Stay safe ...... 100 vehicle pile-up near Fort Worth (5 dead) and another near Austin .......

Holy freaking COW!!!! I haven't watched the news to day, this is crazy.. When we get ice its really bad here in Texas because we are not use to this kind of weather, We have been getting rain all day, its been trying to ice up here, and its really cold for us warm weather people, and its going to get worst for us sunday and monday.. And here I was thinking that winter was just about over for us

I saw that first thing this am,bad deal!

We were supposed to get the "ice" here (NE AR). Once again we were lucky and it mostly went south of us. We did get sleet! I hate freezing rain. When we first moved south and in Feb of 2009, there was the BIG ice storm. We were without power for 11 days. Some were without for as much aas 30 days. 

I'm a bad procrastinator, and we might pay the price for that over the next 5 days, because I've been looking at getting a generator for 2-3 years now.  The reason for dragging my feet is because I've always wanted to get a real good solar powered generator, mainly because I just like the idea.  I should have just gotten a good gas generator.  Now we don't have anything.  Shame on me.

bear

do not get gas  get propane  i have a 10k  propane with electic start   i have a 1000 watt solar

you can get that collar that hook on by eter to run most of house but do not get gas

its called  generlink 

(GENERLINK) and generator:

I saw two videos on Facebook showing the ft worth pile up.  Horrific!!!  

Thanks for the tip.  I'll look into that one.

Well, our power has been out for about 5 hours now. It's freezing. I set my kiddos up in the lq with the generator running. They are asleep now. I just hope I have enough propane to keep them warm in there. I put in a space heater, it's in a safe spot to help keep them warm. I'm back in the house freezing my butt off with about 10 blankets because I didn't want to leave my dogs alone in the house.. I can't bring all 5 pooches in the trailer... the kids have 1 dog with them. Tree branches and huge ice covered limbs are causing so many issues all around us. I had to move 44 .. yes FORTY FOUR chicks into the LQ too in a smaller feed tub because they were freezing in my house without a heat lamp or plate.. its been a crazy afternoon for sure! They keep pushing back the time they think power will be restored .. now possibly 2 to 3am... I am thankful we got these really neat old lamps from my mil a while back.. fortunately for us, we had cleaned them, filled with oil and replaced all the wicks ... they are keeping my bedroom lit for the time being!

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Still without electricity this morning... its 45 degrees in my home. Everything is frozen solid outside... I managed to break some ice for my horse to drink but the chickens are gonna have to fend for themselves, at least till I get electric back on... which they aren't really sure when that's going to happen. It's been out since about 3pm yesterday.  

The wreck is a bad deal, I'm not sure how more weren't killed after watching the video.  Prayers to all those involved and to the families of those lost.

Ice and down power lines is never a good thing.  Longest we have gone is about 10 days.  We were lucky to have a generator from the trailer that kept the essentials running.

Prayers for everyone in the path of what we are going to get Sunday on

I agree alot of those drivers and their passengers has their little guardian Angels with them.. 

We are getting really, this weekend and Monday will be the worst for us.. We are in Seguin and have done this about 10 years ago, but this time around sounds like it could be worst.. 

A gas generator is fine for "short" durations. One of the first purchases we made when we moved south was a 10,000 generator. We made it work during the 11 days without electric, in 2009, but it was only by switching things to be plugged in. I wish we would have purchased an LP whole house generator BUT, that being said, over 12 years that was the only time that we would have needed it. 

Norma, is a 10,000 W LP generator adequate?  The ones I've been looking at run from 12,000 W to over 20,000 W.  The brands and prices vary a lot.  

I hope you are ok

It worked for us. We could run lines to the freezer, refrigerator, and water pump (when needed). We have an "on demand" water heater so we only had to plug it in when we wanted hot water. We didn't need to run to the furnace because we had a wood burning stove that kept the house pretty warm. I have an LP kitchen stove. We didn't have to worry about TVs, etc because we were without cable for 8 days (LOL).

edited to add: The only thing John missed was "baked goods" ...... no home made bread, cakes, cookies, etc. because it was a hassle to plug the oven in ..... LOL

2nd night without electricity here. It's just crazy. So many lines down and I know the linemen are working as hard as they can. Last update I got was at 2am this morning saying possibly be on at 6am. But I'm not really hopeful.  I was able to send the boys to their older sisters apartment in another town so they could have electricity, hot showers and a bit if normalcy. I'd leave and go to a hotel if I could, I can't abandon my critters... I've been having to go out and offer bottled water a few times. We are hunkered down in our horse trailer... its cramped and tensions are high and patience is low.... this stinks! 

bear 

in ga i had a whole house generator  came on when power lost. i did not have ac  hooked up  but i did havee furnace  i also had on demand hot water

it worked great  

here in florida  i have a 7500 pwermater  propane with electric start as   i am a quad  i can turn a key and open tank

the reason i sAY Propane is does not gum up carbureator gas get old and when you run out  no power then what

propane  you can have it hooked up to take or as i do 3 cannisters of propane. they pull our pwer here on coast when surge is coming

check out that collar thing generar link

Good points, Vicky. That makes perfect sense. We already have a good size propane tank underground that only needs filling once a year.  I think it's only a 120 gallon tank.  Propane can last almost indefinitely in storage. Our stove runs off propane and so does our fireplace, which we might use 10-15 times a year.

You're amazing, do you know that?  I just had to throw that in there.

After living through the 2000 ice storm in okla & without power for 14 days, my husband jumped up & said, we are buying a home generator. We got a generac & we love it. Bob takes good care of me  :)  It runs our whole house & we have a 23 sq ft house. 

I was too late, but I did buy a generator... I got a 12k gas/propane. I probably won't have it till late next week. I've learned a bunch thru this, going on 6 days with no power. The way things are going I'm going to be prepping for the future a lot more seriously. We did stock up a while ago when all the covid stuff first hit... we have probably 10 32 pk cases of bottled water put up, we've been using that last several days for drinking water. I'm definitely replenishing that in the coming days. I'm also investing in a wood stove for our house. How likely will it be that we see this kind of cold again with no power?? I don't know, but at least we will be better prepared! Spring storms come to mind and I'm glad we will have that generator... we bought a bunch of non perishables too, we've dipped into as well. 

Bear

Find out how long your underground tank will last using it days thru an outage. During a hurricane my neighbor went thru two of the huge stand alone tanks when we were without power.   The truck was able to refill during that weather.   Would you be able to refill with ice on road. 
many variables to consider. 
one hurricane neighbor had a gas generator. They evacuated. I kept her generator fueled up, changed extension cord and kept her freezers froze. Plus I ran a cord to my window and ran a fan an could watch some tv