Our tv-news showed a report from Texas,could hardly believe my eyes.

I grew up after WWII in Dallas and i recallvividly an ice storm very similar to this one about 1959-51. Limbs crashing down, bid D paralyzed - a real mess.

Happiness is Dallas in your rear view mirror.

We made it home this afternoon. We have power here now but my DD2 already sent a text msg stating the 30 min rolling blackouts have begun. We had 1 cracked outside pipe that has leaked a large amount of water. I cut and capped the pipe off before dark. I spreaddsalt on the ice on our porch, wheelchair ramp, and steps.

We have no help with my DD1. Hopefully someone will be here tomorrow morning. I have to make crew change around 1000-1100 in the morning.

I have 2 more hitches to go and I am retiring!

Sounds like you're muddling through as well as can be expected! Hopefully the weather breaks and the utilities will be up and running soon.

My Tankerman being driven to Intracoastal City has been stoppedby accidents on I-55 and turned around back to Jackson.

A driver from Lake Charles is coming to get me and I’ll make crew change with the Pilot onboard.

We’ve got more icy weather starting to roll over us now.

This is turning into a real adventure for you, wildman800! Stay safe.

Going on 13 hours without power. Fired up the generator about two hours. Should have enough propane to run it five days in necessary. Wife and kids are bundled up in MN-level sleeping bags. We have tap water but there’s a boil order in place. Thankfully we have a gas stovetop. We’ve mainly just been drinking stored water.
All in all, the first day after hurricanes has been a lot worse. We’ll see what the next few days bring, though.
-Blast

Nice! Sounds like you're making the best of it, Blast!

Family in Memphis are dealing with some water pipe breaks. So far, just exterior, so relatively easy to deal with and no interior damage. One person's heating system that they were planning to replace has been unable to keep up, so they moved in with others. Drained all the pipes just in case the heating gives out completely. Lost power intermittently.

I have family in TX as well, their power is on but their water is out. Main concern is keeping their horses watered, so they have been breaking the ice on a pond and hauling buckets.

What's interesting to me in all of this is how different things are here in Northeast PA, where we might have extreme cold, extreme heat, wind, floods, ice, snow and so on - so our "5 days of autonomous living" setup is just normal.

After chatting with my family, they said that after this is all over, they will definitely be working on a "5-day" setup covering the basics to keep their house alive. One problem they ran into is that some of their plumbing runs through their attic - an idea that blew my mind, but apparently happens there.