It's not you, it's the cold: T-Mobile and AT&T are down in Texas and other parts of the country 15 Feb 2021 https://www.phonearena.com/news/t-mobile-att-extreme-cold-major-outage-texas-other-states_id130145 (But where to post this? It could be in other sub-forums too) Take care all !!
Actually, it's not the cold causing problems but ice storms. They reek havoc on power lines and electric power sub-stations. Best to live in areas where power lines are buried underground. No problems here in N.E. Ohio. Just buried in snow which is normal for this time of year. Also low temps is normal. The big problem with ice here and everywhere for that matter is driving on it.
Balmy 5 Degrees at the west end of the Ohio River between KY & IND. Not too shabby either. Makes me glad I lived in Northern Michigan years ago during those gales of November in the 1980's into the early 1990's. This extreme is a piece of cake. On topic though. Just as bad as heat, I found it plays havoc with electronics after a good many hours of exposure. For instance my SUV dummy lights popping up with alarms for the Air Bags! Never happens any other time.
I have a friend in Houston that said it was 11 degrees this morning. Very cold for there. It still beats being up here in the great lakes area. Spent 9 hours today shoveling snow and couldn't get to work.
It was 5 degrees yesterday morning, and 7 this morning where I live in the Texas hill country. I just got my power back on after being off for about five hours. I know of one electric cooperative that's been turning power on for a few hours, and then off for the same, so I may be losing power again before too long. I've got friends who have been without power for 40+ hours and counting. Apparently Texas get 25% of it's power from wind turbines in west Texas, and when the storm came through, the turbines froze up and stopped working. So now there's not enough electricity to meet demand. In Houston, they built a lot of houses with water pipes in the attic because they weren't worried about it getting cold enough to freeze. So when it gets to 11 degrees, guess what. My neighbor hasn't had running water in his house for the last couple of days because his pipes are frozen. He said he dripped some faucets, but apparently not fast enough. Tomorrow afternoon is predicted to be the first day we'll see temperatures get above freezing in close to a week. While this common in other parts of the country, we just don't see this kind of weather very often in this part of the state. I've got a feeling in a couple of days plumbers are going to be more in demand than toilet paper was in the beginning of the pandemic.
I saw on the news that Texas is the only state whose power grid is not under federal jurisdiction. So, in short: a disaster among disasters. In a weird contrast, I live in New York City: so balmy yesterday at 51 deg F/11 deg C. Didn't last long but tons of snow melted, revealing cars that had been almost buried for days.
One of our mods is from Texas. I'm afraid he is without power in that cold weather there ... And then there is also the Covid pandemic ... Oh dear ... Sending lots and lots of heartfelt best wishes to him and all others !!!
Thanks JR. I too got a very quick message from Ron today. I hope he (and all others of course) will get the power soon back!
