Winter Weather Paralyzes Texas

Snow stranded drivers. Photo: Getty Images

Looking at the picture above, I'm sure you can understand why the main water pipe to our house has frozen solid. Except...that the picture was taken of a Chicago highway, and we live in Austin, Texas where the low temperature on Tuesday night was a comparatively balmy 18 degrees Fahrenheit (-8 Celsius).

We turned on the tap yesterday morning, and...nothing, not a drip. We were hoping it was the city's problem because they had noted several outages in the area, but unfortunately, ours was not one of them.

After work, Trent walked around outside with our handyman neighbor and identified 2 exposed pipes leading from the ground into the house and shook his head in disbelief at their complete and utter nakedness. "They don't build houses like this in Canada," he said somberly.

So, he rigged up an incubator with a space heater, hot water bottle, and towels, but the day had already started cooling off again. We tried the same thing earlier in the day today, but without success. Tomorrow the temperatures are at least supposed to get above freezing, so we're hopeful.

Things you think about when you don't have running water:

• 18 degrees is too cold for Texas pipes--When a friend asked if we had remembered to leave our faucets dripping overnight, I had to admit it hadn't even crossed my mind. My first reaction was that Trent, the Canadian, should have thought of it, but then remembered that if that was the solution to cold days in Canada, then their faucets would be dripping a good 6 months out of the year.
• we were not cut out for living in the 1800's (heating up water for bathing and dishes gets old really quickly--I mean, after doing it once)
• water storage is a good idea-- we started doing this when we first heard the counsel to store 2 weeks of water for each person for emergencies, but when we manuever around our 60 gallons of water in the garage, I feel a little end-of-the-world--kooky. But I have to say, Day 1 ran pretty much like normal (only with fewer than normal toilet flushes if you really want to know)
• don't cook if you don't have to--Day 1, I was feeling pretty optimistic and even made a quiche and kept up with the dishes, but that novelty wore off pretty quickly; paper plates, here we come.
• cloth diapering doesn't work--luckily, this was the first thing I thought of and quickly switched over to disposables for the time being (I think cloth diapering is a hassle in normal life, but not even a possibility without running water; see 'unfit for 1800's living' comment above)
• low-flow toilets are a good idea--and not just for the environment (it almost made us cry to throw gallons and gallons of our perfectly good water in the toilet to flush it)
• Taco Cabana for dinner is an even better idea
• I shouldn't have procrastinated doing the laundry earlier in the week because now we are really hurting.

But we're not the only ones who have been affected. The entire city has experienced rolling blackouts and power outages. The school districts have already scheduled a 2-hour delay for classes tomorrow, and Trent has received no less than 3 emails at work warning employees of the severe winter weather and the possibility of 1-2 inches of snow tonight.