Hacker News Reader

Comment by arenaninja | Hacker News Reader

Also a Texan here, it sounds like things weren't particularly bad for you. My power was out 36+ hours including during the 14-degree weather overnight where we all huddled in a room with the warmest blankets we could find with no electricity. I had pipes burst and I'm looking to rip out carpet that smells moldy because I couldn't air it out, heat it or vacuum it. Internet service was restored recently, maybe 60 hours after it was lost. Everybody I know in the Houston area lost power for at least 36 hours and 2/3rds of us had pipes burst

View on HN

Thank you for sharing your story, and I'm sorry it sucked so bad! Let me just ask one thing-- are you saying that people had faucets on and dripping and the pipes still burst? We have plenty of shallow-buried (or even above-ground) pipes and dripping all the faucets was enough to prevent bursting.

Yes, Texan here, our neighbors had their faucets dripping but lost power/heat for 30+ hours and pipes froze and burst in the ceiling.

Several factors involved—- the pumping stations lost power so water pressure fell to a trickle. Also homes in Texas are not insulated well-enough to withstand the extreme cold and prolonged lack of heating we experienced.

It was somewhat thermodynamics too— their house was a smaller 1-story house, ours was a larger 2-story house and retained heat long enough to weather the freeze before power came back.

I was dripping a faucet in every room with water, and also making sure the hot water(tankless) lines were getting some movement.

Was super worried after the reports of water supply issues that the pressure would drop and the pipes would freeze while I was sleeping in my 41 degree house :/ Fortunately we are in the lower elevation zone so it never dropped more than a quarter or so(pressure or flow, couldn't tell).

Yes several people who had faucets dripping still had pipes burst. Mine were the first to burst and the friend who came to help me out later called me to say his burst later in the day. This is somebody who lived in Indiana for a while and is familiar with freezing temperatures and lives in a newer construction (house built around 2010)

It seems like you lost power around 8 hours and your house didn't lose as much heat as others

Reply on news.ycombinator.com