The Top Texas Takeaways
D. Evers
It was truly stunning to see how quickly Texas devolved into the dark ages due to a short but powerful storm, and the widespread suffering it caused was a tragedy of epic proportions.
What the past week has shown us or should have shown us (but the lesson will be incredibly short lived), is how tenuous things really are, and how we have come to place our very survival in not just other people’s hands, but often into the hands of totally inept bureaucrats. Don’t get me wrong, emergency services did a great job, but poor decisions like limiting shelter space to allow for “social distancing” causing people to freeze to death, came from some bureaucrat somewhere, just following orders, not thinking of the consequences, or even more staggering, not allowing people to spend the night in a warming center in bitter freezing weather due to COVID-19 restrictions.
The events of Texas are full of teaching moments, and while painting a wide swath with a broad brush is often problematic and unfair, simply look at the images in the news and the sheer number of people waiting in the line to get food, water, propane, firewood, and a myriad of other items that were readily available a scant few days earlier is a good indicator of the inability of people to realize the seriousness of the situation. The staggering thing is that this was forecast, There was plenty of time and people were warned, yet it was widely received with a yawn.
We are spoiled. We turn on lights and they work, we go to the store, and the shelves are stocked, often with a half dozen different brands of the same product. We go to the gas station and fill up with what recently was reasonably priced gas. All that went away and some of it will stay away for a while.
The absolute first and most astounding one was how many people didn’t have enough extra food for a few days. How hard is it to lay up a few packages of Ramen, some extra canned goods, and some cookies and crackers? Quarter mile lines and fifteen item limits were the norms, to get into a store that was fairly wiped out.
Water, a case of water at the gas station or big box store is dirt cheap, often under five bucks. Yet, how many people didn’t have the foresight to fill some jugs beforehand and get a stash of water to see them through this dangerous weather event.
Heat. This one’s a little dicier. Most people rely on electricity to power their electric and gas heaters, and there wasn’t either. As I mentioned before the bureaucrats at The Electric Reliability Council of Texas or ERCOT in their wisdom felt it necessary to keep lights on in parking garages and skyscrapers but shut down power to homes.
While a generator is a great tool, having enough fuel to run it for 4-5 days is problematic, it’s inefficient to turn gas into electricity, then electricity into heat and the noise might draw some unsavory types. An indoor rated propane heater would be a good option, and they are inexpensive, readily available online, and from big box stores. If they are properly rated, they can be safely used indoors, and a couple of extra barbecue bottles will run it for a long time, even if you just want to keep the room from freezing.
Also, if you want to heat just one room, choose an inner one and all that camping gear in the garage should come out and be put to work. A tent in a room will provide a modicum of warmth as opposed to the open air.
Lights are also essential, and while propane lanterns put off light and heat, LED’s are very efficient and have incredible run times. Just make sure you keep enough batteries on hand to run the lights for an extended time.
Make sure you have extra meds for an emergency. If you talk to your doctor, and explain your concerns, they should oblige.
While there is a plethora of other items, self-defense, security, radios, and on and on, people should use this bad experience as a steppingstone to become better prepared, who knows what surprises the future holds.
The one thing people should have realized given the fact that Texas is prone to hurricanes, tornadoes, and wild weather is that they are on their own, period.
While preppers who have been maligned as greedy hoarders by the MSM instead of the prepared visionaries they are, ride this out without a hiccup, people need to realize that the bigger the machine gets, the more wasteful and inefficient it becomes, to the point of implosion.
Establishing a group to stay with during a crisis is essential, if you have family, you need to see who’s best equipped and most capable of captaining the ship whilst you ride out the storm. If that’s you, you need to offer help to your most vulnerable acquaintances. Make it a point to get to know your neighbors and discuss possible scenarios and how you can mitigate them individually and as a group.
Most will forget this episode, very few will prep for the next one.
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Given that Texas has a substantial hurricane coast, Houston and large parts of Texas get hammered by a hurricane every so often. Natural disasters are just par for the course there. I remember watching news of an approaching hurricane that was set to hit the Galveston-Houston area in the 1980s. A rather large woman was spitting venom as she looked into the camera and complained, “I have been all over dis town and there is no fresh milk or batteries anywheah. It’s ri-dick-a-lus!!! It is just ri-dick-a-lus!!!”
The Houston area got another massive hurricane hit three years ago, and many Texans suffered for weeks and months afterward. The results of what happens when much of a population has a poor preparedness attitude could not have been made any clearer. Texans are not exempt from the human condition.
The thing is that just about everything that a Texan might store or set aside for hurricane preparedness would have served him well this past week.
Yet, after Houston and much of Texas lost electrical service on Monday, stories were being written about how so many Texans were without food and water by Thursday. The situation would be funny if it weren’t so sad about what it tells us about human beings. What happened this week was, plainly and simply, a Darwin Test. (And it could have been much, much worse. The Texas power grid was minutes away from being down for, potentially, weeks, if not months.)
I look at videos of people in line for free food and water now, and then I wonder just how much these same people spent on cigarettes, alcohol, and other frivolities in the past year.
Is the “gubment” always required to rescue people from self-inflicted injuries and from their bad life choices? Sheeple say, “Hell, yes!” and then they bitch about the wait.
As you watch videos of the suffering in Texas, ask yourself just how long you and your family are prepared to stick it out at your home if water and power service suddenly disappeared. Are you going to be waiting for the “gubment,” too?
“FEMA Camp! FEMA Camp! All a-board!”
Good. This weeded out some idiots. Just like the vax will too. We need to let the idiots die off. Don’t try and stop them!
Actually Texas didn’t “devolve” into anything. For those of us capable of emptying urine from a boot in the absence of instructions on the heel life barely changed at all. We never lost power, heat or water for more than a moment. I laughed at an article stating Austin lost 325 million gallons of water due to burst pipes. Home to one of the finest engineering schools in the nation and no one knew how to turn off the water. Priceless.
I live in a state next to Texas. I have been a prepper since the 1980’s. We had the same weather as they did. It was forecast days ahead of its arrival. I usually use my preps for tornado weather when the power can go off. I could not go anywhere because the roads were iced up and my county has no snow plows. Schools were closed and people didn’t go in to work except for hospital workers, and police, fire and ambulance. People began stripping the shelves of water and groceries in advance when they realized they would have to stay in and feed their kids and other family members. It looked worse in the stores than the lockdowns last year. The trucks could not get in for deliveries. Yet there was no wide reports of suffering. It was the first time some of my pets had seen snow. A lot of kids had never seen snow so it was play time for them. I ate out of my preps and never missed a meal. Now its back up into the 70’s and the roads are clear. Tornado weather is approaching. Its always something. I was surprised at the situation in Texas. Be prepared and you won’t have do any last minute panic buying. Remember the Titanic. They were warned about the iceberg ahead, but did not change course. People do not listen to warnings that there’s always something in front of them.
Ok even if you’ve only got 3 days of fuel for the generator then your only “surviving” it a few days rather than a week.
Bottom line is you do everything you can to prepare because it’s an obligation.
It was absolutely shameful
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The Top Texas Takeaways
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