Beryl Barreling Our Way?

[Rafe]

I drove north on Highway 6 this morning from near I-10 up to the Willowbrook area. Hit seven intersections where the traffic lights were out and blinking red. The melting pot that is Greater Houston combined with intersections that are 8 lanes on each street make for some very...interesting travel when the traffic lights are out.

Even though it was a longer way around plus tolls, I came back 249 to Beltway 8 to I-10. When I got in I paid a visit to Google and evidently there are over 1,000 intersections without working traffic lights in Houston proper; no telling how many more in Harris and surrounding counties.

I hadn't thought about the traffic lights. Duh.

 

[Grumps21]

Westheimer still has most of the lights in my area out

 

[D0ntTr3@d0nM3]

Is everyone safe and everything now that the douche bag hurricane as blown over? If any of y'all need help with brush cleanup or anything like that I am willing to help. I am a nerd and don't have any real handy man skills so I can't help too much with repairs lol unless it is helping carry things or holding up boards or something.

On an unrelated note I found this hoodie and got it for my dad for his birthday. Hopefully it brightens someones day lol

 

[D0ntTr3@d0nM3]

Common thread with most companies at times. The evening of Dec 25, 2000 freezing rain took down the feeder lines in Fannin county due to TNMP not trimming. No power to my little town for 6 days.

I know it's not funny to lose power, but it still makes me chuckle that towns and businesses and such will literally shut down here if the temp drops below 30 degrees. I am originally from WI so that's why it makes me chuckle. Cold there is like -30 degrees. There were some days when I was going to college and walking from one building to another on campus my eyes would start to freeze over haha. Texas needs to get their power issues in line though for sure. no one should have to go without power when it is freezing outside or boiling hot for that matter.

 

[D0ntTr3@d0nM3]

Pretty much same here.

Have not started on our neighborhood though.
Last time it took about 36 hours for our power to come, on once they got to us.

Are you all able to access clean water and food and everything?

 

[ZX9RCAM]

Are you all able to access clean water and food and everything?

Our water district lost 1 of 3 generators Monday, so we were in "conserve" mode. They brought in a new one pretty quickly, so everything has been good.
Still eating food we had on hand.
Should be good for a few more days, but stores are open nearby.

ETA: There was emergency food and water distribution at a stadium up here also.
We didn't go.

 

[glenbo]

Still no power. Houses all around are getting it, one house about every 6 hours. I’d like for someone to explain why.

 

[Grumps21]

Still no power hear either. According to Centerpoint‘s map, they haven’t even started working our area yet.

 

[Coiled]

A lot of armchair linemen in this thread...

+40yrs experience, top THAT sonny!

In the last 24hrs I've seen outage range from 100, 28, 82, 28 & 100% for my county. Not sure if those are human data entry or automated data collection errors. Either way it doesn't matter, we'll get power when it happens.

Good news is with all it's powering for me and a neighbor, my gen runs a minimum of 15hrs on the 6gal tank while I'm at work. I could have it worse . . .

 

[glenbo]

Just my opinion, but I think that every one of the bigwigs at ercot, along with every state representative and senator, should roast in hell for doing nothing about keeping power available and reliable. 2024 in the United States of America, the wealthiest and most advanced country on the planet, and we can’t keep the lights on.

 

[mm54943]

I’m typing this on my phone.
Lake Jackson is still a wreck. Power is still out to most of town.
AT&T really shit the bed on this one. No service in LJ.
I can get signal up by Angleton.
Kroger, HEB, and a couple of Buc-ee’s are open.
One restaurant opened yesterday.
Ice and gas are in short supply.
Trying to sleep in a shut up house blows. Can’t open up because the farkin mosquitoes. And they’ll get worse over the next few days.
Got almost all the mess around my house cleaned up.
Also trying to take care of the mother in law. She has more damage than me. She won’t leave her house because of her fvcking house cats.
And this morning my bank sent me a message my debit card got hacked.
FML

Yeah, my folks are still without power down there.
Their next door neighbors have a hole in their roof.

 

[wbblazer90]

Running a small 2500 watt generator I got after the ice storm. Pretty efficient on 1.5 gallons, powering a 8000BTU portable ac unit, mini fridge. It’ll run for 12 hours on my current load. For the oil changes, I have a big bottle of 10w30.

 

[Mohawk600]

glad I don't live anywhere near Houston

 

[cycleguy2300]

If they care that much about the tree then they will trim it themselves before the power company does. They would have known that there is a utility easement when they bought the property.

Its not that that actually care about the tree, its that they don't like being "told" what to do.

Sent from my SM-S918B using Tapatalk

 

[Moonpie]

Town is slowly coming back to life.
There are many dozens of bucket truck/power crews all over now. Power is being restored.
The folks on the other side of my street have power this morning.
The big Buc-ee’s over on 332 is open. Mc Donalds on Dixie Drive is open(with a half mile long line at the drive thru).
Richwood is still dark.
Some areas of Clute are dark.
Hopefully power will come back today

 

[ZX9RCAM]

Still waiting.
Could be as late as Sunday for our subdivision.

 

[striker55]

We are lucky our power was out for less than a day. Even during Ike a day, Harvey a day. There is a fire station a block away I figured it's important to keep fire stations with power. Or just lucky. Hardest part for us was no Internet for two days, don't realize how dependent you are until it doesn't work. For TV the Dish was out for a day but I have a can antenna I made years ago that got local channels.

 

[benenglish]

Still no power at my house. I was initially trapped on my street for quite a while by fallen trees on each end of the street. The county did a great job of clearing access quickly.

There are at least a dozen large pine trees down within a mile of me. 3 or 4 of them only have their root balls out of the ground because they couldn't completely fall. They're being held in place by the power (and whatever else) lines strung between the poles that lead into my neighborhood.

According to the Centerpoint map, my neighborhood isn't scheduled for repair. It hasn't even been assessed to determine what work is required. I have a feeling I'll be buying ice and wiping my sister down with Everclear for several more days.

HEB had ice this morning, though not in the ice making machines. Their overflow coolers were half full, telling me they got a delivery of ice from somewhere else. I was there at 6:30 and I estimated they'll run out before 7:00.

OTOH, they had set up about a half dozen tables and covered them with power strips and signs reading "Charging Station."

 

[Lonesome Dove]

Our power was restored last night.
Out since Monday.
There is an Entergy electric near by and linemen from 3-4 states we're lined up for helping out. They are doing the best they can. The amount of downed trees is ridiculous. It will takes weeks to clean to it all up.

 

[benenglish]

A county truck with a big claw on a boom is working its way through my neighborhood, picking up brush piles and large limbs at the curb. It was here yesterday and it will have to come back again; it's not remotely big enough for everything.

What's funny to me is that it's a two seat truck but they assigned (justifiably!) more workers than that. So the overflow workers are following behind, 4-way flashers on, and they pile out of the car whenever they're needed.

The car is a large, black, super-shiny, late-model Mercedes sedan.

Seeing the workers, obviously sweaty and dirty from the job, pouring out of that Mercedes with their fluorescent green vests is a fair demonstration of cognitive dissonance.

ETA - I found out today that the crew was from Florida. They managed to clear all of curbside wood today, including a root ball taller than me. Kudos to those guys and I hope they liked the Mercedes.

They may need to come back. There were crews working the periphery of my subdivision today. All you could hear was chainsaws. Apparently (based on a usually reliable second hand source who spoke to them) there are enough trees fallen on lines and broken poles between me and power restoration that we're going to be at least a couple of days away from restoration. Something was said about having to put up new poles and lines and then wait for Centerpoint to inspect and approve before power could come back.

I have no idea if that means I'll get power in two days or two weeks.

Taking sis to the movie theater tomorrow and we'll watch a couple. I figure 6 hours in cold air will do her a world of good.