The Northern Perspective

As you all have heard, and have moved on from, the south had quite the weather event a few weeks ago. While you may think I'm late to game, or you're tired of hearing about it already (you deal with this all the time, right?), we just arrived home from our two week annual family leave...in Texas.

It changed me.

It changed us.

I found myself embarrassed to be from a region of many who mocked, scolded, laughed, and made jokes of the Texans who they claimed "were not prepared". These statements coming from people who had being prepared for winter engrained into their souls from birth along with all the proper tools to do so. They view it as a little cold spell, not the deep freeze that lasted incredibly longer than anticipated.

It truly was the 100 yr storm.  If you really think about that, you will realize most Texans have not experienced this weather in their lifetime. Never. They have never drove in it. They have never had to worry about pipes freezing. They have never had to have our idea of heavy coats, 4 wheel drive vehicles, alternative heat sources. Their infrastructure is not set up for those single digit temps with negative wind chills. That is not their fault. When they were told to prepare, they did so-from their previous experience with storms-and bought maybe a couple extra bottles of water and some snacks.

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We left on the 12th in the later afternoon, staying on the Indiana / Illinois border. We woke up to no water at that hotel, and were on the road by 6am. As the day progressed and the weather reports came out, I stopped at a Kroger's and bought a few days worth of groceries, bottled water, and Gatorade. I don't ever buy Gatorade, I must have been nervous! The temps dropped with every mile south we drove, it seemed, and our groceries kept perfectly in the bed of the truck. I had already thrown in a few extra throw blankets. I never let the fuel gauge go below a half of a tank. As we neared our next planned stop in Texarkana, I struggled with deciding whether to drive the rest of it through or stopping. Freezing rain was expected to start overnight, and getting as far as we could seemed to be a better idea. However the friends I text and 6 people lacking showers made me choose to stop. We cleaned up, ate supper, took a nap. We were on the road at 3:15am. Love those farm kids!

We should not have stopped. Two hours in we had to lock in the hubs, and the rest of the day was no more than 40 mph, most of it between 25mph and 30mph. On a sheet of ice. I know that is a phrase around here, but literally, everything was covered in ice. There was no grabbing the dirt on the shoulder of the road or getting to that next dry patch. There is no following the road commission truck after they scrape and salt. Heck, there are no road commission trucks. It took us 14.5 hrs. to do a 6.5 hr. trip. One wrong jerky movement and we would have spun out, game over. No pressure, right? I was prepared. As long as we weren't smashed in between semi's we would be fine. I'm not exaggerating when I say I prayed out loud (and not the yelling type 😉) and after being just behind of, or just ahead of multiple pile ups, it's by nothing but the grace of God that we made it. 

I kept going because it was just going to get worse as time went on (and it did). I would rather be hunkered down at our location than in a hotel room in Arkansas, paying for both accommodations. 

The storm was predicted to last into that Monday, then by Tuesday it would be better. Wrong.

Overnight Sunday snow moved into the area. Our building alarm went off early that morning, pipes broke on the 2nd floor. We were on the 4th floor. This was just the beginning of it.

The night before I had opened all the faucets in our unit and let them drip. As they began to rotate power, we had somewhat of a routine. Power on-charge devices, shower, run laundry, fill bathtubs with water to flush the toilets. Fill pots and pans with water on the stove. Do as much school work as we could, cook food for the next meal, open all the bedroom doors to let the unit warm up. Power off-shut bedroom door and put towels down to stop the draft getting to the interior pipes. Read, write in journals, when the weather permitted (after a few days), go for walks.

A few more systems went through dropping an additional 6 inches of snow on top of all this.

It was yet another great learning opportunity for the kids. At home we have a 48kw generator and well water. They would not necessarily know how to operate if they didn't have this opportunity and training. They would have continued to take for granted what they (we northerners) know about how to prepare for winter storms. They would have missed the opportunity to see that sometimes God uses what one considers to be everyday habits and common knowledge to help other people.  Even as things got better, we had a great conversation on why we had to boil the water and brain eating amoebas.

Here's a few snapshots of conversations I had with close friends as they checked in helped me monitor the situation.

Here's the good stuff. We were able to help people, and they felt like they could ask. We laughed as we crammed 8 people into the truck to go to the store. We teared up a bit as they offered us what groceries they had left when their stay was done. The boys volunteered to bag groceries at the store when they had only two employees show up. The helped unload generators, carry elderly people's items across the icy ground. The younger kids hauled coolers of snow up 4 outdoor flights of stairs so we had water to flush. They were reminded of the good ol' days without internet. While they were sheltered still from the realities that people died, that people STILL don't have water, that people were burning furniture and using up all their gas staying warm in their cars...not knowing the trucks weren't coming to replenish it for while, they got a taste of what to be grateful for and coming together as a community, even if just for a little bit.

On Friday the 19th they moved us to a different unit that had water. We had to boil it, but that wasn't an inconvenience after going without completely for almost 4 days. We were able to salvage vacation some as the weather got nicer. We went to the rodeo, the Lyndon B Johnson historical site and ranch, the Natural Bridge Caverns, Faust Bridge, and a few of our favorite local spots. 

Another trip for the record books. 

What is not challenging for us, is very challenging for others. Instead of poking fun at them we can share what we know to help. I'm sure at some point we will all get a chance at being on both sides.

Back to work.