We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans

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Update — my friend contacted me and their power’s been restored, they’ve found more supplies and are better prepared should it go down again.

A friend in northwest San Antonio, TX (close to Helotes) posted this morning — there’s no wood left to purchase in the city. I know this is a long shot, but have we any readers there who might know someone who can get them some firewood?

From her lips to the Governor’s ears, one hopes.

Fell said regional natural gas and electricity prices in Oklahoma and Texas broke U.S. records over the weekend.
 
On Friday, Oklahoma gas transmission prices averaged US$350 per million British thermal units and Fell said one trade went as high as US$600 per mmBtu. In parts of the Texas panhandle and elsewhere, prices jumped to US$200, “all of which individually would have been new records,” Fell said, noting the previous record was US$160.
 
On Monday, natural gas for physical delivery in the U.S. was trading for as much as US$500 per mmBtu as demand for the heating and power plant fuel soared. Spot gas has been trading for hundreds of dollars across the central U.S. since Thursday with a surge in heating demand triggering widespread blackouts and sending electricity prices soaring. The fuel normally trades in the region for less than US$3 per mmBtu.
 
Similarly, electricity prices in Texas surged to US$6,000 per megawatt hour on Monday, which Fell said is “100 times the normal price.”

59 Replies to “We Don’t Need No Stinking Giant Fans”

      1. it is sad to see, but this will be more common for these elderly folk who stay home too.

        One thing I will do is say how thankful I am we have a great power grid in Alberta/Sask having just gone through -30c last week and everything hummed along fine.

      2. on site i watch suggested putting blankets over the kitchen table or such to make a tent to form a warmer zone. I realize not possibly useful for older people with limited mobility.

        1. It appears you can request a welfare check from the National Guard or help reaching a warming center. I haven’t found a way to request that service but KHOU is reporting it is available in the state. It may be that you make the request via the police’s existing wellness check request. It’s crazy that they don’t have an easy google on how to do that. Good luck to your friends. https://www.khou.com/article/weather/national-guard-texas-freeze-power-outage/285-70a041fb-d113-416f-bbec-99e6ad48ba48

    2. Obviously you have never tried to burn frozen green trees. I assure you, it does not work unless you have a lot of old dried wood burning to dry out the green frozen wood first. You’d be better off chopping up your dining room furniture.

      1. exactly, also ‘green’ trees produce a lot of smoke, so where would one burn it?

        I surmise, yes, a lot of furniture will be going up in smoke too.

    3. They better be standing deadwood, or you’ve just proven you know nothing about heating with wood. And a good chainsaw would actually be more useful.

  2. I feel her pain…I really do. A power outage one time left me without heat for two days, I don’t think I’ve ever been that miserable since. “…I will never let this happen again.” were my exact words.
    Had a Briggs and Stratton NG standby generator installed the following Spring.

    I wish I could help.

    1. I believe there are gas shortages in TX, a NG generator fails as do all other NG appliances.
      NG supply is precarious when the failure is wide spread rather than localized.

      Propane standby with a large propane tank is the way to go (propane stores well unlike diesel or gasoline).

      1. Way ahead of ya. My generator has an option of either LNG or Propane which is just a matter of switching out orifices as well as two 100 pounders of propane on standby and always full.

    2. Our power went out for over a week in the big storm of October 2019. We had gale force winds all around Lake Manitoba and the entire infrastructure was destroyed. We had no telephones, no cell service, and no electricity. Most people evacuated to the Winnipeg as soon as the roads were cleared enough to travel. Naturally, bands of roving looters were checking out all the houses empty of people and emptying them of valuables. Since we have a grand total of four RCMP for the whole area there was little they could do. I thought I was well prepared because I have a gas generator, a wood stove and solar back up. I ended up having to make a trip to town to buy more gas for the generator. On the way I checked on some neighbours and discovered an elderly couple who had a generator on their back porch but the storm had blown so much snow onto the front of their house that they could not open their front or garage door. With no telephone or cell service, they could not call for help either. The poor old guy could barely manage the trip to the wood pile to keep the house warm. I cleared their garage and front door, moved several loads of wood into their house, and then took their gerry cans with me and delivered them back full.

      Meanwhile on CBC radio, the only outside word I could get, the reporter shared stories about the inconvenience of eating sandwiches by candlelight for the three hours in the poshest neighbourhood in the city while their power was off. Not one single word about what was going on around us.

      1. There is an amusing side note to the whole story. I had chained my generator onto the porch rail, just in case. We took the dog for a walk and as we approached home I saw a strange truck in of my house and someone fiddling with the chain. My dog noticed too and started her usual stranger danger reaction. I dropped the leash and let have her fun. She does so love pretending she’s a police dog.

  4. What is a particular disgrace here is that Texas is one of the most energy rich places in the world. This is entirely, absolutely and completely the fault of GREEN ENERGY. They lost 23% of their power because of windmills freeing up. The damn things don’t work!

    1. Agreed. 100% the fault of this green windmill and solar panel BS. Considering the amount of natural gas Texas is sitting on, this should never happen. I hope people see the light. Houston is something of a disaster zone right now. I work in the Houston metro area M-F but live about 2.5 hours north of the city in a very remote, rural area. My family members and co-workers in the Houston metro are without power, some with no water. I’m sitting here in a national forest with power, water (well) and plenty of wood heat. The rolling blackouts haven’t hit us – yet. Dual-fuel generator and propane supplies to last week just in case. Was 1° F at my house this morning. (Near Crockett, TX) This may be a yawn to Canadians, but it is deadly serious to people who have never experienced this type of cold. It’s the coldest weather I’ve ever experienced!

  5. I sincerely hope these folks come out ok. I fear that when this is over, we’ll find too many did not survive.

    Texans are some of the most caring people I’ve every met. For example the Houston flooding. But people in Houston and San Antonio are totally unprepared for cold weather. I’ve been there during snow and freezing rain episodes and its scary. Few people know how to drive.

    I notice that Biden is silent on social media. Not a tweet yesterday. Same with Pelosi. Guess they go to the Andrew Cuomo school for how to treat the elderly.

    The Central US is a disaster area, and CNN is reporting: “President Biden has expressed a preference for a fire built in the Oval Office fireplace, and sometimes adds a log himself to keep it going.”

    https://twitter.com/CNN/status/1361451418268422149

  6. Green theocracy is not a substitute for the laws of physics and or common sense. Preppers are actually prepared for these kinds of things. If more people were preppers, they would become redundant because green theocracy would become someone else’s problem.

    Cold weather kills people, it shouldn’t have to be stated.

    2. Yeah that’s great until the green theocrats convince government to come and take your preps away.

      1. My Sister-in-law who lives in Devon is a shamelessly hypocritical green socialist who is prepared for such events with her…. wait-for-it…… coal-fired Aga stove.

  7. One small thing would be to light as many candles as they can while they are huddled in the one room –

  10. Cold kills an average of 181,000 Americans each year.

    Heat kills 8,600 a year.

    Extreme weather; tornadoes, hurricanes, floods kill 400

    And what is Biden worried about? The planet warming!

  11. As far as pipes bursting, I’m not sure she needs to worry about that yet…assuming she doesn’t have exposed pipes running underneath her house in a crawlspace.
    Where I worked when the heat tracing crapped out on water lines we’d open up valves downstream to at least keep the water moving even if it’s just a little bit to retard the freezing process. So, open a cold water faucet to just a small little stream/quick drip if it’s a concern.
    If she has exposed piping underneath the house…fill jugs, pots pans whatever for your water needs, then shut the main valve and start draining the lines (flush toilets, open taps etc.)

    If your friend or her mother is on dialysis…that’s more serious. 911 isn’t out of the realm of options.

    2. Also, open the cupboard doors beneath the sinks, particularly those which are by an outside wall. Even with a well-insulated house, we’ve been doing that during the most recent cold spell.

  12. I can’t believe that no one has realized that there is a “Grand Solar Minimum” going on right now. The sun has no sunspots, or very few! The sun regulates the earth’s temperature, no carbon dioxide. The weather network weather commentators should be ashamed of themselves for whoring the global warming and climate change scam every chance they get. The CBC has not once mentioned grand solar minimum. Maybe it’s too deep for them to comprehend!
    AND, Al Gore should have his nuts kicked right off of his body for the damage he has been paid for with the GLOBAL WARMING scam that he is running.

  13. “Oh crap, the power’s back on,” said no one, ever.

    I saw the Gov. Abbott has the National Guard out doing welfare checks and warming centers are being set up, so there is some hope for your friends. I hope they’re okay.

  14. Unfortunately this looks like a prelude to our future. So far when you go to the store you can get food though not always disinfectant and paper goods. There has been shortages in other products such as meat, lumber, shingles and construction equipment/ This is what happens when everyone gets paid without producing anything of value. Prepare accordingly. I feel for these people , a lot of them didn’t vote for this. We now get to see the “real big lie” in action.

    1. At the start of the pandemic there were lines around the corner and down the street. Since I am always 6-12 months ahead on staples I just stayed home. One of my family members is a major upper management for Safeway and she reports the supply chain has been about as stable a drunk on treadmill. So far they have been able to mostly keep up with limiting numbers of items per purchase and a lot of scrambling and substituting and paying more, but it’s nip and tuck to say the least. We should all be like good Mormons and prep. Planting a garden is a really good idea too.

  15. For heat, with an old cast iron pot belly stove, you can burn wood, coal, even grain. Sitting on top of blankets, will keep you far warmer than being under any number of them. The floor, ground, bed, couch, chair, is conducting far more away from you, far more quickly, than the air above you.

    If your house is going to freeze, drain the pipes, empty the toilet, be liberal with plumbing antifreeze. For personal insulation, wool, and down have always been warm, always will be. They used to make giant down filled things you laid on top of for warmth, back in the days of sod huts. Caribou hide, is the only thing you can sleep on and expect to live through the night in the Arctic.

    It is what you are laying on top of, not how many blankets on top.

    1. Most plumbing in houses is not designed to gravity drain completely. You’ll need to use compressed air to blow the water out of the low lying runs of pipe.

  16. God has great sense of humor, sit back and watch his new stand up show “”Green Turns Blue””!

  18. I used to live in a semi-rural area, and relied mostly on wood heat.

    But I’ve long since moved into town, and while enjoying the comforts of N. gas heat, always felt vulnerable. So many years ago we put a wood heater in the basement and have a month’s supply of firewood under cover in the back yard. We would be fine in that kind of situation.

    1. Unless your wood heater requires an electric fan to circulate the hot air. Which is what a true “wood furnace” has. Otherwise, you really just have a woodstove, which is fine. But better it be upstairs, unless your house has the old New England approach to heating a home … large floor vents that allow hot air to rise to upper levels. But of course, every sound also travels all over the house, so if you want privacy … good luck.

  21. If you can afford it, always have a plan B.

    Will the people who have set up a power infrastructure that can so easily fail be held accountable?

    Does pushing for Giant Windmills because Extreme Weather Events are going to become more common make any sense?

  22. Not to gloat.
    It takes this kind of breakdown for far too many people to start to understand what the Casandra’s have been telling them for years.
    It has been obvious for decades that when you rely on Intermittent Wind and Solar in conjunction with natural gas,that this situation will arise.
    It has repeatedly occurred yet the politicians keep imposing their ideology upon the power companies.
    So stupid,because it has to happen,first the wind and solar fail,cause weather,then every supply of Gas is maxed out and has to be rationed..
    Everything fails.
    Coal was the thermal fuel of choice because it was cheap,ultra reliable and stockpiled at the power plant.
    The perfect solution to public utility power.

    Gang Green ,the religion,has spread like a disease.
    Coal has been amputated from the power grid,by fools playing at power engineering..
    So as much as too many people will suffer,this is what it takes to incite people to remove fools ,bandits and ideologues from every position of power.

    For it takes a manmade collapse to focus attention on the idiots who orchestrate disaster.

  23. I was born in 1955, and grew up in an America that was a land of plenty. A land virtually FREE of want (if you were able and willing to work). My father’s generation (the greatest generation?) were builders and innovators. More than any generation before them, they tamed nature and delivered a life of complete comfort and safety.

    But just like so many spoiled children who receive a massive inheritance … we are squandering all their work. We have spent a generation attacking, diminishing, and tearing-down all they built. I suppose that is what the feckless children of great people do. We have made it our entire “identity” to be iconoclasts … snide, sniveling, sarcastic little brats … incapable of building anything ourselves … we simply try to … “tear it all down ma’aaan.

    Oh, sure … High Tech, the Internet, cell phones, etc. but the seeds of all those things were planted and sprouted by my father’s generation … starting with the transistor. No … we have spent our time attacking the automobile, attacking power generation, attacking fossil fuels, attacking the most nutrient-rich diet in the history of mankind, attacking the suburbs and single family homes, attacking the nuclear family, attacking Christianity. Attacking all the things that have made America Great. Made America the land of plenty.

    There is no greater example of my generations penchant for destruction than “green” energy. Mass power outages in TX … and INTENTIONAL power outages in CA (every time the wind blows) are simply OUTRAGEOUS results of pursuing irresponsible, incapable, inefficient energy substitutes to what our forefathers built. I suppose because we all grew up in a land of plenty … we have no concept of freezing in the dark (or gasping for air in the sweltering heat). We are spoiled and stupid. We claim to “follow the science” … but then ignore it when it reveals “renewable” “Green” energy is absurdly inefficient. We also ignore the massive footprint of blight these energy sources cause to the natural landscape

    It’s time to CELEBRATE what the prior generation built … and work to make it cleaner, cheaper, and more efficient … not destroy it. Stop acting like spoiled brats.

  24. Never live in a place where you can’t have at least one independent source of heat that you control entirely. Woodstove, kerosene heater, generator to run an oil or propane furnace. People who depend 100% on utilities are delusional.

  25. My daughters house(on our property) has a problem with pipes freezing when it get cold(were on the west coast so it doesn’t often go below freezing) but when it does she lets one tap dribble constantly.Works like a charm.

  26. My dudes.

    Prepping is not just for Alex Jones.

    Its an insurance policy. A really cheap one with no real premiums.

    A month’s worth of Emergency food can be had for about 100$ (Mr. Noodles and Multivitamin)

    A basic (non electric) radiant propane heater cost about 150.
    Standard 20LB tank is another 50$

    20LB Propane tank will put out 6K BTU for 72 hours, or basically a standard electric plug in on HIGH.

    I keep 5 tanks, two months of food, two water filters, two stove/heaters. two Deep cell automotives on a trickle charger, two 12V cell phone chargers ect. as an insurance policy for my 78+ old parents in their shed.

    There’s also an inverter generator, a 450L slip tank of stale gasoline and an extension cord that sits on the outside 50 feet from the one room they can sit comfortably in. (and a backup electric 1500W heater)

    Everything is labeled, exhaust is clamped/vented/muffled/hidden.

    For basically 2K they are self sufficient *if necessary, for a solid 30 days.

    In a world of 100k$ half-ton pickups, 1K$ cell phones, and 10$ coffees…

    There’s no real excuse for 75% of the population.

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