Texas weather disaster

**Scream And Fly** · 02-20-2021, 03:18 AM

Hi all,

This is not about boating but I wanted to share this because I felt it was very important. The recent weather disaster in Texas has caused a lot of problems for a lot of people (and far worse) and I just wanted to post here to say that if there’s anyone that needs any any assistance that one of us here might be able to help with don’t hesitate to ask.

My thoughts are with all of you dealing with the weather crisis now.
Greg

**Dave S** · 02-20-2021, 06:05 AM

Mr Greg Our nation has been getting KICKED hard for the last bunch of years.Hurricane Sandy'....Fires out west....Floods in our farm lands....recent monster hurricanes down south. I might have left some out but you get the picture. We have as a nation turned our back on god and he has said OK as you wish. We have let evil take hold and we will reap what we sow. I am not saying that WE as S/F crowd are bad our any in our nation. But there are many in our nation/world that have gotten GOD angry.......It is good you have offered a hand out to our small community to help out those in need.I wish all people whit the power of the vast web could/ would offer a hand to those in need so us that care could help those in need.

**CUDA** · 02-20-2021, 07:49 AM

Dave your wife on the puter this AM

Since Texas is the only state that doesn't regulate electric price gouging galore?

Images of ridiculously high energy bills are already making the rounds on social media. That’s because wholesale electricity costs skyrocketed amid weather-induced fuel shortages. Prices rose from roughly $50 per megawatt-hour to more than $9,000 per megawatt-hour on February 15th, according to the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT). As a result, Texans who opted into wholesale prices, which are typically pretty low, saw an astounding increase in their utility bill.
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A very low percentage of Texans are subject to that swing in wholesale prices, according to Joshua Rhodes, a research associate at The University of Texas at Austin. Most people buy their electricity from providers with fixed rates that will stay relatively stable. Even so, they could be in for some sticker shock when their next bill arrives.
The lucky people who’ve had power this week will face the cost of maintaining heat in their homes during the frigid temperatures. Those who lost power will have to pay to reheat their ice-cold homes. For each degree you turn up the heat, costs typically rise about 3 percent. With temperatures well below freezing (32 degrees Fahrenheit) in many homes, it will take a lot of energy to reach a comfortable 68 degrees. That could mean higher-than-normal bills for people, even if they lost power this week.
<aside id="nBPfbg" style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-family: inherit; font-size: inherit; font-style: inherit; line-height: inherit; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><q style="box-sizing: border-box; text-decoration: inherit; vertical-align: inherit; font-family: Heroic, "Arial Narrow", Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 2em; font-style: italic; line-height: 1; margin: 0px 0px 1.2rem; padding: 1rem 1.25rem 0px 0px; font-weight: 600; letter-spacing: 0.02em; text-transform: uppercase; color: rgb(226, 18, 122); display: block; position: relative;">HIGHER-THAN-NORMAL BILLS FOR PEOPLE, EVEN IF THEY LOST POWER</q></aside>
The outages also triggered other costly problems for Texans, which could lead some families to make hard decisions about what they can afford as disaster-related expenses mount. Homes across the state are now dealing with flooding and water damage from frozen pipes that burst. And there are concerns about price gouging as water and food supplies in stores run low.

“People are going to have to make really tough choices about where they’re investing their resources,” says Dana Harmon, executive director of the nonprofit Texas Energy Poverty Research Institute (TEPRI). “Part of what this is showing us is how incredibly interconnected, our food, water, and energy systems are.”
The “heat or eat” dilemma was already a problem before the freeze arrived: 29 percent of residents surveyed by TEPRI said they delayed or skipped spending on food in order to pay for energy bills.
And this isn’t limited to Texas. Prior to the pandemic, 1 in 3 households in the US struggled to pay their energy bills, according to the US Energy Information Administration. As people lost incomes during the COVID-19 pandemic, the problem grew: 4.8 million Americans were unable to pay at least one energy bill last year and received a disconnection notice from their utility company, a recent study from Indiana University Bloomington found. Black and Hispanic households were more likely to have their service disconnected than white households. People who need electronic medical devices and people living in inefficient homes with poor insulation were also more likely to struggle to pay their utility bills.
“The usual social and economic and racial injustices in our society are just getting magnified all over again when you have this freezing horrible cold weather that Texas isn’t designed for,” says Basav Sen, climate policy project director at the progressive think tank Institute for Policy Studies.
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There’s a lot of work that needs to be done to prevent another energy crisis like the one that devastated Texas this week. There are mounting calls to upgrade the state’s grid to make it more resilient to weather extremes, including heatwaves, that are becoming more prevalent because of climate change. Those changes will be expensive, and experts are already worried that they will hurt people already feeling the squeeze of high energy costs.
“Who pays for that? The customers right?” says Tony Reames, director of the Urban Energy Justice Lab at the University of Michigan. “We will likely see increases in utility bills as utilities try to recover the cost of whatever improvements they make to the infrastructure after this.”
Low-income households in Texas already spend about 10 percent of their incomes, on average, on energy, according to TEPRI. That’s compared to 2 percent for homes with higher incomes. Anything above 6 percent is already considered unaffordable, according to the American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy.
Keeping the lights on for everybody — disaster or not — might require rethinking the way we treat energy, says Reames. “Energy is a basic right and so instead of treating it like a commodity, how can we think about it as something that people should have access to?” he says. “Especially when they need it the most.”

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**sonicss33** · 02-20-2021, 08:47 AM

Really Cuda, Greg post about tragedy and what we can all do to help our brothers in need and support them and you post this crap. You sir need mental help.

**Da Bull** · 02-20-2021, 09:06 AM

Louisiana was hit hard to. I`m two miles from the Texas line and do my grocery shopping there. Right now we are all froze over. Shreveport is the same way. I just took a shower and it just a little more that a trickle but I got it done. Now I`m going to pick up my Pop and go get his meds at the drug store. I have four wheel drive and that makes it easier. This ice/snow should be gone in a few days but the rolling blackouts have allowed the water system to freeze over so all the cities here and Texas now face broken water mains and pipes. It`s a mess.

**Dave S** · 02-20-2021, 04:27 PM

See .... Ice age farmer.......Prep.......

**Fear And Loathing** · 02-20-2021, 04:41 PM

I took a lot of tree damage from the ice. When they started snapping it sounded like a pistol range on The Saturday after the election.

**JR IN JAX** · 02-20-2021, 06:57 PM

The Nat gas plants, solar farms and wind turbines have no stockpiled energy and revealed just some of their shortcomings in Texas.

The Nat gas plants have no stored energy once the supply input stops, same with wind and solar. The Nukes have some residual capability but are easily SCRAMED. The Coal plants are much more reliable, especially since they have enough stockpiled energy to last for 3-4 weeks [without resupply]. That is why the anti-America crowd [Democrats] needs to destroy coal while all of our Adversaries are increasing their coal use. The plants that I worked with were generating at .03 to .05 cents per KWH.

**Dave S** · 02-20-2021, 09:43 PM

JR in JAX thats

.....in the old days people were smarter than we give them credit for.....we gotten plain stupid. Love the EV bunch and heatpumps......with backup.....heat strips.

**JR IN JAX** · 02-20-2021, 09:59 PM

The sole Nat Gas pumping station that serves all of north Florida sits in the woods of Booker Florida, unmanned, behind just a 6' chain link fence.

**rgsauger** · 02-20-2021, 10:35 PM

Hey all. I'm in northeast Houston and have a generator someone could use if needed. It got us through the mess. Always want to help if possible.

**Forkin' Crazy** · 02-21-2021, 01:19 AM

First day above freezing here in a week. I got about 5" of sleet/snow, then freezing rain. The ice finally melted off the dish so I could get internet today... LOL! Never lost power, but I live on a main line. Lost water for a while, but it's back. I was ready though. Propane heat, and Colman lanterns on stand by and about 30 gallons of drinking water, Spam, Deviled ham, and crackers!

**CUDA** · 02-25-2021, 07:13 AM

Adding Insult to Injury...

https://www.foxnews.com/us/texas-uti...bill-tops-9000

**dagodiver** · 02-25-2021, 07:36 AM

The company I design and build equipment for does disaster relief work. Mainly the drying of buildings, temp power gens and temp heat.
We have at least 100 semi trailers of gear in 10 states. It was a brutal storm for sure.

Dago.