telling people what town or city your living in isn’t the brightest idea.

[@oister1939]

@@TheKracH3adJeff I understand your concerns, however, wanted to you know from my perspective on how things went in my town. Really vision of the freezing hell we went through. I'm not the only one who named their town. We just want people to hear our stories and in hopes to show people what it's like. Plus Their is 100k + in my town. And in Dallas I would say 1M+ not 100%. This is mostly just to tell our stories rather than trying to get doxxed.

[@Boomstick836]

Thank you for the video. Very insightful and incredibly detailed. This reminded me of the North American Ice Storm back in January 1998.

[@rungler]

i knew this was an awful disaster but i was not aware of the scale until now, so thank you for making this video. it was honestly painful to hear those people recounting their experiences, i could hear in their voices that it was a terrifying and traumatic thing to go through... this should never be downplayed. the greed and negligence of texas authorities cannot be overstated. it is pure evil and i don't say that lightly. nobody had to die.

[@baneverything5580]

Texas listened to the Al Gore "experts"....why winterize if there will be NO MORE COLD OR SNOW! We`re listening to B.S. here. Is Los Angeles winterized for the snow THEY just had? Nobody expected OVER 50 FEET of snow in California! LOL! Why? Because they were LIED TO....just like Texas. I know the actual facts about this.

[@Outlaw8908]

I was a resident in that state for thirty years of my life. The officials, especially in my city government were corrupt as all hell. They also controlled the power company and had rates that were nuts. The west half of the city had power, the rest we got left out.

[@pablogarcia6188]

Ngl I live in San Antonio never lost power and overall had a good time. I probably just lucked out tho 😅

[@rungler]

@@Cxrn_45 i mean, yeah, the video did explain how a lot of deaths were caused by carbon monoxide poisoning. why do you think that happened? did people poison themselves for fun? no, it was a side effect of the ONLY method available for keeping warm. people lost power and/or did not have adequate heating systems. would you rather die from hypothermia or carbon monoxide? not a fun choice to make. and sadly, some of those people probably didn't know that using cars or other machines for warmth would poison them. they were just trying to survive. cold temperatures are deadly.

[@rungler]

@@pablogarcia6188 i'm glad you were spared my dude 👍

[@noahmiller2915]

The craziest part about the power outages of snowmageddon was how long some outages typically lasted, like I knew of a neighborhood that didn’t have even a flicker of power for 12 days straight. Those of us that had generators would practically scavenge for gas, and I even saw a few brawls over open pumps. The scariest part of the whole thing wasn’t really covered here, but the massive amounts of ice accumulation absolutely devastated the trees. Here it’s mostly Cedar and Oak, but Cedars have really shallow roots so trees were falling left and right. I knew people who had cedars fall on their cars, as well as someone who had a tree punch a hole into their roof. It was super eerie hearing all the crackling and splintering of falling trees, as the silent and sharp air was constantly pierced by crashes and booms coming from across the neighborhood. This taught me to make sure to trim my trees before winter comes.

[@blackjac5000]

You think that was Snowmageddon? In February 2015 I had three-day weekends every week in because of a fresh blizzard sweeping through the area every Sunday night. The snow pile didn't finish melting until late June, and it merited a commemoration ceremony by the city mayor.

[@scrubnoodle]

@@blackjac5000 It’s not a contest of suffering. This was a “snowmageddon” for Texas due to the complications and unlikely location. There are many places that get more snow or blizzards, but the amount of people put unpreparedly in harms way made this somewhat apocalyptic

[@blackjac5000]

@@scrubnoodle It was four inches of snow, and somehow the place was plunged into the Dark Ages over it. The world laughs hysterically at Texas now and forever.

[@scrubnoodle]

@@blackjac5000 It wasn’t the snow that caused the disaster, so you have a point in the fact that the nickname isn’t very accurate. It was the combination of the power grid, the lack of insulation in Texas homes, the temperatures, and the ice.

[@sparklight0964]

@@scrubnoodleTexas really saw the consequences of trying to be the lone star of America by having a power grid disconnected from the rest of the country

[@v3ck1n]

As someone from Michigan I empathize with everyone that went through this storm. It's a common occurrence for me but it requires an entire change of mindset once the snow falls.

[@R0291-l1l]

Not just a mindset; we also don't have any infrastructure to support or keep us safe. And you just know that ERCOT didn't do a damn thing to fix anything. Why would they? They got to charge us extra for their f up. Even killed people.

[@lisasdfwhightechworld9946]

There are more people living in Texas originally from the Midwest and the Northeast US than you could ever imagine. Many of them know how to drive on ice and snow. Many people outside the state think than there are Native Texans adults are a majority of residents of the large cities. They are not.

[@Robynhoodlum]

@@lisasdfwhightechworld9946 Yep. My great Aunt and Uncle moved to Houston from Iowa and when they lost power, they just took it in stride.

[@julijepp]

​@@Robynhoodlum As a native Texan I have to say I experienced blackouts a lot, I remember my first one when I was a toddler and my last one, this particular freeze. It honestly felt like weathering out a hurricane. I have been lucky to have never had much damage to my home for any natural disaster we'd had, I enjoyed the novelty of snow as much as I could, even let my cat try it out. The most shocking thing about it for me was what happened to other people who tragically lost their lives.

[@RAAM855]

​@@lisasdfwhightechworld9946 yeah and they were the ones who had the most trouble adapting back in the 2011 heatwave and drought while native Texans been through that Rodeo before. 10 years later the shoe was on the other foot

[@eddietaylor7931]

My mom’s a nurse and we live out in texas. She was having to work 12 hour shifts while the entire hospital was losing power and water. It was genuinely a nightmare for her, Im incredibly grateful that she was able to get me and my family a hotel in time and make it less of a nightmare for us.

[@wkadams88]

I still remember seeing piles of ruined drywall at the end of every driveway. Showed me how unprepared this state was, and still is. That's the most frustrating thing about the freeze: nothing changed.

[@eileenheath1968]

jerks: "Bahhh Texans can't handle the cold!" Texans looking at the gutted drywalls and broken pipes: "WE can't handle the cold?"

[@swirlighost]

i remember this freeze, i barely slept, and i got so sick i tore my throat from coughing. to this day, i still think about this and how genuinely horrible it was. to make matters worse, our thin house has a generator but it literally broke 2 days before the freeze happened, and we relied on this ancient one that could barely power a stove for more than 15 minutes(it did nothing to get rid of the cold unfortunately). we thought we were prepared and at the last possible second, we basically faced the wrath of god that winter. heart goes out to people who had it worse off than my family though, god bless.

[@seh2850]

True,, and where I lived, you couldn't get more gas to run the generators because the gas pumps were frozen.

[@Ansset0]

Amazing memory. Such a traumatic experience from so far in the past, yet you remember... 🤮🤮

[@realbrobo]

i remember my dad literally went out and bought a generator not a month after the freeze

[@x_xcam]

same bro I’m so glad our stove was barley working and we almost froze to death

[@shiftfire4511]

The worst part is...this was completely avoidable. Not the freeze itself, but much of the infrastructure had been faltering for quite some time before this, and Texas had been getting more severe cold weather for years. Heck, I remember that the year I moved away, my area in Texas (Andrews) suffered a nasty slush storm, and the power failed for a whole day. That was...2015, 2016? With more snow and colder weather in general leading up to that. By comparison, I think the first ten years I lived there had...one severe cold weather incident as far as I recall, and no failure on water or power. Yeah, we had snow a lot more than that, but only once can I recall it being worse than a light snow.

[@anthonydelfino6171]

It's been longer than that even. I live in Houston from 2000 to 2002 and even then the city would ice over in the winter. Not to the extreme in this storm, obviously, but still enough to be miserable

[@castillejan]

I mean, the freeze was avoidable too, but that would have required actually listening to climatologists in the 60’s and Texas isn’t exactly known for being particularly scientifically literate. Or literate at all for that matter. Don’t worry though! I’m sure forcing rape victims to have their abuser’s child even at the cost of their own life will solve everything :D

[@eashaflakes]

This!! I'm from Odessa, and since I moved in 2008 the amount of snow they've gotten out there in recent years is crazy. We never had that much snow when I was growing up.

[@scottwaldo]

I was in Austin during this storm. School was out for a week and a half after it ended due to a pipe bursting inside. I was very lucky because my house never lost power or water. I remember the weather being in the single digits. It was one of the crazing things I have ever experienced, and I will never forget it. My heart goes out to all the people that lost their life in this storm

[@voidastralbirth]

I was attending Texas Tech when this occurred, the campus was practically brought to a standstill. It was also the first time I ever experienced 0 degrees F. Wild stuff. Mind you, it absolutely can get cold in northern Texas (below 30F temps plus high winds is not fun), but this truly was another level of cold. Thankfully we didn’t lose power.

[@Purplecreature36000]

I'm from and living in Michigan it's -6 rn lol (If anyone misunderstands this comment I'm not being a dick)

[@レイナジャクソン]

that school called me and begged me to apply but i harshly declined bc i felt that it was insensitive to ask for applications during a literal winter storm that knocked out my power and i had to heat myself in my car

[@ebnertra0004]

I remember watching this happen from MN, where I don't think it got much above 0 that whole week and there were mornings at -30. I was just baffled that an entire region could be so thoroughly brought to its knees by a taste of winter

[@shammydammy2610]

Yeah, it does get cold in northern Texas... My parents were raised in the panhandle and I spent some years in North Central Texas...and it definitely got cold. However, my dad left Wichita Falls, where this is pretty normal, and moved to the balmy city of Victoria. Oops. We were prepared for it in Wichita Falls, a cord of firewood and stored food just in case, but he was definitely not prepared in Victoria when this hit.

[@shammydammy2610]

@@ebnertra0004 As someone who lived for years in Wisconsin, but have Texan parents and spent time there as well... This is what I tell people: My village in Wisconsin, population 827...had three snow plows, which was one more than the entire county I lived in when I was in Texas (population 130k), and one of those two was on permanent station at the airport. And this was in north central Texas. This particular storm went way far south of that.

[@clairet5636]

This was our first winter in Texas. I didn't realize how bad it was because we never lost power or water. To us it was more like a week of snow days and staying home. It was disturbing to hear the news about the massive crash on the freeway though.

[@eileenheath1968]

Oh DANG that crash!! Epically AWFUL. One truck jackknifed on purpose to block more people from hitting the first batch. No way to win.

[@DiegoGarcia-he9eb]

Same, my household was one of the few ones in my town to remain with power and water. While I was relaxing inside in the warm others were freezing in their households.😢

[@allieherba]

As someone who's from Texas and lived through the storm, thank you for covering this! I was one of the lucky ones in that my power was out for only two days and once it came on it stayed on. However, I didn't have water. I didn't have water for almost a week. I couldn't drink, shower, or use the toilet normally for nearly a week. If I wanted to use my toilet, I needed to scoop snow into my tank enough to flush. If I wanted to wash my hair, I needed to use snow to lather and rinse. I was fortunately warm after two days, but not having water for such a long time was scary and unnatural. I feel there's a lot of misinformation about this situation, especially for those who live outside of the state, and I appreciate you taking the time to break down *why* this happened as well as the effects of the storm. No one I know got out of this storm unscathed and my friend's dog even perished because of it. It was a scary time for many of us and it's important to get good, accurate information about it out there so that no one has to experience something like this. P.S. I heard and recognized the Okami soundtrack a few times throughout this video. I see you're a man of culture

[@tallyp.7643]

I have well water where I'm at, so if your pipes are insulated well enough, you're likely to still have water (unless the inside of your house's insulation has deteriorated). I lost water for a day just because I had one area that got exposed to the cold temps (the small inch around the water shut-off to the house that I couldn't cover up effectively and didn't realize my temp cover had slipped). So I made a wind barrier with plywood to create a pocket, hooked up a space heater set on some bricks, and let it run for half an hour, aimed at the pipe. That little bit of ice that formed in that section melted and boom, I had water again. It's amazing how little it takes to stop the flow, and how little things you do to prep are necessary. I had rain barrels out there, too, with 55 gallon capacity and figured I might have to chip some ice to get water for flushing toilets. Nope--the WHOLE barrel was a block of ice for days. I'm amazed it didn't split and burst, being made of resin as the thaw started.

[@rjay7019]

I had 0 issues 👍 West Texas.

[@MoisturefortheSoul]

I’m from Dallas, we had it worse than most of the state because of how far north we are. I was lucky enough to not get my heat cut off because we have gas for our heat rather than electric…. But I can’t tell you how many people I watched suffer. How many people were burning their furniture to stay warm. My brother and boyfriend had to come stay with us. My cousin touched down from Egypt and called me saying she had no water or electric. No one expected this. Yet the country laughed at us like this was a joke or something we were supposed to be prepared for. Our state government failed us.

[@Tayrwhit04]

As a person who lived through this in Northeast Texas,this sucked for most of my friends. Luckily I never lost power,therefore was warm. There was a palm tree that wasn’t native to the region and was there every since I was born. It was right outside my window and I looked at it around every morning. The first morning of the Deep Freeze was the first time and last time I took a picture of that tree,more specifically its death. 2 feet long icicles were dripping from the tree outweighing its leaves. Just a week later it died. To put in perspective that tree survived a tornado to the face.

[@saiyanscaris6530]

yeah trees are weird like that. lost one during the remnants of ophelia yet it lasted through ida, isaiah, irene, and sandy

[@mdog86]

I also didn't lose power, but go figure my furnace had recently crapped out and I didn't have the money to get it fixed. So not heat whatsoever, I had to throw clothes in my dryer to get them hot and then jump under the covers lol. It was still really brutal though.

[@jackparrish1221]

I also didn’t lose power and also had a palm tree and that fucker somehow lived

[@ju87d-3stuka7]

Our house lost power and water. The pipes in the house burst, but luckily my father knew how to fix them. We were surviving with candles and a barrel. We were showering with water from a filled up barrel. Luckily we are Salvadoran so we were already used to living like this, but nothing could prepare us for the cold.

[@DEATHWISHVQ]

Well a tornado does little harm if it all to a palm tree I’m not architect but what do you think will survive a tornado? A full on straight tree or a palm tree? Answer: a palm tree why? Because of its flexible ability, it does not have a weak spot as opposed to a tree that needs to be straight, this goes for tall buildings too they need to swing.

[@jesusislord3321]

Sir, you should win some kind of award for your coverage. You did a lot of researh and presented everything so well. A great documentary. Excellent job!

[@ReksNuadiah]

It's been nerve wracking for the last two winters, fearing this might happen again... And the anxiety is already setting in once more, as fall is just around the corner.

[@adamantlyadam5201]

Supposed to be wetter and colder than usual this winter. I’m already stocking up on firewood, gas for our space heater and camp stove, emergency food, and a water filter. I don’t want to go through what my family did last time. As a husband and father I was terrified about what was going to happen to my family.

[@scarlettjoehandsome6130]

​@@adamantlyadam5201yep!

[@sauce1974marisa]

Yes. We all have PTSD from this. Winter is coming and I am already looking at what things I should stock up on because I am afraid of it happening again. I know I am not the only one thinking this. I have zero faith that our government will help us if this happens again.

[@NicoTheGreat5]

The summer weather was atrocious this year. Nearly 120 in San Angelo. That should be the worst of weather conditions this year, though I am not a meteorologist

[@AmandaHugenkiss2915]

Don't be scared, just prepare. Think about what you need in food, water, and heat. Make sure your heat source is independent of anything, eg propane or kerosene or whatever. Get a small generator. Make sure you have enough gas on hand for several days. Then when the poo hits the fan you can relax and enjoy the show... As a spectator.

[@Jeff_11B]

THANK YOU for taking time to create more of a longform video. The proliferation of shorts and videos that take just 14 or 15 minutes to cover a topic like this has not swayed my adoration for longform documentaries. Consider me subbed!

[@rdlangston13]

My grandparents lost power in their double wide outside Spur, TX. Got down into the negatives and my Grandfather was battling covid as he and my grandmother huddled together under blankets to keep warm. They both made it after eventually making the decision to drive through ice and snow into Lubbock after a couple of days to ride the remainder of the storm out at my uncles house. Not bad for a couple 80+ year olds. All this and they never really even complained. True grit.

[@TroyPM]

As a Texan that had to go through this I wanted to say that this video was great! It explains everything in great detail and its a little scary to think back about that week. I was more fortunate than others, the worst that happened to me was that my water pipes froze and a few burst. But I had a few friends lose power for days at a time with barely anything to heat them up. It was a horrible tragedy for many and this video summed it up greatly. Good work man.

[@mobob599]

As someone who was living through this event, its so wild to see the news coverage and realize we were the news story. It was traumatic and terrifying, and I get anxiety anytime they predict it'll get cold as well.

[@skyressx784]

I was traveling abroad in April of 2022 and when I would meet new people and go over the “where are you from” question, I would tell them I was from Texas and almost every time the person would mention the ice storm. It was surreal and my genuine reaction was “your news covered that??”

[@sarahgutierrez9237]

The best part of living through this nightmare? Not having power and therefore not even having the ability to watch the news. To preserve phone battery I tried to limit data usage so I basically had no idea that we were the news until after the fact.

[@haleybarriger4365]

As someone who lives in NY and with both friends and family in Texas, I never truly understood how the odds were truly built against them. I'm so used to cold weather to know what to expect so when I heard about how unprepared texas was, I was shocked. I havent watched the full video yet but I come to this channel to educate myself on situations and natural disasters like this. With that being said, thank you for educating people while still doing what you love

[@0neEyedSheep]

It was horrible and I've been worried about the storm reoccurring every valentine's day since. I am in San Antonio and the novelty of snow in Texas was "fun" that first morning. However as the snow stayed on the ground, people lost their power and we were using anything flammable to stay warm it was dire. It felt like the world was ending especially when the 2nd round of snowfall came. Our water was still running so we allowed anyone nearby come to fill up jugs every evening. There are smoke marks still on the walls on the inside of my living room as we rarely used our fireplace and had taped up blankets over the windows to keep the heat in. One of our friend's neighbors passed away from a heart attack via the cold. It is horrible that during times like these when you live in a state like Texas or Florida, you see the entire country take a collective shit on you online due to culture war bullshit and politics as if people just like them don't live in these places as well. On top of it all they're charging us for the disaster.

[@TheKrimsonDemon]

It was never on you guys, it was in your shitty leaders. Then again, people did vote them in

[@nzkshatriya6298]

From San Antonio as well. All that was needed were heavier blankets imo and common sense learned in the MidWest, as well as preparing for stuff in advance

[@CatladyKiefFingers_deLarios]

Dallas area native. My home lost power for 4 days(save literally 3 15 min time periods the power came on, such a tease). One of the days the temperature outside stayed around 0°. It got down to 14° inside my house, with my aquarium and my pet ball python Seamus. By some miracle my aquariums didn't freeze and the 2 fish I had at the time survived (a loach and a pleco I still have, both around 10 years old), and I kept Seamus on my tummy under my shirt for 4 days straight. Keeping that snake alive in those temperatures is basically one of my all time greatest achievements. Lost my gigantic/epic/amazing agave cactus though. Still a bit salty about that one. . & still have some mild residual PTSD symptoms that flair up anytime power flickers while it's cold out. Good thing Greg Abbot has totally fixed the power issue so we don't have to fear it happening all over again (SO much sarcasm. He's done practically nothing. I loathe that man. Constantly cares for little more than lining his pockets and keeping his big donars happy, and certainly not about keeping Texans safe.)

[@nitroluver4l591]

@@CatladyKiefFingers_deLarios I live near the coastal area, (watching videos about weather cuz of beryl) Our power went out for about 3 days, but it was not nearly as cold. Our house only got down to 52°.

[@heavnli_goddess6052]

I've lived in Central TX for 25 years and this was by far the worst thing I've ever went through weather wise. It still very traumatizing when I reflect back on it.

[@countrysister700]

Waco here....

[@coflyerinc.9367]

Did you survive?

[@Eastendlowlife804]

Yeah even more traumatizing when you realize green house gases are causing the major change in climate so fast... which means it's definitely going to happen again... and texas has done little to if no difference in upgrading their electrical towers, grids, poles, underground wiring etc. ... so will be the same results as well 😕

[@Kodex4654]

Same dude i was 11 when it happened and god it was crazy we couldn’t get out cause of our car was stuck we had to pile blankets for warmth and my dad got a generator gas powered so we could power phones just in case weather alerts came out it was tuff

[@Candice_Lynn]

​@@countrysister700Here, too. 😄

[@froey198033]

I remember watching how bad it was in Texas on the news. I felt so bad especially for the elderly who froze to death. May those people R.I.P.

[@boneless_tidepod]

I was in Dallas at the time and I could tell you that it was one of the worst weeks of my life. No power and water in pipes were frozen in an instant. Trying to keep each other warm with blankets and not being able to go to work felt so off. Texas was not prepared and I hope we don’t get another storm like that 😅

[@nahor88]

At least you had people with you; there was never a time I regretted living alone more than then. Literally felt like I was stranded in the Alaskan tundra, with no power, no one to talk to due to having to conserve phone battery. I was lucky to have hot water and filled water bottles and stuffed them in my clothes to keep warm. The water got shut off not long after, but I was lucky my friend in Round Rock was on the same grid as an HEB and had power.

[@OCC_Plumbing_and_Restorations]

It'll happen again

[@sweetesttaboo4061]

Nahor I know exactly what you mean, I too lived by myself. Funny thing though I had plenty of white gas for my fire staffs so and I would burn it in my cooking pots 😂

[@bbfrank888]

It’ll definitely happen again and it’s only gonna get worse

[@aderiusscott2220]

​@@nahor88 the loners lol I had my dog at least..

[@laanierhae]

My sister was in graduate school in Texas during this, and she lost power for days and had a boil water notice afterwards. She was freezing in her apartment, but luckily she listened to me after her previous experience with the hurricane months before. She had a supply of water and shelf-stable food on hand, plenty of blankets and several portable chargers to stay in touch with us. Even though she was living in Texas, she still had her winter clothes with her from home (up north), and was able to keep warm enough to survive with hats, layers and gloves. It was a terrifying time not being able to help her or other friends and family living there, but personal preparedness can be the difference between life and death.

[@eileenheath1968]

I remember - the Fort Worth water system basically lost power.

[@baneverything5580]

I used solar power stations to power an electric blanket when the power went out here in Louisiana in December with 35 mph winds, below zero wind chill, and 8 degrees outside. I have lots of solar for my camper, even for my small window air conditioner. If the sun shines I can run it all day and 12 hours at night.

[@nekonomicon2983]

Holy crap I didn't think it was so bad, but hearing it in great detail really puts emphasis on it. Major to respect to those who braved the cold temperatures.

[@P_eachie]

It also affected other states like my state I live in Mississippi, the south isn’t use or made for snow , a lot of northerners were laughing at us , but we don’t have the tools to handle snow because we barely get snow it mostly rains a lot

[@PharrowlOG]

Native Texan here, yeah that storm made for a very rough week. First time I remember ever seeing wind chills in the negatives. Power was totally unpredictable, first time it came back on only lasted a few minutes. Other times it lasted up to maybe half a day. Lots of extra blankets got pulled out, was glad to know a few tricks for staying warm. Even so, that cold was just brutal. Actually saw one of the fountains shown in the video more than a day after temps went back above freezing, and it was still mostly frozen over. Texas just really isn't prepared for that kind of cold. It's hot summers we're better at managing.

[@leeallen3202]

It wasn't that bad. Kids made snowmen outside. We had fun !

[@theoriginalkeepercreek]

Al Gore said we would not have snow. They gave him an award and lots of money for global warming if I remember correctly. 1970 was the last snow is what those politicians were telling us. How many years did they tell us we are all burning up? No cars no trucks no fireplace no campfires no natural gas. I may be wrong but that sure looks like snow.

[@eileenheath1968]

@@leeallen3202 What - with ice? We didn't get any snow. We got ice. Of course, ice men are hilarious when some jacka$$ tries to run them over. Even better when built over a fire hydrant.

[@ymp6345]

I'd like to share a little story that helps people understand how rare winter storms are in Texas! In the winter between 2017-18, I remember waking up in the morning and noticing that the light coming from the window was really bright because when I open the shades I saw the entire ground was covered in snow! Naturally I was excited because I've never lived in a place where it's snowed, so on the way to school I was messing around picking up the snow, but I started my usual day in 8th grade and not even by 10 or 11:00 a.m. the sun had come out and all the snow had melted! I hadn't been in Houston for long but my friends told me that the last time it snowed in Houston was 7 or 8 years before and it's never happened since. Besides the 2021 freeze, in which most of Houston didn't get snow they got ice cold rain that would freeze the ground and create a layer of ice on every window!

[@johnindigo5477]

I was 14 in 2017 and 2018 and remembered how exited everyone was for snow

[@RaggedyCharly]

snow is so rare in texas in general! Even up in Dallas, if it does snow it doesnt stick and you can get maybe a handful off someones car to play with. Usually it melts as soon as it touches the ground bc it doesn't get below freezing for long enough to get the dirt, concrete, and asphalt cold enough. Most of the times our trees dont even fully drop all their leaves, they go yellow, it gets cold for 3 days, they get green again lol

[@MidwesternCracker_2000]

Womp womp

[@rizon72]

It happens occasionally in Houston. I recall it happening about 1989, an ice storm in the late 90s. Don't let your friends fool you, its happened before in Houston, its just rare. The reality is you go to sleep, it snows/sleets/ice rain. Wake up, everything is covered and by mid day its hitting 50 F and everything is gone and the next night you're lucky to get mid 30s. The 2021 was different in that we never got that high temp during that day.

[@Itried20takennames]

The hardest hit places are obviously the ones who get occasional big winter storms. In places where it snows every winter, they spend decades adapting around that, like downtown Montreal having a system of nice indoor shopping corridors, tunnels and walkways between buildings, so you don’t need to walk outside. But the places that freeze occasionally don’t have the army of snow plows, etc. and people have a rough time.

[@dinkyyy8158]

I'm from Austin and it was traumatizing. I was wearing 3 layers of clothing and I was still so cold to the bone. Could see my breath in my apartment. We escaped to a coworker's apartment across the city who had power, it was a miracle our little car made it through the icy roads. There were so many stranded cars on the sides of the roads. Lots of accidents. It really was an icy hell.

[@SandyCheeks1896]

I’m a trucker so I slept in Austin during the day it started and drove back to Dallas very early the next morning. It literally looked like a warzone on 35. Southbound was packed and backed up and I was basically the only soul on northbound 35 that morning. I could hardly believe what I was seeing.

[@WhopsInc.]

God, I remember when this storm hit me.... in Canada near New York, and it was literally nothing different from any other winter. I remember hearing Texas having so many issues and just wondering what went wrong... so much went wrong man

[@RedHaloManiac95]

I mean it’s kinda like if Canada had a heat wave of 100+ degrees for a week. Would you all be prepared for a rare event? No so I understand. It rarely gets cold in Texas so it’s no surprise that no one was prepared

[@sauce1974marisa]

Our homes and systems are prepared for heat since that's what normally happens. I am 49, and the last time we had more than a few inches of snow, I was 10. Our winters just don't get that cold so we were unprepared.

[@CATownsend777]

I'm in Galveston and we were also affected huge by this freeze. We were even pulling turtles out of the Gulf and bringing them indoors as they came on shore by the thousands. The water in the Gulf was just way too cold for them.

[@nana_untamed]

How sweet❤

[@seh2850]

Good for all of you helping.

[@extra_ice_girl]

I feel for the animals during natural disasters.

[@johnindigo5477]

​@@extra_ice_girlfor real. They can't run inside like us

[@Chris-iz1po]

You went outside and caught sea turtles to bring in your house? What a moron....

[@themelonman4303]

Lost power and water for 4 days, but found out after that people who lived a block away had power the whole time. Shows you how messed up the power grid is.

[@rikaforge]

I’m from the Houston area, I luckily did not have such a big problem with the winter storm due to my dad stockpiling wood and water over the years and our stove being gas instead of electric. Not to mention the electric generator he had, we even had invited our family and friends to stay over. The convenience stores nearby were walkable distance and were still open as well. Safe to say that I was very lucky to have a smart dad and the area I was in.

[@renkensa5474]

I didn’t have power or water for 4 days straight. It was terrifying and I was scared. It was heavily downplayed by many people, but we did everything we could to survive those egregious nights.

[@pep590]

I hear you as I was in the same boat in DFW. I'm from the north and have lived in North Dakota and -35F and know tough winters. I've heard some comments like Texans weren't used to it, but that wasn't it. The whole difference was no power or water for days. That changes everything.

[@sneakers_smh]

​@@pep590fr they were mocking us. it's not like we have isolated houses

[@ashlie876]

@sneakers_smh And it sounds like it was a choice between risking freezing to death or risking carbon monoxide poisoning. Combined with no access to running water. I had no idea it was this bad. I really feel for everyone that had to live through this, and for those that didn't make it. This is awful.

[@ju87d-3stuka7]

​@@ashlie876My family got through it with candles. We used candles for warmth and as a light source. I'm thankful I'm Salvadoran because we were already used to no running water so we used a barrel filled with water and a bucket. To be completely honest, I don't remember it being as cold as others say, but maybe it's just my memory. I live in Missouri City and it wasn't as bad as I've seen others say it was. Sure the pipes bursting were bad, but my father knew how to fix them so we were fine in that part.

[@djangosouthwest6043]

For real born and raised from the cradle to the grave I'm a Texan and I never thought it will get that cold we more built for summer and hotness not coldness

[@deecilla5087]

I remember this. I'm from a tropical country but my aunt and other members of my family were living there at the time. The cold was so bad that my aunt took the cabinet doors off its hinges and used them for kindle. She said that's what helped her survive the ordeal. It was pretty gung-ho of her but we're happy that she handled it with humor and aplomb. She was laughing when she told us about the whole thing.

[@v3ck1n]

Thats actually pretty badass

[@ayanomar1408]

woah she is amazing👏🏾

[@lovelyann4985]

Texan here, this is an amazing video! One thing that made us furious is how insurance companies dragged their feet to repair homes. Here in central Texas it took weeks on weeks for tree branches to be picked up, some trees stayed On houses, frozen and breaking roofs. Animals got extremely sick. Others froze to death. Power lines snapped. The city wasn’t fully staffed for electricians (apparently “budgeting issues”), but our leaders make 6 figure to 7 figure salaries. We were left to die, and fend for ourselves. No one could get a break. Cars were left stranded in snow and ice with people in them. We had to push some cars down streets that were frozen over. It was the worst freeze I’ve ever experienced, and I will be prepared next time. Thank you for covering this.

[@voxicwaste]

I live near Houston. Not only was it horrible that my family didn't have heat, water or electricity for days. But being threatened to be kicked out into the snow and freezing temperature by my grandpa was equally as horrible.

[@MoonlightMirage]

You don’t deserve such a grandfather, that is horrifying to think he would be fine with you getting hypothermic💔

[@Haha-bl3xj]

Youd Aught to never visit him again. Let him die alone and cold, almost as he had let happen to you all.

[@wolfbones666]

If that was me and my family we would have merked Gramps out and then claim the cold just got him. 😅

[@richardtrudeau7363]

Was he having issues?

[@theresedavis2526]

Grandpa was an evil bastard!

[@ToxicConcoction]

I live in the DFW area, and those days without power was the worst. Luckily we still had hot water and were still able to use our fireplace, and that was how I kept my ball python from freezing to death. and kept my puppers cozy. My parakeet at the time was not so lucky :(

[@DanielleStarry]

Oh, darling. I’m so sorry about your parakeet ❤️‍🩹

[@jebbroham1776]

Born and raised in Texas, and we really aren't known for weather like this. This storm was as rare as the 2000 ice storm. Prior to that, we really hadn't had anything this happen in living memory.

[@LEA-yr7bb]

Texas isn't prepared for anything I've noticed the 2yrs I've lived here. Not even rain or floods. I shouldn't be sliding all over the freeway when it rains and I shouldn't be almost trapped in water on the roads when it rains. A little bit of wind and it blows out transformers in the neighborhoods. Shit is crazy

[@CaptainSiclops]

@@LEA-yr7bb because we don’t have the money to replace every single low water crossing. People forget how big the state is and how expensive it would be to replace just one thing over the entire state

[@lulustar1131]

​@LEA-yr7bb 2 years isn't long enough to make that kind of judgement call. Been here all my 34 years in flood ally and flooding, rain, and hurricanes are no issue for those of us in this area of Texas

[@LEA-yr7bb]

@@lulustar1131 that is long enough for me to experience. It's been very traumatizing idk maybe where you're at it's better but I'm in San Antonio I legit fear driving when it's raining. I also was without power for 7 hrs last week because of strong winds. My power has gone out too many times within the last 2 yrs anytime the wind picks up or a bad storm. You can't take away my personal experiences that I've had since living here

[@lulustar1131]

@@LEA-yr7bb you also can't compare the entire state to one piss poor area in SA. That would be like saying all of Cali is like the worst parts of LA.