I was in TX (Ft Hood) for work last week when the Winter storm hit and blackouts started happening everywhere.
Sat 2/13 I was on base, Freezing rain started to hit hard. Base shut down early as roads were closing/getting bad due to the weather. So it was about a half day, left to return to hotel around lunch. Tried to order some togo food, stop in a drive thru, everyone was leaving/closing due to weather. Luckily HEB store behind my hotel was open and so I go a bunch of groceries to last a few days since I assumed nothing was gonna be open the next day, including the base.
Sun 2/14...base closed down, sat in hotel all day and day drank. Sun night it snowed pretty good.
Mon 2/15 Actually made driving conditions better as the snow packed on top of the ice for better tread. Worked on base all day. By this point, HEB was a madhouse, lines going outside doors and around building, people fighting. Insane. Mon night power got knocked out in area. It was late so I just finished watching a movie on my phone as I dozed off. Our work project was set to complete on Tues, so I had set to check out Tues morning.
When I woke up 2/16, I still didn't have power and other places around hotel were without power. At the time I thought it was just my area, called my coworker who said base shut down again lol. He was staying at hotel down the road, they did have power. So I checked out and made my way over there to see if I could get a room because I didn't think every hotel in area would be booked up due to rolling blackouts and people without water.
I just wanted a room with power. I drove back south towards Austin to see if I ran into anything avaliable. There wasn't. I tried about 20 hotels on phone app and stopped in about handful of places as I saw them on the way.
Finally by accident found a Comfort Inn in Georgetown TX, about halfway from Ft Hood to Austin. A guy was checking out when I walked in and asked if I could get his room. Luckily there wasn't anyone ahead of me so she said if I could wait a couple hrs they would clean it and have it ready for me to use. She gave my room key to me and I went to get something to eat. Luckily Applebees was open for togo orders down the road, about the only place that was open by this point.
So I'm thinking the days gonna turn out ok. Got warm food in my belly. Had to toss out some of the frozen microwavable food I bought at HEB because of the fridge/microwave being without power the night before at the other hotel. So I was down to some snacks, candy..shit like that. 2hrs later I'm watching TV, damn thing goes out and the lights go off.
FUCK.
This hotel also lost power, and would be without power for Tues, Wed, and Thur am when I checked out. Got dispatched out to Kerrville TX which is about hr west of Austin, about a 2hr drive in normal conditions. Shit still coming down, and most of the way was shoulderless back country roads that look like ice rinks. A 2hr drive look me 3.5hrs avg about 30mph passing every 4x4 SUV/truck in my Nissan Altima rental lol. Do my thing in Kerrville and drove back to Georgetown, made sure to keep my room this time because no guarantee I'd get another one somewhere. So about 7hrs worth of driving in shit conditions to do about 30min of work...stupid.
Thur drive to Austin to fly home, my logistics dept books my flights. Snow coming down hard again. All flights to KC out of Austin are either cancelled or booked. Same with San Antonio airport. Only flight available is out of Dallas...it was about 1030am at this time. 3hr drive in normal conditions form Austin to Dallas.
Took me almost 6 fuckin hrs to get there due to traffic/wrecks. Most of the time was just getting out of Austin. Once I got to about Waco, the skies parted, got sun and blue skies and roads had melted...although Texans still avoided the left hand lane as the hogged middle and right lanes...fine by me...it was like an expressway...again...passing all the scared 4x4 with jacked up lift kits in my little Nissan.
I was lucky to have made it to DAL, got to gate as they were boarding. It was a good thing I got gas the day before (premium was only option available. Otherwise I wouldn't been able to find gas anywhere...that was another big problem.
Gotta little taste though what it's like to live in countries like Venezuela. At home I have storable foods, and tons of meat in the deep freeze, pasta and canned goods to last if shit does hit the fan, I can feed myself for a year easily...my only problem would be eventually water supply.
[Reply]