At Least 8 Dead, Dozens Hurt as ‘Sheets of Ice' Bring Chaos to North Texas Roadways

There was an over one hundred car pileup in Dallas this morning resulting in five dead. This weather is heading towards Houston where even fewer people know what to do. The weatherguessers are saying it will likely have a similar effect to a hurricane in regards to insurance claims.
-Blast

Yeesh! Nasty. Freezing rain is the worst. Even Canadians with snow/ice tires think twice about heading onto the highway. Stay home if you can.

Yikes! Freezing rain is the worst. About ten years ago when I lived in Sioux Falls, SD we got the mother of all freezing rain storms. Tens of thousands of trees were damaged from just a few limbs to splitting all the way to the ground; it took the city two and a half years to clear all the downed wood! That was about the worst road conditions I've ever seen but visually it was stunningly beautiful in a few areas. It was like the city was made of glass!

A few days ago I saw a post on a gardening forum about trying to protect plants from the heat in TX. I imagine that problem has been temporarily solved and replaced with a newer, more serious one.

FWIW, we've been hit with a nasty blast of Arctic cold too. It's slowly moderating; when I got up this morning, the wind chill was only -44C. Much more reasonable than earlier in the week. (I can dress for the cold, but the wind makes it bloody miserable to be outside.)

Latest update, the pre-mixed bottle of margaritas I set on the back porch has about 1/4" of ice on it. Houston roads are shut but people are still going around the freeway onramp blockades. Rolling blackouts are predicted for Monday and Tuesday due to everyone being stuck at home cranking up their electric heaters.

Ham radio operators in the area are chatting up a storm...no pun intended. They understand the severity of the situation but quite a few are also admittedly excited to test their preps.

I'll have to wait until afterwards to decide if a hurricane or blizzard is worse in Houston.
-Blast

Morning Update: It's fricken cold out (18F) and there's a deep layer of white stuff all over everything. We have power but approximately 30% of Texas doesn't!
-Blast

Here in Arkansas as well. Cold, snow and more to come later on. No work till Wednesday. Tried to get out with 4 inches worth and decided to stay home.

Friends and family in numerous southern states are dealing with ice, then snow and frigid temps. Read an article where a military canine training camp in TX had to move 800 dogs inside. Stay warm! Stay safe!

With a crew change sked for 15Feb, we left Lafayette, La and prepositoned ourselves in Channelview (East side of Houston), Tx. We left Lafayette on Saturday 13Feb to beat the weather to Houston.

Along the way to Houston, crew change was changed to Wednesday 17Feb. We stopped at a grocery store and picked up drinks (including beer) and microwavable meals, sandwich materials, ice for our ice chest, and snacks.

This hotel (LaQuinta) has a medium small refrigerator (no freezer), small microwave, iron w/ironingboard, and a coffee maker. We brought sufficient food and drinks to get us through Wednesday although we should be leaving Wednesday morning.

Items needed for hunkering down in a hotel:
2 rolls of paper towels, a pack of paper plates; 4 days of microwavable foods, snacks, drinks; my boat GHB (2 regular adult and 2 child GHB’s remain in the truck).

Thanks to modern technology, I am able to know that my boat is windbound against the south bank of the GICW-W just west of the High Island Bridge. If the boat gets moving again, we’ll know it and then we can decide if we should leapfrog to the east (not likely) or just sit tight.

Hey Captain, do you have a HAM license? I should be able to reach you via radio if you do.
-Blast