Just dug some fresh carrots yesterday.

Danny
I gotta think them folks down south are more interested in having the A/C work right in summer. Than thinking about few days the furnace runs when it gets cool. Now when it actually very cold and loose power, they are just screwed.. It's simple fact that city infrastructure things cost more here in north. Fire hydrants are all self draining and sprinkler systems in unheated areas are dry systems. Not sure how things are set up in other cities. But the city well house here have diesel back up for the electric pumps. all to add to very good gravity system.. I know that this last cold snap there were still several main breaks even in a system build for cold.
Anyway as much as what people in metro areas can be a prepper. Still lot folks screwed when power goes out for more than 24/48.
I don't have any of the dehydrated meals squirreled away myself just not my thing.. I do know a guy has a boot legged shallow well in his basement. can use old pitcher pump get water push comes to shove..

I grew up kind of off the grid being what was thought of as suburbs back in day. could shoot gun in yard pet cows over the back fence..We had oil heat from old Super Flame oil burner gravity fed so no electricity need to run that. All Ma's canned goods were in what she called cellar. Just unheated basement under the kitchen had ladder no stairs..All the plumbing was also in there under just kitchen and bathroom.. Kitchen cook stove was LP so wasn't and issue. We did loose water when power went out. Could get few gallons water off the pressure tank if really needed. The only one time we were with out power for more than 24 hours was after house took lighting strike. That was during warm weather so heating wasn't issue. Dad got a generator and ran the refrigerator and freezer with that. Power company had to put in a new service and electrician had to do meter box and breaker panel. they were blown out along with lot outlets.
But anyway I just don't think it's realistic to expect mass amounts of people to worry to much about that 1 time..Pretty easy to see that now even at start of covid and was no power loss or cold involved.

I was wondering how they were doing for toilet paper???
Lot them folks probably freak out can't use a proper bathroom. Things get bad my wife is good with 5 gallon bucket with trash bag in it. Done it more than once.

Mac

I can’t believe that all Texans cannot deal with this cold snap ? I’ll bet rural Texans are OK, but urban Texans , like urban dwellers in every state, are the majority that are the most helpless ? Texans here please correct me if I’m wrong ? I’ll bet there will be some serious overhaul of many building codes coming Texans way.
Like burying water mains several feet below grade. I think I’d buy a wood stove.

I was reading about burst water mains there, How does a water main burst? aren't they underground? Here, anything 3' or under will never freeze, and we get weather like Texas had every year, multiple times, So unless the mains are laying on the surface how does one freeze?

still wonder what happened to shut the power off in tx. no way the demand for kilowatts was higher than a 97 degree day with 92% humidity

They couldn't make any... I know the wind mills in Michigan are engineered to minimize weight of blades as they are so dang big. I think the coating of ice adds many tons and also screws up aero dynamics. On a slow wind day or no wind day you can see a bend in the blades. I think they would self destruct with the ice. The blades also change pitch as wind speed changes.

So at what temp do running faucets freeze? Heck, if we see temps in the 20’s for 3-4hrs during the night our faucets are dripping. Just something we’ve always done and never had an issue with freezing or burst pipes.

So you still have some furniture in your house that you didn't have to burn?