How Medieval Reenactment Saved My Life: Surviving the 2021 Winter Storm in Texas [CC] 

Agreeeee.

Also a Cold to Warm transplant and another thing I found is that warmer places generally don't pre-prepare, if that makes sense. When the ice came in, the roads weren't pre-salted and plows weren't at the ready. It was such a huge difference from where I was born, where pre-salting roads is so second-nature that I had never given a though that some people might not do it. It took 2 days to see the first plow go by my neighborhood, and 2 weeks before sidewalks were clear.

@@gingersnap7822 Texas has 1/10 of snowplow in the whole state that indiana has in any given county. Texas had less than 100 , every single county in indiana has more than that. (We don't always have drivers)

@@gingersnap7822 Wait you HAVE plows and salt trucks? LOL here we are lucky if we see a city pickup with a guy in the bed shoveling salt onto the road. Seriously though even though I can drive in the crap (Grad school in Iowa) I just stay in. Everything shuts down anyway and in nearly all cases it will be gone in a few days. The people around here do NOT know how to drive in it and are probably more dangerous than the ice.

Oh interesting ideas, thank you for sharing them!

Do you too, in RUssia, have (in some older houses) either moss or like cottonwool or something similiar in between the double windows to soak up the moisture from there? we had that in Finland in the house I grew up in.

@@LadyMcBite yes, I believe I've seen things like that too

Wow, I love that hack! I'm looking at all my windows now like a hitman picking who to take out first. ;-)

@@sarahrosen4985 be really generous with soap and water, if the paper isn't flimsy enough, it won't stick properly. if done right, it holds through the whole winter

TOTALLY. I was born in Buffalo and none of the houses I lived in before I turned 19 had central air. 90* with no aircon is awful and dangerous.

@@OpusElenae I grow up in northern Quebec (like drive 14 hours north from the US border, north) and my first car didn't have air conditioning.....it was useless because if you are hot, you just open the windows 🤷🏻. Central air conditioning was and probably still is inexistant but the coldest temperature I ever experienced was -53°C. I am not made for hot and humid 😂

@@YanickaQuilt 😱 Too cold! I would be dead dead dead

A fellow Canadian if I didn’t have relatives in Texas I would have been very confused. I’m in southern Ontario now where we are getting heat waves with humidity that are hard to deal with, people died. Two years ago my daughter who lives in northern Ontario had snow storm after snow storm. Her neighbour (in her 80’s) said she didn’t remember ever seeing that much snow. She had to hire someone to shovel her roof then hire heavy equipment to clear it out of the front of her house! The climate is changing and no one can predicted what will be coming. Even here my furnace is natural gas but the thermostat is electric as is the fan. There’s more everyone can do to be better prepared for these events. We should all think about that! Even just as you showed just having tea lights can help.

@@OpusElenae yeah, temperatures over 30C are really uncomfortable without air-conditioning. It's even worse if you end up having to run a dehumidifier for about 6 weeks in summer, and having to block your best way of getting through-flow going. As I learned last year....

yes this. The news reporting mainly focussed on the results not the causes and that made things really confusing, even if we could sympathise with "we don't have the infrastructure to deal with this".

This is a great way! Even just bringing a pot of water with rice/potatoes/etc to a boil and putting it in a bed will continue to cook for a long time. And it will also warm your bed!

Oh yea this works if you want to make rice pudding XD my mom use this method every Christmas :p

It's called a 'hot box' and works super swell. I make mine from two layers of 1/2" thick polyiso foil-faced foam, sandwiching 2" of polystyrene foam. Stagger the top lip so the lid seals well. Put a refrigerator or oven rack inside, set roaster or pot in, put bath towel or blanket inside to take up extra space. If you can, put hot rocks or bricks around pot. It will cook a beef chuck roast all day on residual heat, not stick or burn, and use minimal fuel. Also, when the local gov tells you to boil your water for 5 or 10 minutes, ignore that bad advice. All the harmful bacteria dies at 170*F. You can't SEE 170*F, but you CAN see it begin to 'rolling boil' at 212*F. When you see it boiling, take it off the heat source and let it cool to whatever temp you need it to be. Boiling it for any longer is just wasting fuel.

Oh no; I’m so glad he was okay! A bunch of friends of mine have solar and either didn’t have a direct wiring mechanism into their homes (most go back into the grid and you get a credit on your account; you’re not off-grid) or... got covered in snow!

@@OpusElenae Thank you. He is a little monster but he is my favorite little monster. I have asthma too and it is terrifying, especially when you are small and don't completely understand. I suggested a 12 volt system wired in addition to the "normal" one, (similar to RVs and some tiny houses). That way when the grid goes down, you switch over and can at least have lights and use small appliances. Extra insulation is not that hard to put into walls and will help with cooling as well. Since they live outside the jurisdiction of the city (okay, the "sticks") that is absolutely doable. It is a step in going to off grid. They both firmly believe in renewable resources so this would be relatively inexpensive and when the inevitable happens, (cause you know the power companies will not winterize...and the pols won't make them) then it will be a good thing indeed.

I'm a bit of a prepper getting ready for any blackouts in UK

Yep; I didn’t go into all the reasons but you’re right. It’s also why we don’t have nice cool basements in which to retreat from the summer heat (which BAFFLES people when I tell them).

Excuses, excuses, excuses. j/k

I’m so glad it resonated with you, but sorry you’ve had to live through all that! Welcome.

@@OpusElenae that which does not kill us, makes us stronger

YUUUUUP; in fact natural gas infrastructure failures were responsible for MOST of the shortfall. Try to tell that to anyone who just wants to blame progressive everything though.

@@OpusElenae and as you pointed out, they were warned about in 2011. Honestly without anything being done in terms of climate policy and Australia is woefully lacking in any as well, I reckon your next event like this will be within 5 years and not 10 like the last one. They are going to become more frequent.

Oh totally. 20 minutes of electricity and we had to shed clothing because we were toasty.

And that's why if the heat shuts off it's always recommended to stay in a single room no matter how big you live

@@AgentPedestrian Closing the doors to unused rooms is sensible whenever there are fewer people than usual in the house too.

@@AgentPedestrian yup, we were mostly in my bedroom when the power was off, but cooking etc had to happen where there was more space for fire safety.

@@AgentPedestrian my mother-in-law does this regularly, as she lives in an old stone house in Northern England.

Climate change makes the Earth do the wacky. 😕

@@OpusElenae Germany did never have to deal with water shortage and now we're heading into our fourth year of drought. Our forests are dying.

No you're totally correct. We will be seeing more and more extreme weather events (100-year floods, record-breaking hurricane seasons, extreme weather temperatures in both directions) as climate change continues to happen.

@@OpusElenae wish more people would believe this and understand we need to be as prepared as we can be and we need to do what we can to make changes.

A global mini ice age may be unlikely, but I’m worried about the Gulf Stream being disrupted, which would seriously change the habitability of Northern Europe. I live north of the Arctic Circle, and would rather not have to suddenly cope with the climate typical of this latitude in the parts of the world that _aren’t_ warmed by the Gulf Stream, because while we’re better prepared for winters than most Texans, we’re not prepared for the harshest winters either, nor for the lack of summer warmth.

actually a global ice age is where we are headed. Once we get to a certain heat point, we will melt all the ice caps and glaciers, all that cold water hitting the ocean will reverse the ocean currents, which will bring much colder waters back to the ocean surfaces, which will then encourage and enforce colder weather so that the ice caps and glaciers reform and then freeze and grow. This is all likely by the end of the century on our current trajectories.

no no NO!!! You have to know where those stones come from and temper those smooth stones first - old girl scout here. Exploding stones at large campfires are scary (especially when they're not even *in* the campfire)- warming over a flame inside a home could be deadly.

@@margaretkaraba8161 That is especially true if you want the stones to be hot enough to cook with/on, not just warm to keep your feet toasty.

I would suggest heating water over the fire (doesn't even have to boil - 60°C is more than enough) and filling it into hot water bottles. Having a hot water bottle (or one for each family member) at home will also be helpful for when you're sick, have period cramps or aching/tense muscles.

True. They are also good for tornado weather and if your area floods.

Our cars both have emergency bags. Four to 10 seconds can change everything for weeks. This may not be much good for heat but cooking on a simple Rocket Stove made from stones, bricks, or concrete blocks and an oven rack will surprise you. You will have to do this outside and storing the dozen or so bricks is no problem if one is serious about having one at the ready. I know most will not like this idea but oh well.

@@annahackman2539 Wildfires are another good reason for having a To-Go-Bag.

Indeed, emergency preparedness is for everyone, because everywhere has *some* sort of potential natural disaster. For instance, I was raised in earthquake country California, where we have "stay bags" in case of being trapped in place without water or power due to damaged infrastructure.

I also grew up calling it a trouble light and never thought a thing about it until I went looking for one as an adult overseas in a foreign language. Then you wonder what the 'trouble' in trouble light was.

Oh my gosh. I am so sorry you are still dealing with this.

@@OpusElenae - 🤞🤞🤞 Hopefully this ends this week...It has been frustrating on so many levels, the worst of which, companies with bad buisness practices taking advantage of people truly having severe issues of damage to their homes, who may not have the means to "make due" til a better result happens. Thank God we have our power, thank God for Checkingamp on demand shower. I have purchased 5 gallon jugs we fill and use. However, I will be extremely happy when we have our normal water routines back...🙂

We got a new water heater installed Thursday! I am now carrying on a torrid affair with my tub and shower!! Lol it feels Soo good to have it all back!

Part of the reason it took me so long to get this out when it was really straightforward to film was because i couldn't research and write for more and a couple paragraphs without FUMING all over again.

I misread soup as soap, but I'm not entirely convinced I'm wrong - soap is important!

Totally agree; one of the comparisons I was making was how northern infrastructure is just not made to handle the 100*+ (37.8*C) heat we get for weeks and weeks in the summers here. But climate change is making it so that nowhere is safe from weather crises, so we all have to prepare for more extreme events.

Anything that impacts modern conveniences is a Huge Deal, and people who are versed in doing without them are going to have an easier time coping. I’m glad your friends were okay!

I mean, I was born in Buffalo so I know from blizzards. But it’s different when a snow day and power loss isn’t “excuse to slow down and self care” and is more “how many people are going to die from this?”

Michigander transpanted to Texas here! I do kinda like it when we get a single day of snow down here and it's lovely and sparkling and magical. And it would be different if Texas had ANYTHING like winterization or winter preparedness for its roads or equipment. Unfortunately, that's not what happened here. My husband and I were without power and water for nearly a week. Even after a childhood spent dealing with legit blizzard after blizzard every year, we NEVER went days without power and water. Our homes were well insulated. We had heavy coats and sweaters in our closets. And, most importantly, we could drive out for supplies knowing a) the roads would be plowed and fairly safe to traverse AND b) the stores would actually be open! I drove around San Antonio for 45 minutes trying to find hot coffee, located a single CVS that happened to share a grid with a nursing home, and drank a coffee-flavored Monster heated by candlelight. When you're safe and warm and have all the amenities, winter is fun. This was not fun. This was survival mode.

Could a video be made like a demo of using the hot jars of water to warm the bed? And how you would cook in emergencies, just like medieval times? Thanks so much.

Everyone was SO supportive. I haven’t gotten even one unkind comment about the lateness.

Months and months and months later and nothing has changed or been fixed. It’s appalling.

My thoughts precisely. I’ve prepared for another recurrence of this event because Texas has done nothing to improve the grid this past year. But I don’t have a bunker or anything.

I’m so glad you found me! I think I’ve read at least the first book in that series…

Oh wow thank you!

Sandy was a couple years after I moved away from NJ but I remember all my friends being Not Okay there for a while when it hit

It was an entire wreck. I was more prepared than most and it was nerve wracking.

That’s basically what happened!

@@OpusElenae Indeed. And next year, even in your tiny apartment, you will be ready! (I hope.)

I hate being ambushed by them so I try not to ambush my watchers.

We have a fireplace in our apartment and we have never used it until this year. Initially my husband's train of thought was that we would not be able to start a fire in the fireplace however about the third morning of sitting around with an apartment that was about 30 degrees I stared hard that fireplace went out to our barbecue grill took the charcoal grate out of the bottom of the barbecue girl put it inside of the fireplace on top of the log grate that was in there to hold logs arranged charcoal briquettes and miscellaneous pieces of wood that were intended to be some kind of woodworking crafts for my husband I'm assuming and I started a fire. If we could burn it, it went in there and kept us warm.

Monday morning on the 19th, the water/fire-sprinklercloset on the outside wall of my son's room frozen and burst. About 11 an he realizes his room was flooding. We notified maintenance who told us that it was the fire department's responsibility to come and turn off the water. After another hour when the fire department has still not come and turn off the water I called the fire department and notified them of the water issue they came out tried to turn off the water but we're unable to and said that it really wasn't their responsibility that it was the apartment complex responsibility. So they left. Meanwhile inside the apartment myself my husband and my son has started what I can only describe as the water bailling Brigade. We spent the next several hours with a continual rotation of sopping up water bailing water ringing out every single towel that we had in our entire household to try to contain the water from flooding the entire apartment. We were unsuccessful because the water eventually went into the kitchen underneath the wall flooded the closet and bathroom of the master bedroom as well as half of the living room and carpet in the master bedroom. About 8 that evening maintenance knocked on our door to inform us that they had turned off the water. I have no idea why they let the water run for 9 hours. My son's bed which was on the floor because he broke his box springs but anyway was completely soaked and wet as we're all of his clothes and pretty much everything in his room. About 48 hours later the apartment complex sent a steam cleaning team to come and rip out the padding and soak up what water they could out of the carpets. During this time we had no water and the electricity finally came back on I think it was Wednesday evening. All total we were without water for nine and a half days. It took the apartment complex 21 days to come out and replace padding in one room ripped the padding out of the other room and steam clean the carpets. Unfortunately the apartment smells horrendous despite the steam cleaning of the carpets and replacement of the padding. So that was our winter storm experience.

Oh my gosh that sounds horrific. i'm so sorry you had to deal with all that.

Sorry to hijak your amazing video. LOL feels good to get that off my chest. :)

@@katsmeow69 no don’t apologize! This was so traumatic for so many people. The more of our experience we can share the easier it is to process.

We did hang out in the car for about a half hour to charge mobiles and warm up during the longest stretch of no-power; that's a good note.

@@OpusElenae Yay! I am glad you thought of that. Did the cat come with you? (Drinking a small cocktail: electrolyte water, strawberry rhubarb soda & a splash of Hendrick's, my favorite gin... in layers, because I dislike mixing. Also good with a sprig of mint. After that, a surprisingly tasty earl grey decaf & milk.)

My partners kitchen pipe froze too. It was a hot mess all over.

I’m so glad you were unscathed!

If you have the space, I am ALL FOR a well-stocked larder. Especially in such uncertain, unsettled times.

Wool and silk are the safest fibres in the cold, as they are the only ones that retain their insulating properties even when wet.

@@ragnkja other animal fibres like cashmere and alpaca are also warm when wet.

@@laulutar In this context, “wool” is a much broader term than “sheep’s wool”, but I’m glad you’re clarifying it for those who need the clarification.

@@ragnkja that's fair 😊 I'm a knitter and a linguist, so I couldn't help myself. I get very excited when talking about different animal fibres and their characteristics 😄

@@laulutar Better to clarify than to risk someone freezing because they don’t realise that they have suitable clothes 😊

I’m much better prepared for a repeat storm this year, but it grinds my cookies that nothing has been done to improve the infrastructure.

Wool stockings and layered skirts are my go-tos for warming the lower body on the coldest winter days. For upper body warmth, knit woollens are the most convenient for me, simply because that’s what I have.

oh and that twitter thread was gold! I mean wow.....

Good note, thank you!

True! We have our bed space otherwise occupied but a spare bookshelf serves out prep needs adequately.

Lol the only good thing that resulted for me was this video, so I totally understand.

I hope you can stay safe! 💜🥐

I’m glad you’re safe!

@@OpusElenae You as well! I really enjoy your work. Your black Cotehardie is inspiration to make one for myself out of some wonderful camel fabric from Mood Fabrics. Take care and have a fine week ahead!