Sadly, the privatized energy sector will spend more on lobbying the government not to regulate, then upgrades to protect the grid from future failures like this. Your government in action! 😂
@@MrBizteck yep just heard the govenor say that public funds would be used to weatherize the private energy companies that skimped to save money on their weak power grid. "But the windmills!" Time for a carbon tax to install green energy and batteries. maybe attitudes will change when Tesla a major company in the state and Cybertruck is made in Texas?
I remember you’re in Texas but I can’t remember where about but Texas Green Plumbing seem like some good guys and Roger Whitfield (the owner) actually has a UA-cam channel
America's infrastructure it seems to been put on hold since the 80s.. The list of bridge's that need replacing is mind blowing let alone water pipes, powerlines etc..
The issue with the bridges seems kinda terrifying, especially after the Genoa road bridge disaster or even the pedestrian bridge in Florida a little earlier that year. I hope that they are resolved before anything like that happens for you guys. It's horrible to think that public image in politics gets priority over the safety of the people.
The worst part is, a lot of the people in texas are blaming the wind turbines and green energy in general for being unreliable and useless in extreme conditions. Even though there are a ton of other countries that use wind turbines in sub zero temperatures. Its basically the governments fault for not managing and upgrading the turbines to handle cold temps. But then again, its very unexpected for texas to get these kinds of weathers
@Jake Johnson I'm not very familiar with the infrastructure in the US, so forgive me if I am wrong on this and disregard everything from this point onward. It surprises me that you don't have something similar to the PS20 solar power plant array that they built in Spain, to help boost your green energy output during the 'normal' weather in Texas. Wind turbines can operate in many different conditions, the largest windfarm being operated in the UK, however that is at sea so obviously is designed for its environment and generates a lot of power accordingly; its always windy at sea, and Texas is quite landlocked. If a solution could be found for the sea, it is likely a solution can be found for dry, landlocked areas too ?! Surely utilising the method most effective for your environment, and with the recent climate (apparently but I have not seen first hand to be certain) being so infrequent in Texas overall, you could demonstrate how, overall, you could have a positive effect? In windy areas, close to the coast, wind farms could have a phenomenal impact on energy consumption. Likewise, inland states with lots of sunshine, for most of the year, could have a great impact on the energy production in states with a similar climate. Something like the PS20, in the southern states, could create a self-sustaining environment for them, with wind farms helping coastal states, and with further funding going in to energy storage, you could create a strong foundation for a self-sustaining, fossil-fuel free society, with the research into energy storage helping to ensure any natural disaster, that affects the ability to produce the green energy, can ensure supplies are available and reliance on fossil fuels is not necessary. Of course this comes with a HUGE asterisk- * this is not solely aimed at the USA, we ALL need to work toward this, and a simpleton with a comment like me isn't going to provide all, if any of, the answers. As nice as the simple solution may sound, it doesn't make it viable, so I trust in the sensible powers that be to find and refine their own solution to the issues we are all faced with now. I hope you don't judge me too cruelly, as I am but a simpleton, wishing out loud to those far more intelligent than me.
As someone who lives in Moscow, I can tell you that although I have experienced -40 C, Moscow wasn't the place where I had problems with cold weather. Where I experienced the worst cold weather was in Guangzhou in February 2016 when it was only around 0 C - the thing is, without heating, warm clothes and with high humidity, it gets cold real fast! So I really feel your pain Joe.
Humidity really makes everything feel a lot colder, like I can have a tshirt at 10c when its dry, but when the humidity is 100%, even 15c is more than 1 jacket cold
Everything thats wrong with Capitalism in one sentence, and it rings true in every crisis. Be it Corona bailouts for companies or bailouts for the banks or bailouts when the dot com bubble burst... Every crisis is a capital redistribution from bottom to top, yet the majority seems to be opposed to taxes for the rich to redistribute the money back from top to bottom
@@imouse3246 They will always win :p Just see what they did with GME. Shorting it with 5 times the amount of shares that are in circulation and then disabling the option to buy the stock
A Canadian here... Yea, I first found it funny how Texas was being slammed, since I did not fully understand how houses down there were built. Now, all I wanna do is send blankets, boots, coats and lots of good vibes. Yes, it will be something to smile at once it is all over with, but truly, I feel for you guys down there. Joe, keep the beard, for it will help you until it warms up! Lots of love from Canada!
Houses are no different than Canadian houses. It’s the power issue. No heat, pipes freeze and bust. But they are having a heck of time with it all. Texas has their own power grid to avoid Federal Regulations. And it pretty much fell apart. And Joe is right, they never have weather like this.
@@pamelaneibuhr6959 no, they are different. Lot more insulation on Canadian homes, fireplaces almost standard, pipes buried deeper as to not freeze, thicker outer walls. Yes, different climates use different building methods and materials. Even just like, TX compared to Colorado you’ll find these differences. You can’t “winterize” a house you are living in (the way you would an RV or car you store for the winter). It has to be built to with the cold. And 8 inch thick outer walls of brick facade, wood framing, 4” insulation, and sheetrock- which is literally just compressed POWDER with paper pasted to either side- DOESN’T hold up in cold weather. As Texans sadly are sadly learning. Never thought I’d actually happy to be in Oklahoma, and so happy that all my family lives in the Texas panhandle, which is on a separate, much better grid than the ERCOT bs. Funny- its a FEDERALLY REGULATED NOT FOR PROFIT grid- literally the opposite of what Texas created the ERCOT grid for because, you know, cApitaLISm can do EveRy tHiNG BETTER! They all have power just fine, and from a MUCH higher percentage of wind turbines- over %50- because oh I dunno, they have had their motors WEATHERIZED? Something Republicans are pretending is impossible and also to blame for all this... despite green energy providing only %10 of ERCOT’S grid, the majority of which runs on NATURAL GAS- and there are 4 NATURAL GAS PLANTS totally out of commission due to the DEEP PROLONGED COLD. But there they are, lying their asses off with straight faves worthy of Oscars on FOX...
@@pamelaneibuhr6959. Not so. we cant put water pipes in the insulation of outside walls which caused Joe's disaster! and there are many other building, plumbing and heating regulations here in Canada to cope with extreme cold.
@@pamelaneibuhr6959 ... Really? I sincerely doubt that... For one, I bet that most Texans do not have a fully insolated house that is designed to keep the heat in (which Joe stated), I truly doubt they have furnaces as powerful as mine. I am pretty sure that my roof needs to hold a lot more snow then any in Texas... Sure, the house might have some insolation and have been built wonderfully, I just doubt it is designed to take on the bitterness like Texas has been slammed with.
Reminds me of the joe rogan bit talking about Boston weather. “Every morning everyone gets in their car and goes *shivering* “fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck”” accurate. Doesn’t get much easier
When people from down south "complain" about "cold" temperatures of 50 degrees; when they are jokingly referring to how cold it is; then I joke about how it's nothing. When it's below freezing and there are real problems because your infrastructure is not built to handle that, I don't joke about that.
Was also gonna say the 50F number. Above freezing it's funny, below freezing is when people die. Being Nordic I die at 30C/86F, which I recognize as funny, but above that heat strokes become a real problem without active cooling.
Anything below 75° Fahrenheit is unbearably frigid. I don't like, or enjoy, supposedly brisk, bracing, or _'comfortable'_ temperatures that make me shiver or get goosebumps at all. Wearing layers of clothing sucks. If I could spend the rest of my life _'fully dressed'_ in sandals, shorts and a tank top, I'd be fine. Cold weather feels like Death Incoming.
Not really sure about the "deserve" part - if there are people who deserve a climate crisis, it's the people who caused the crisis. But so far people most affected by the shift in climate were nations who barely contributed to CO2-eq emissions. If a storm destroys the wealth of a nation that made its wealth by killing this planet... yes, that could be considered "deserved". Although it obviously sucks for the individual, maybe it causes a change in thinking, a change in politics. Now. When it's too late. (And yes, there is strong indication the massive cold front is a result of a heating arctic.)
I remember checking the weather a few days back and it was a fair bit colder in Dallas than in Ottawa, Ontario where I'm at. The big cold weather front actually missed us and we nearly had a thaw while Texas was freezing. That would have been our third thaw this winter so far and this is starting to be a normal thing here. Weather's getting screwier and screwier by the year.
@@SimonBarke Your reply did something I've often done: take a benign joke and take it very very literally, even when the core of the joke is actually kind. Here's the thing, as soon as we get into being the arbiter of who deserves what, then we are almost as responsible for the bad things that happen to good people when the people in power make harmful decisions. Your comment implied a schadenfreude for the people of the fossil fuel industry. But if you listen to Joe, you are presented a face of the human toll of this nature (I agree, not natural) disaster. No human deserves the kind of destruction and suffering we've seen out of Texas -- not even assholes. You want to get people to agree with you? Start with unconditional sympathy and empathy for their humanity. One last thing: the only people who will actually suffer in this disaster are those who unequivocally don't deserve it. The people with power will always be able to escape the consequences, like being able to fly to Cancun, stay in a fancy hotel, easily afford to rebuild, etc. Please don't even entertain wishing suffering on anyone. The collateral damage is always to high a cost to justify.
@@lady14bug absolutely. I wholeheartedly agree that the people in power do share a much bigger portion of the blame. But the people who helped to put the ones responsible in power were not innocent. They benefited (lower energy prices) until they didn't (no electricity). And the ones in power escaped, yes. What will Texans do about that? All I'm hoping is that the mindset of the public will change. I hope we won't hear as much "I don't want to live in socialism, so I am voting for deregulation" as we have before. In the end it's us who give those responsible the power to do harm to us (which would be self inflicted) and to the world as a whole (which is a complete asshole move). Despite all the disinformation and voter suppression: the US is still kind of a democracy, isn't it? And people can remove and replace those in power? What I am saying is: the people of Texas voted for deregulation and anti-environmental policies. They reaped the benefits while bringing harm to others. They now feel some of the consequences of their actions. This is not so much about Schadenfreude as it is about cause and consequence. And the consequences are currently hitting the ones responsible for the cause, which is not good, but it's better than just causing harm to others while just enjoying the good parts of destroying our planet. But don't get me wrong: I do think it would be much much better if no one would have to suffer and people would still come to their senses and change the world so it is better and more just for everyone.
Hey Joe. I’m sorry what you’ve been through. I’m from Winnipeg Canada 🇨🇦, and many of us here felt bad for Texans. Hang in there and stay warm. My heart goes out to all who have suffered as a result of the cold.
I'm from Alberta, and I feel bad for Texans (given that their infrastructure just isn't set up for cold... Where we just came off a -40C cold streak). Hopefully, this will be a wake up call that a) climate change might actually just be a real thing... b) this kind of weather can happen ANYWHERE. I can see where Canadians might joke about how acclimatized for the cold. I live in southern Alberta. We have 40C days in the summer (air conditioning is a necessity here in the summer) and we have - 40C in the winter. So we get it all. (I love the heat, by the way) Stay strong in Texas! And please rely on each other for strength and comfort. We're rooting for you.
I’m from New Brunswick Canada. Trolls are dumb. Extreme weather is relative. My friends and I are watching this situation with compassion. Hang in there.
When parties causing a problem do not have to bear the related costs, this is called a negative externality in economics and it’s basically a market failure. Regulation is one of the measures to bring markets back into balance in these situations.
@@Heywoodthepeckerwood I wouldn't normally do this, but you made it far too easy not to I'm afraid: 'So, I'm the guy that knows just enough about a topic to make sure you know I'm an idiot, and nothing more.'
Not having access to other states grids is a serious problem, even if the Texas grid is a joke, the first transition should be to join the other 2 primary grids.
@@cryptocasey2262 !!!This is a scam!!! Absolutely do not call this number on WhatsApp! There is a vulnerability in WhatsApp that can allow an attacker to take control of your account simply by you calling their number. Report this person (account was created very shortly before this comment was posted) and this comment.
I have chart showing the 9 phases of a project where one phase is “hunting down the innocents” and another phase “rewarding the ones that didn’t participate”. Been there a lot of times.
@@jaredchampagne2752 I completely agree with you that we should try to be independent. Absolutely. And blame culture doesn't achieve much. Although these extreme weather events seem to happen in Texas around once every ten years so they might want to do something about it.
In TN here. Thank you for saying what we all think! Our city has no plow. We have foothills and mountains, and freezing rain/ice is usually what we get instead of snow. My heart also goes out to all those in Texas. :(
I wish everyone in Texas the best. I'm in north FL, and we had a little bit of a similar sitch back in '89. Around Christmas, it froze over and snowed for about 2 weeks. The ditches froze, the roads were 'black ice' - and we weren't prepared for any of that. My car was actually in the shop most of that time, and I just walked everywhere I went. Trust me when I say that I was doing a whole lot better than the poor saps who were trying to drive around! I watched cars cross intersections at like 5mph, and they still slid around, sometimes even spun out. The airport (JIA) closed. I got a ride with a friend once (just once!), and we ended up getting stuck at the foot of a bridge - no traction. We got out, let some air out of his tires, and the 2 of us pushed his F150 over the Fuller Warren bridge. No lie. I worked at a hospital (I was on vacation at the time), and they started calling disaster drills. We had to go in and prepare for trauma & accident victims, putting together special trauma carts for the ER & such. It was ridiculous. After it finally warmed up a bit, we had T-shirts printed that said, "I survived the Blizzard of '89." Your going through a lot worse right now in Texas, and I feel for you guys out there. It sounds much worse than our little adventure was. No one should be laughing. If they want something to laugh at, then let them laugh at the same thing I do. Even though I'm a native Floridian, I'm hot-natured. I often go outside in weather below 40F wearing shorts & a T-shirt. What I laugh at is the fact the if it drops below 60F, I see young men walking around in long-sleeve flannel shirts, heavy coats, with gloves & hats like there in Michigan. That's funny to me. Even my wife laughs at them. I call them "Kennys" [like Southpark]. Anyway, be safe, everyone! You're on our minds! tavi.
Hey Joe, I live in your area, just for peace of mind, you can log into the city water department and check your readings to make sure they aren't changing to confirm you don't have any small leaks since they update every 6 hours, usually the middle of the night you should see them stay the same unless you use water at night. Also, I went to smartmetertexas website to download my electric usage to see just when the power was off and when it was on.. etc. It is kind of interesting to see how they were cycling the power. Cheers!
@@joescott-tmi I understand. When you're cold your brain doesn't always think like normal. But on a positive note our weatherman just said we are having _Sparkle Flurries_ How special!
14:55 Disposable hand warmers are actually just iron mixed with a few chemicals that facilitates rapid oxidation. So once a hand warmer is spent you just got a little bag of rust! Technology Connections talked about it in a video they did on reusable hand warmers just a few days ago. Hope things get better for you and all Texans. Your friends from way up north.
So, those are sort-of slow-burning thermite? (My brain's going awful places with that idea.) Haven't used any since I was a kid with a newspaper route... maybe I'll stick with gloves, since modern insulation's *so* much better than home-knit mittens forty-odd years ago were.
@@AntonPNym same reaction yes but different composition designed for a different purpose. No ignition, no flame, no other metals. Just (mostly) rusting iron bits. They don't combust. Perfectly safe for use and to dispose of!
Actually a well insulated house is good in keeping the heat in as well as keeping the heat out. Similar to a glass being able keep water in and out if you push it in a pot filled with water.
@@paintballercali : Where I am in Canada, the water pipes from the street to the house are buried four feet deep in the ground, where geothermal heat keeps the water from freezing. . . *if* we’ve had enough insulating snow cover. . .
Thanks for the update....nice to know all is well. We're in Dallas, around Lovers and the Tollway. We dealt with rolling blackouts most of Monday and Tuesday (and part of Wednesday)...4 or 5 hours on, then 5 or 6 hours off. With the exception of a couple of hours on Wednesday, our neighbors across the street were not impacted (same subdivision, mostly the same vintage/style houses).
Joe, I'm from up North and it gets cold here often. We complain when it doesn't get cold when it's supposed to in the Winter. I watched the events unfold in Texas and have been checking my UA-cam subscriptions for my Texas content creators like you and several others I follow. I'm completely empathetic for you guys and the struggle of what's been happening down in Texas. Up here, after the third-4th day into a heat wave, people start dying from all sorts of heat related illnesses where other places out west may go months at a time above 90F but no one's laughing at us. I loved one of your quotes so much that I captioned the quote in a framed screenshot of you saying it and hung it on my office wall. "The more you know, the more you know how much there is to know". This quote right here is exactly why I'm subscribed to your channel. It's framed on my home office wall sitting right next to my other quote that you happened to mention in that same video from Charles Bukowski: "The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence." People's ignorance, arrogance and lack of empathy is enraging.
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Don't eat the yellow snow! But on a more serious note I feel for you, left a few tips in previous comment. (Sandbags and kitty litter for your car. ECT.) Sending you well wishes from WA state.
@@josipmatic4732 yes, maybe regulatory bodies could impose certain safeguards to home building codes or infrastructure codes, but remember that there is a century of infrastructure that is not designed to deal with a cold snap, never crossed their minds when they only deal with cold (sub zero temps) for less than a week, maybe every decade or so. Something that should be considered moving forward, learn from the past type idea, but right now, this is like Iowa Or Colorado having to deal with a hurricane or a tsunami... guaranteed they aren’t prepared for that, and why should they, seems so incredibly improbable.
For future: recommend a cutoff valve at the house entrance, the kind with a lever that you turn 90 degrees, in addition to the city's "thing." My plumber put one in at some point without my asking, and it's been a godsend.
Yes, my supply splits into two. One goes into the interior via a stop cock, so I can quickly shut off that if there's an internal leak. The "luxury extra" is that the other goes through a short thick rubber pipe to a robust brass external tap. If that freezes I turn a blow lamp on it. The rubber is elastic and does not split while the water thaws. So within minutes I have a supply of drinking water just outside. Nuisance, not catastrophe. An example of good, cheap, design.
@@ajward137 Exactly! Same in Norway. I live in an apartment and have total control of central water heating, power and water for my apartment as well as access to building mains. I am astounded at the building standards and that they risked people's homes asking them to run taps in stead of shutting the water down. Pipe in pipe is standard here. I highly recommend it. Say a pipe bursts, the outer pipe will guide the water to a safe drain in stead of having it leak and cause water damage.
I'm from Texas, but I've spent winters in Montreal. I'm the first to chuckle when we shut down the city when someone thinks they saw a snowflake. In this case, no one I saw was overreacting. Even in hindsight, it's hard to think of what I could have reasonably done to better prepare.
@@RichardSmith-ot3zk No, there was nothing much you could have done! The problems were already set in place by the contractors that built your house as cheaply as they could and the utilities that did the same when setting water mains thru towns. The anti-regulation climate in Texas has its cost's. Texas is a cheap State to live in for a reason or two.
@@nixl3518 Your criticisms of housing in Texas are valid. I agree with your overall point. In this case, my house is a pier and beam wood house built in 1925. (The house I grew up in is similar construction, but built in the 1870s). I blew in a ton of insulation in the attic and insulated around the perimeter of the crawl space. There's no insulation in the walls and no easy remedy. On the bright side, it can be 100-110 F and my electricity bill is $100. There's plenty of bad design in Texas, like water heaters in the attic. That's why I prefer old houses to new ones. The main problem is that the power went out for days for many people. Wherever you live, in that weather with no heating, things are going to fail.
@@RichardSmith-ot3zk I don't know how your old house was built but blowing insulation in the walls is generally possible stud space by stud space. It's not cheap or easy and a lot of repairs result! The roof is where most of the heat is lost but if u have no insulation in the walls or the floor, your house is uncomfortable winter and summer! If the external walls are uninsulated and the pluming runs thru them, you basically are f@cked in a freeze! But the problem with the power is basically the same as with housing!! If you don't consider the specifications of materials, the advice of experts and all you look at is the short term cost, you get a system that's made to fail!! The tremendous idiocy is compounded when a fail occurs, recommendations to prevent a repeat are provided and still, there is a failure to act. The mentality of Texans that the market takes care of regulations has been proven to be wrong so many times one wonders if Texans have donkey genes!! They went out of their way to escape national grid regulations by keeping their power within the state, the only one to be so dumb!! There have been many, many disasters that have killed people in Texas exactly as a result of "anything goes"! They don't get more than a day's publicity. zero political pressure because the "fix" is in and life continues...without those who died!! Disasters occur as a result of cascading fails and we know this well from experience, yet Texas insists and Texas will fail again!!I
Fellow Texan here. I cannot believe the number of times I’ve thought “wow people are actually horrible!” this last week. Not just northerners but fellow Texans.
I live in Prague (Europe with 4 seasons) and this year we had worst 2 weeks in winter for a long time (-17 C) and I can tell you that it is cold no matter if you are used to it or not. Stay warm.
Yeah, but our houses are at least built for it. Thick walls, proper central heating, good windows on anything remotely near a modern building... -17C might be rare these days with the global warming and the city keeping the heat in, but it is not something unimaginable for us.
@@matejlieskovsky9625 -17 is crazy! How the hell do you survive? I’m from England and this winter the coldest it got was -7 which usually doesn’t happen, and I was absolutely freezing
@@matejlieskovsky9625 How do you deal with it out of curiosity? When it got to -7 (felt way colder tho tbh), we just put our heating on and wore nice, fluffy, warm clothing. I was still freezing though, especially in my bedroom cuz two of my walls face the outside world.
@@wolfzmusic9706 I guess we are more used to the cold and our insulation and heating tends to be better. I am an outlier even by local standards - I don't mind the cold much and I only have one exterior wall so don't run the heaters unless it is actually freezing. -7 is roughly the temperature at which I start putting on a hat even for relatively short trips outside. Ask someone else to get a more representative answer.
My nephew and his soon to be husband live in Houston. My brother in law lives in texas too. I'm worried for all 3 of them. Stay safe Joe....oh and get in the habit of carrying a flashlight. I started carrying one after some eye surgery paralyzed my pupil. A flashlight is very handy Edit: i just gotta add this I would die in the kind of heat you just shrug off. I do get a little giggle when texas shuts down for a dusting of snow but it stops being funny when ppl suffer because of it. 3* is fine for me....-10 is cold to me but as a kid in Fairbanks it wasn't really cold until we got below -20. Its all relative. May i suggest, for the future, investing in a buddy heater and a small generator . Not that i'm a prepper but my dad did believe in being somewhat prepared, he grew up in the depression.
Wow, I can’t believe you caught a plumber so quick! I’m glad you got it fixed. I hope you make a video breaking down what all happened in Texas with the power and everything. I’m also in Dallas, and I find all of this terribly confusing.
How on earth have I only just discovered your other channel! Yay got to binge watch all these videos now! Just aswell, I was getting withdrawals! Stay safe! COVID and snow storm! I feel ya!
Good luck to all of you down there in Texas. I really feel your pain. We've had some of the same problems here in Washington State over the years. We had ice storms here a few years back, and my home got down to 19 degrees inside. It sucked!!! No heat, no water - nothing. for 5 days straight. And then we got the power back, and then the power went out again. I hope you are all able to get through all this crud. Please, please, please stay safe, and help take care of each other.
Honestly a lot more of us are assholes than we realize sadly. I think it's just generally a human trait not to realize how cruel we can be to others without meaning to be. But yeah I've noticed more and more how often my fellow Canadians can be very much "unCanadian" lol. And yes stay safe and warm Joe!
Yeah, but we have a lot more a$$____s here than we like to admit. Last summer, people I know kept laughing at our American friends for their covid numbers. Meanwhile, as of today, 3.5% of Canadians are vaccinated compared to 17% in the US, thanks to our great Prime Minister, who always proudly criticizes the US at every opportunity.
@@adamkatolik1633 I dunno. I'd put more blame at the feet of provincial leaders than federal. There's plenty of vaccines sitting around in provincial govt stockpiles that arent getting out. Doesn't matter which province or which political party afaik.
@@adamkatolik1633 Trudeau doesn't really criticize the US at every opportunity. He's usually circumspect, even when he clearly disagrees with something, particularly when Trump did something egregious.
I live in the South, and when people from the North down here they finally learn why it's so bad here after a little bit of ice and snow. Up north, when it snows they have the plows, salt, trucks, and additional infrastructure to make things better. We just dont.
I live in North Carolina and it's never sat right with me that people from up north will mock me for being cold when I have nothing but sympathy for them when they get a heat wave and can't cope with it. I'm glad someone else sees it the same way, and I'm glad you're doing well. Hang in there, Joe!
I'm in NC as well. Hurricanes aren't taken seriously until a Cat 4. We handle the heat and the humidity as a fact of life in the summer. Never once have I laughed about the times when they catch a heatwave in the north where they hit the nineties or higher and people begin to lose their lives. Its a shame.
It's gotta be something primal because everybody from a cold climate does it, even me. Maybe it's because we evolved to fear cold a lot more than heat so when we see people in warmer climates suffering in the cold we roll our eyes, whereas it is hard for us to imagine the heat being too much to bear when we're not actually in the moment. I'm not saying it's right, I'm saying we all do it so it's not like all the assholes are packed into the cold climates or whatever.
@@jaredchampagne2752 geesus you people are sick to the bone, seriously, there is nothing more that can be said. Research, by just watching other channels. There are people who raised millions for Texas (democrats, obviously), and the white house was in DAILY talks with your engergy provides, in relation to FEMA. You are a traitor. End of story.
@@jaredchampagne2752 I heard that some lady in New York that goes by the nickname AOC managed to raise $4 million for the relief of Texans. MY senator from MY home state went to Mexico instead. He represents Texas at the federal level, so don't fucking tell me that he had no obligation or could do nothing. If a representative from a completely different part of the country could help, Ted Fucking Cruz could have too.
Nobody should be yelling (or laughing) at the people trying to deal with it, BUT Everyone SHOULD be yelling at politicians who don't take precautions. The cost to the government to get be prepared for these kinds of things is laughably small.
And yet, it costs more than nothing, which is their preference. The representatives of the people should have the welfare of their constituents as a top (if not THE top) priority, because I don't believe those same constiuents have DYING in their plans. But weirdly, that's so often not the way these things go. It's about what plays to the base. And things that they don't like would play to the base better if they spoke some damn SENSE rather than coddling them and their worldview to the point that they risk death by hypothermia. Their numbers will go down in the polls if all of their supporters lose homes, livelihoods, and lives to criminal inaction. Or, they should. But knowing our short memories, I'm sure there'll be murmurings, followed by, "It's still better than the Democrat, who wants to socalism this and fake news fraud that." I honestly DO feel for all of them, but it's hard not to feel worse for the people who would have seen the sense in listening to experts about the climate and actually done something. There are still people, people who were impacted by this, defending Ted Cruz, who blamed the vacation fiasco on his daughters, as though that somehow makes it better while not exposing the empty area where his spine should be. How do you help people like that? I feel for them, but I certainly don't respect them.
Sweet guy ❤️. I am close to Houston, and I am one of the lucky ones, no loss of power and only on boil water advisory for several days. But yeah, I don’t even have an ice scraper for my car windshield. The most I ever had to deal with is frozen dew that can be scrapped off with a grocery card. Layers of freezing rain, snow, freezing rain, and snow again...the grocery card didn’t work this time. And we are on the same side politics wise, very sad thing. Anyway, think of that beautiful patio you’re gonna have this summer!
We're in Dallas... Texas grid collapse would be an interesting topic. And what WE can do to COLLECTIVELY change so this NEVER happens again... My husband who's a logistics manager, lost one of his driver's to the freeze. This was an experienced driver. He got caught on road during this storm (polar vortex) and froze to death while waiting for help. Tragic and never should have happened. We love your show and your uplifting attitude Joe! Happy you and yours are ok.
Actually, a house that is good at keeping the heat in is also very good at keeping the heat out. This is called a well insulated house, however, it costs more to build. Total cost of ownership will be lower in the long term due to savings in heat and cooling but most of us don't really care about the long term or are just unaware that beter building codes are available. Just my opinion.
Not so sure, I live in Norway - we have well insulated houses. However, if the summer temperature is high enough and the sun kicks all day, our house gets pretty darn warm inside. And it will keep that heat all night long. So it doesn't really help in warm weather.
@@Mosern1977 I live in Minnesota where it gets horribly hot in the summer and freezing cold in the winter. A well insulated home is like a thermos or coffee flask. Yes, it keeps coffee hot, retaining the heat of the coffee. But it also works in the reverse. If you were to put ice water in it, it would retain the cold keeping the fluid cold. A well insulated home works in the same way. If you have warm air from a heat source in the home, less will escape with good insulation thus keeping your home warm and reducing heating cost. If you have central air or air conditioning to cool your home, the insultation will hold the cool air in the home longer, reducing the cost to cool your home. But it is possible for a home to be over insulated, not allowing a flow of air and causing problems with carbon monoxide.
*i'm not laughing at you* i'm flattered to hear we Canadians have some sort of tolerance or advantage over the suffering incurred by mother Nature...but believe me when the power goes out (which it does often here) we still fuckin freeze, the plumbing freezes all the time and i have to melt snow for a day or 2 to flush a toilet i've done dishes in club soda ,nearly burnt the place down multiple times trying to use candles as a heat source .i know what desperation feels like, it's humbling to know how much we ALL rely on running water and a heat source. sorry this was hard on you , BUT i'm glad you're ok and not ill ! when i read the title vid i was worried about you. if nobody died, it's a win! that's the Canadian philosophy, whatever you survive , you earn the right to bitch about (and we sure do that). you're Canadian now Joe, things are going to be "eh"-ok.
Where do you live? the Yukon?? You might expect this sort of thing every year and are ready to handle it. How many people live where you do? Texas has a lot of ignorant people that live on the cheap and expect to live like the rest of the US. "Cheap" has consequences, specially after they've been warned to spend more on their infrastructure!! They want to be the A-LONE star state!! So go ahead and do it on your own Texas!! No cryin' in your beer!! Regulations and government exist to protect people not undermine them as the last generation has been taught to believe. We vote in the people we then do not trust!! Some logic!! This was Reagan's idea BTW a Californian!! Texas took him to heart. CA has the most regulations so it's expensive, but its safer!! So we now reap the rewards of allowing government to cheat us by favoring those that line their pockets. We used to think corruption did not exist in the US, then found out we were the worst offenders....well the Russians and couple of others are better at it, but we're pretty bad! See Trump as the epitome of this subject!! It's not politics, just facts!!
Where in the remote Northwoods do you live? In 45 years in southern Ontario our only power outage was the one caused by the Ohio company's failed power line.
where do you live? power out all the time? Lived in Alberta (north and south), Manitoba, Saskatchewan,B.C; I think the longest power outage was 3 hrs and that was Edmonton when a wicked storm came through
My power has been fine in mid-northern Saskatchewan. Your heat should be gas anyways and run fine when the power is out. If its not then your doing it wrong
Does that here in Wisconsin also. Power goes out and everything freezes. It's best to bundle up and cower in the basement if you have one. I've taken baths with ladle and a bucket of hot water so my wiener didn't freeze off.
I'm sorry your plumbing issues were so severe, Joe! I finally got a plumber out to my house today. They gave me a discount, so I only had to pay $509 for repairs, and I feel fortunate that it wasn't worse for me. I never lost power and was able to work from home, which made all of this easier. A couple in our town lost power while they slept, didn't wake up, and they froze to death because that's how cold it got in their home. As you said, our houses are not winterized here in Texas; they're made to shed heat. I didn't know the couple who died, but I was sad to hear it happened. I'm sure there are many stories like that all across Texas. I'm glad it's passed now, and I hope everyone who hasn't yet gets their utilities back on soon.
Same, and I work abroad often so don't manage to keep up with the news a lot - I didn't realise Texas had been hit to severely! Hoping you guys are past the worst of it, but most importantly, are safe and well. Greetings from across the pond. Edit - Also, we get ice at least every year and, somewhat regularly, heavy snow, and we are terribly underprepared each time we have to face it. Particularly on the roadways. I can't imagine how difficult it must be for you guys when these conditions are incredibly rare (as you said, like once a decade), especially after seeing the footage of the incident at Fort Worth. Really hoping you and those close to you can stay safe and stay positive.
ohh, busted pipes, I feel for you, Joe, I had that two winters ago and the 1st plumbers on scene couldn't fix it, then when resolved, on my low income I'm still paying for it on my credit. So glad you updated us with such a shared rant,. we care about you, you who brings us great stuff. With this year's storms, I'm thus far good but gratefully so, watching you from northern Kentucky.
The corporate executives thank you for the sacrifices you are willing to make to boost their profit margin. Up here in Minnesota the utilities are required by law to maintain the infrastructure.
When it comes to the leaks, I feel you man. I once had a neighbour who lived in a flat above me, they got some dodgy plumber to fit a new kitchen. I ended up waking to the sound of water raining down from the ceiling. Shitty situation to be in.
Yes, it's all relative. We've just had a cold snap here in the UK. It's been around zero for a week or so. Not so unusual here, but our heating failed for a day or so and it was miserable huddling around our one electric heater. So I fully sympathise.
I had an online gaming buddy describe the chaos in Wales to me about a decade back when you guys in the UK had a very cold period. He was freezing in his home (as in liquid was freezing inside) and it was bedlam over there because they were dipping to around -20C. It took me readjusting some mental furniture to even grasp the idea of -20C being very cold let alone it causing chaos. As were were chatting online, it was -35C outside my window (we were having a cold snap too) and I was totally comfortable in my 25C room while he was using his PC as a space heater in a sub-zero room. -20C sounded lovely to me since that would have been a pretty ordinary February day. We ended up having an in-depth discussion of British and Canadian home construction and winter attire norms while playing Eve Online. Aside from the obvious differences in home insulation (including windows), it was pretty clear that his notion of winter clothing was my notion of spring/fall clothing. He simply could not imagine what -35C felt like at all and reacted like I was an alien when I said something to the effect of "It's kind of chilly but not so bad if you bundle up. Definitely want your scarf and gloves. Your face hurts a bit. You'll really feel it if the wind is up, though, because then it feels like -45C." I think his brain broke a bit when I told him that we had central air conditioning too because 30-35C was a hot summer day here. The notion of a place with a 70 degree Celcius annual variation in temperature (when he was used to 20-25C of variation in Swansea) and the notion that the city functioned just fine at either end of the spectrum just blew his mind.
@Sin Page You misunderstood FL's comment. To anyone outside the US, when someone says "It went down to zero today", we hear zero Celsius. Meh, that's not cold, put on a jumper. Then we remember the speaker is American, google "what is 0F in celsius", -18C, and go "oh fuck that." Similarly to if I told you it was "40 degrees" here most of last week. You aren't picturing over 100F.
Born and raised Texan here. I moved up north and almost lost my mind when we moved into a house that didn’t have central heat and air. It snows here and I love it, but it took the kids a while to realize they still have school in the snow here versus Texas where they call school off for 1/2 an inch of snow that melts before 10am. :) I hope you’re safe. :)
Sorry to hear. Most important you are alive and healthy. I wish you strength and success in fixing this mess. Love from the Netherlands, where we had a very rare week-long supercold weather as well this year, causing many problems.
Also a Canadian, here, Joe. Sorry that you had to deal with negative ignorance, from my side of the border. You and yours stay safe, and take care of eachother, down there.
@@robinsmith8846 The people from colder climate joking about Texas are possibly trolls, and do not honestly make a joke, but try to trigger him intentionaly.
Brit thinks "3 degrees isn't so bad" Brit checks conversion to Centigrade, and finds out it's -16C and realises it IS bugger cold!! Joe, I'm glad to hear you're okay.
@@crooker2 Yeah. -16C still sounds mild to us Canucks. Zero used to be pretty weird winter weather around here but not any more. Ottawa's forecast to hit 1C on Monday. That will be the third thaw this winter (and we don't get chinooks out here so above -10C in February used to be a treat). It's playing havoc with the wildlife, both plant and animal.
To roughly quote my school physics teacher "never omit the units!", which he said with near religious fervour. I was driving at 70. 70mph, 70kph, 70 m/s, , or whilst 70 years old??
An ex of mine worked for Servpro during a semi-historic freeze in Tennessee about eight years back or so. He was on 12 hour shifts that were invariably 18 hour shifts for about three weeks. Even after he was injured, they kept working him harder than they'd said they would when he tentatively ignored doctor's orders about sitting it out a few days. This was all while his own power was out and he was charging his phone in the car on the way to work, or siphoning from a power bank he rationed. After he was injured more severely after being guilted and goaded, he ended up quitting because of the way they treated him. It was a bit of a gold mine for him while it lasted (not unimportant to a college grad just starting out) all that overtime, but it was so so stressful and grueling, and seeing so many peoples' memories just floating around. Love letters between grandparents, the ink just seeping into the puddles, wedding photo albums with their pages stuck together with muck and grime, the first hair cuttings of a family's kids. And of course the home owners were... eager to get things fixed, and perhaps vented their frustration at the wait on the people who were trying to do just that, but had also been working ridiculous hours for weeks. We just had a pretty big freeze for us, but this time it wasn't nearly as bad. We had brief power outages and we had to have garbage pickup delayed, the stores were really picked clean, but it didn't get desperate, and more people were ready, and the city was able to actually keep the roads pretty clear for most of it. My apartment doesn't actually have heat right now, so I had to bring in some extra heaters I'd brought from home just in case. It was tricky to find ways to be sure I'd not stress the wiring and pull too much power, but we eventually managed. I was happy my fiance drove up the night before (he didn't want to risk being separated the whole week if it got bad, since I'm losing my Mom to cancer, he likes to be at hand) over an hour away. We piled all the plankets up, even my weighted blanket and his huge 100% pure wool blanket that's super dense, and used heating pads at our feet, while wearing robes (he had to borrow a white and blue leopard print one, and I think he looked fetching in it 🤣) and we understood the power of body heat for the first time! Even my cat climbed in and polited pawed the blanket to let us know she wanted under too! When it looked like we might lose power, we cranked the heat up as much as we could, so we might have a degree or two to spare, and my Dad reminded me we could still soak in hot baths if we had to, to get our core temps back up (his doctor status is really handy sometimes). One of my regrets was not having a hot water bottle. I'd heard how useful they are for so many reasons, but this cemented it; I need to get one. I think it's only the third time in my life we've had snow like this. The first time I was so young I don't remember, we had to isolate in just the study where the fireplace was, and huddled in a tent under blankets. My parents told us it was a game, cold camping they called it, to help us not be scared. But they were. They were utterly unprepared. It had never happened in their lifetimes. Now it's happened three times. We've got to get better at this. The plan can't only work if everything goes perfectly right. And while people being personally prepared is glorious, reducing the burden on the state and local government, it can't be... the only game in town. If our representatives won't take measures to at least ensure (as well as they can) the safety, security, and lives of their consituents, what are they in office for? At some point the finger pointing of "he's not on my side because he likes this policy I think is terrible," has to stop. We're destroying ourselves. And when we can't even agree on science, it makes it hard to have any kind of real and reality based conversation. We are not prepared. We aren't prepared for what's happening now, and we're not prepared for what's to come. We've got rain, fire, water, and wind all against us, and if we can't get our act together, Mother Nature WILL take us out behind the woodshed, and I don't think we'll like what she'll do.
Joe my heart goes out to you and all Texans. You strike me as a good hearted guy and believe me, you are one of the very few things that has gotten me through this pandemic when I really can’t bear more depressing news or politics. I wish I could do the same for you when you’re feeling down. Please hang in there, so many of us count on you & are wishing you all the best!
In Minnesota, and NOT laughing at anyone going through all that. Its really tough and people have been truly suffering and dying. No laughing matter. Thinking of you all.
Insulation for hot is the same as insulation for cold (kinda) but power going out will pop pipes anywhere in the world it gets cold.... happens up north too.... rarely on this scale tho... gonna be a long fix!
C'mon Joe! We know what really happened. You called the plumber and he was like "sorry, I really need to work on the pipes at the orphanage" "um... do you watch youtube?" "Well, yeah... um.. You're THAT JOE SCOTT??" "Why yes, I am... And you know those kids need to learn to swim anyway.." "Yes sir Joe, heading right over!!!"
I empathize with you, Joe. Born in Upstate New York, lived there for 10 years. Had my formative years on the Jersey Shore. Went to College at Texas A&M University. The first week was horrible, but believe or not I lucked out and was placed in one of the last 2 dorms on campus without air conditioning. Puryor Hall, the other one was right across from us, it was called Law. I say lucky because it forced my body to adapt quickly, and I found out my body liked the heat. Which is funny in itself because growing up I lived on the ski slopes. When I went home for Christmas break, I stepped off the plane and immediately tried to get back on. I couldn't stand the cold. I made a point to live down South for years, but eventually a job drew me back to New York. It took 5 years for my body to readjust. Sorry for the long winded tale,but I empathize with you. Stay warm. If I remember correctly, it's what they usually call a Blue Norther in Texas, but this one is going on way too long.
Well said, Joe! I've lived in New England and on the Gulf Coast and can attest to how much it sucks in Massachusetts when your window unit dies in August and it's 98 plus humidity 🥵
"Capitalizing the gains and socializing the losses" isn't an economic theory, it's just straight up corruption & price gouging. Capitalism would have the power company pay for it's own mistakes, not the customers. In the same way, if Best Buy built a shelf wrong and it collapsed that destroyed 10 TVs then capitalism would have Best Buy foot the bill for that mistake, not increase the prices in the store to cover that loss from their own actions. Texas lawmakers need to pass laws to make ERCOT responsible for it's mistakes.
And when those mistakes send the company bankrupt and now you have no provider left? This is why some companies are "too big to fail" or too essential to services and government will always be the insurance of last resort to capitalism.
@@AndrewJonkers No company is “too big to fail” in a capitalist system. The only way that happens is if there is no competition, which is anti-capitalism. ERCOT, or any other company that oversees an electrical grid, can be replaced if they fail.
@@NASA-Shill ok I get that, but replacing one anti-capitalist ERCOT with another one does not solve your fundamental problem of lack of competition. Texas has chosen slightly cheaper power for increased risk of black swan failures. Now you have to review if that balance was correct or not.
Joe , I hope this message doesn’t get swallowed up in all the other replies to this video , but first and foremost don’t ever let idiots on social media get to you , I understand that it’s difficult , but some people think it’s ok to say what ever they feel like from behind a keyboard 99.9 % of those people would not have the balls to criticize or ridicule anyone to their face . Second , I’m Canadian , but I have travelled frequently to the southern US for business purposes. When I heard about the weather that Texas was expecting , I knew there would be problems because of the way your homes are built and your infrastructure ( although I didn’t expect the power outages to be so wide spread ) . The one thing us northerners need to remember , is if we ever experienced two or three months of 100 F heat , it would make the death toll on the elderly and infirm from Covid look like a joke . I wish you and all Texans the best , and stay safe .
as a homeowner you have the responsibility to know where all things are and what they are called, bonus if you know the people you need to repair those things
😂 it’s not isolated, we export to other states too, and we are taking from other states right now. There are 3 grids in the US, one of them is owned by Texas. Yay Liberty! But unlike other states, we produce more electricity here at home and, usually we are independent from the other grids power needs.
@@Spkr4TRUTH - That's fair - although what if there's a big storm or a cold snap and it takes your grid offline? you won't even have the infrastructure to get the power you need from other states. Yay Liberty?
@@JohnnyWednesday the issue is we have been reducing reliance on coal burning plants, and relying more one wind power in the plains and north Texas, but the idiots ( thinking it Texas, it will never get cold) didn’t purchase the winter weatherized turbine rotors, so 15-20% of our generation went offline at once. Our grid could still manage, but putting heavy drain on older infrastructure, risking a total collapse. Most grids are at least 20-30 years old across the nation. So they did rolling blackouts to spread the demand usage.
This whole Texas situation reminds me of the 98 ice storm in Ontario/Quebec. Hopefully it doesn't last as long as it did for us (some were without power/running water/heat for a month).
I expect we'll have to see several of these events (abnormal weather patterns) all over the world before we get to see the majority take action. I expect even LESS of a response from politicians!!!
Unfortunately I suspect these sort of anomalies will increase in frequency and extremity. Skilled trades will become far more lucrative for upcoming generations. It may be time to wonder why senators have a longer term then presidents and edit the US political system. What an example we make for the rest of the world that we still rely on a system that was built when news came on horse and buggy, when democracy meant less then half the population could vote. And! And! Politicians and voters still find it easier to believe that a 4 year president is the savior from blood sucking pedofiles in the opposing party than it is to believe in decades of climate change research. The simple yet unwanted answer: fund education. Teach children how to think for themselves responsibly and how discern credible data from crockpot theories
We were without power 2 days, indoor plants died, then the thaw busted a pipe (water heater to house not the cold taps we were dripping), 2" standing water in kitchen including under cabinets and even running to the carpets in hall/br/den, 2 days later still seeping from under fridge. And I'm grateful beyond words that the heat was on while I was swimming
I'm in NY and I can't imagine how bad it must be for you down there. I have air conditioning so the heat doesn't get me when it's 100 degrees. You guys are in a whole different world of hurt. I hope everyone down there comes out ok.
Joe, I totally get your rant about particular type of northerners who laugh at people when they have issues with the snow. I live in Seattle. It is pretty far north--almost to Canada--but we rarely get below freezing here. It rains a lot, but it doesn't snow a lot. But when it does, everything shuts down. Partly because we have hills everywhere. (We're like a baby San Francisco in that way.) Only ignorant people would try and drive up a hill like that. Not only that, but we aren't built for it. We only have a handful of snowplows. The one thing we do have is wintery clothing, because it does get cold. (Just not THAT cold.) I honestly don't think Seattle has ever gotten below 10F degrees. Maybe once or twice very briefly, but we aren't cut up for that either. However, most of our winter is rainy and between 40F and 50F, so we do have wintery clothing, thankfully. But otherwise, we aren't cut out for power failures and frozen pipes and snowy roads any more than you are. So, I completely understand where you're coming from. I'd never in a million years *laugh* at someone in Canada getting 100F degree weather. I just wouldn't.
@@theflowerhead - Summer heatwaves in Toronto usually go in stretches of 40-50 days straight where the mercury holds steady at 40C -- 100 to 105 degrees F (American). What makes it a special hell, along with the sweltering humidity off Lake Ontario, is the killer air pollution, which makes the air unbreathable.
So when I watch Matt Risinger building houses in Texas, I hear him explaining the differences in building codes from there and where I am up north, and I always thought that it sucked everyone didn't have a national code to protect them, knowing one day a cold winter would hit the south and they'd be in trouble. I feel for the people down there that are suffering with no control over their own life, property, and comfort. Take care everyone.
@@johnbeeck2540 it's vanishingly unlikely that the supply from pumping station to your house is copper all the way. Probably plastic for a modern installation, maybe some concrete, cast iron and maybe even lead for an old one. My house was re-plumbed with pex years ago and I didn't taste any difference. Are you speaking from experience or received rumour? If you're interested you could ask the water company what the supply pipe is made of.
Karl-Fredrik... - Yes, it does, but the traditional way of building in southern climes to beat the heat was to shade the walls with wide eaves and to let summer breezes blow through the house. If you have an old house, it may not have any insulation in the outside walls. Since they never had cold winters -- and were able to keep the house cool in summer with shade and ventilation, they saw no point in spending for insulation. Most new houses use air conditioning to stay cool now, not open windows, so people do build with insulation nowadays, but it's still not much compared with northern states.
Yeah? I had to walk 10 miles, climb a mountain, both ways, in a blizzard, without shoes whilst carrying my little sister...and our house didn't have a roof.
I had to swim naked, against a strong current, under thick ice, while towing the family car, for 3 miles each way. Holding my breath for an hour was considered a minor inconvenience. The starving great white sharks and the killer whales did pose an inconvenience, since I was a tiny blind eight year old child with no arms. Did I mention that the sharks had lasers on their heads?
I'm in Dallas, too. Fortunately, no water pipes bust around me (I turned on all my faucets to slow water streaming). I did have rolling blackouts lasting 6 to 8 hours, with 3 to 4 hours of power so I could warm up - then alternating back. That lasted about 2 1/2 days. Got power back "permanently" by Noon on Wednesday. A real pain in the ass, but I still got off quite lucky. So I have no right to complain so far (but I'll wait for my electric bill, which comes due in a few weeks).
Good to see you doing ok, Bro. Me Mum's in the Austin area & managed to get thru w/out power loss or broken pipes. I'm grateful... she's 84 & only suffering stir-craziness due to Ice-solation. Spring is coming, along w/ TX summer. Best wishes, Bro. As for Abbot, Cruz & crew.... PFFFFTTT. Lie to someone else.
The thing is we know how to build such a home in the South but almost nobody is going to spend the money to properly winterize a home for weather we will seldom see. As Joe pointed out it's common for homes in the North to not have air conditioning because heat waves are not that common there.
@@nanoflower1 Yes, of course you are right. Highnsight is 20/20 and it is easy for me to say that. I wish you guys the best of luck dealing with this problem.
I don't think laughing at somebody’s misfortune is ok. I can see northerners smiling at the shock expressed in Texas at things that' are so much common knowledge up north. However, that smile quickly fades when you see the scope of the devastation. If somebody's pipes freeze up here it's fairly isolated, not community wide as it is in Texas right now. I hadn't been following the story because I have very limited media available right now. I worked construction in Florida for a season and was amazed that the homes we were putting up had no insulation in them. It was eye-opening to realize how different the challenges were in such a different climate. The image a lot of people outside of Texas have of Texans is the macho chest-pumping variety as evidenced by the too-often displayed attitude of ”Don't mess with Texas!” on bumper stickers. So that probably added to the amusement first felt by a lot of northerners. However, when you read stories of how really bad it's affecting the state, with widespread power outages, broken pipes, and water shortages our hearts go out to you. I used to be in charge of the care of dozens of buildings up North and have wanted to share my knowledge on freeze-proofing structures. Many Texans have probably never heard of things like pipe wrapping and heat tapes and such. Oh, what a difference a little latitude can make! Best wishes and Godspeed to all affected.
“Cheaper than some friends that live in California have to pay” .. California is the most expensive place I’ve ever visited. Vegas and NYC are close second. I live in wisconsin and have family in Texas and prices are fairly reasonable overall as far as food and gas.. man I miss fresh Texas fruits.. and so inexpensive too.. Imagining back to when I bought a case of strawberries that didn’t go bad in 5 days. Wishing you all the best. 🖤
i’m in the Houston area, lots of people had it way worse than me but i lost power at my apartment for 2 days and no water for 4 days. I survived by cleaning myself with isopropyl alcohol wipes in lieu of a shower... and some gallon water jugs and peanuts and bananas that i had in stock. Houston got shellacked real bad with with power loss. a City of 5 millions people and 2 millions Houstonians lost power! Crazy. But folks helped folks out! Government did NOT help! People helped their fellow neighbors get through it!
I don't condone the "laughing" at anybody during such a situation. Having said that; my family in California has made some comments and given the Texans sending rakes to California during the fires I can't actually blame them to some extent. Stay warm, & be safe.
californian here. the way so called christian regions attacked us for the fires, with merciless taunting and name calling, and relishing our destruction, and now blaming jews for the fires, to those who did that name calling in texas and other hard hit areas, i say, well, im not going to say it. i have no pity or empathy for such people. none.
As a Texan, I find it appalling that so many of my fellow Texans laughed in the face of other people's pain. So many of them, too, pride themselves on being good Christians, so it's particularly satisfying when Texas atheist groups, Muslim community centers, and liberal Christian churches do what they can to help while so many Evangelical members stick by their bootstrapping nonsense.
Joe and all you other Texans down there, being a weather buff up here in a snowbelt in southern Ontario, Canada, I've been following the huge dive (nope, this was no mere "dip") of the jetsteam that has affected so many of you in such heart wrenching ways, and from one who really hates winter😝, I am moved to tears seeing what has resulted from this unprecedented (yep, this will probably be the most overused word of 2020 & 21) storm. Up here, we have building codes that take into account snow loads on roofs, higher insulation values to help keep us from freezing, and grading stipulations to prevent (in most cases) our homes from flooding once all this white stuff starts to melt. Some of us have down coats & snowshoes to help us keep warm and enable us to get around outside during the winter months. I don't think you guys have ever needed any of this, because who needs to worry about snow loads & flooding from thawing frozen pipes & melting snow down in Texas😕? I've seen several videos & news articles about already taxed population now feeling totally distraught because, not only have their roofs collapsed in on them, but water is literally pouring in from everywhere😖! So, on top of COVID, maybe losing their livelihood, and possibly suffering the lose of a loved one, they are now having to deal with losing everything else...including their sanity🤤. Not good at all😭! I really feel so bad for all you guys😢. I hope people will pull together and help one another out. It can be hard to think of something to say that would help lift people's spirits during this time and give hope & reassurance. I know not everyone out there believes in God (Oh, no! Not one of them people😒😘), but I truely just want to help anyone who is willing to listen to find reassurance & a positive hope for the future, so, please, check this link out ( www.jw.org/en/library/music-songs/original-songs/each-day-has-its-own-anxieties/). This is one of my favorite songs, and I know it will help lighten anyone's load. Joe, I find your videos not only entertaining, but educational too. I've watched them for many years now, so I haven't just searched out to a random channel to start preaching. I just really want to offer a quick pick-you-up😊. Anyway, hang in there, and I really hope the link will help brighten your day...month...year. There's tons of other awesome stuff on the site where this link is from - much food for thought, and millions have found comfort & satisfying answers to life's many questions on there, so go ahead & dig in😀. You may be surprised what you can learn if you just keep an open mind😊. Thanks so much for sharing what's been going on there, and thank you and all involved for creating such an awesome channel😄. Keep up the good work. Sandy
"Privatize the profit and socialize the losses" is a huge problem in America. For sure.
Also Socialism for the Big companies.
Captialism for the little guy.
And uk
You guys read a British book (amazon) the rise and fall of the working class 1910 - 2010
Two types, the haves and have nots
Sadly, the privatized energy sector will spend more on lobbying the government not to regulate, then upgrades to protect the grid from future failures like this.
Your government in action! 😂
@@MrBizteck yep just heard the govenor say that public funds would be used to weatherize the private energy companies that skimped to save money on their weak power grid. "But the windmills!" Time for a carbon tax to install green energy and batteries. maybe attitudes will change when Tesla a major company in the state and Cybertruck is made in Texas?
The Texas grid thing would make a very interesting topic for a video
Yes! Full details with history
absolutely...cause sone bean brain dropped the winterization ball, regardless of how bad winters get .that group needs a wuppin
A prime example of why government regulation is a good thing
YES
I remember you’re in Texas but I can’t remember where about but Texas Green Plumbing seem like some good guys and Roger Whitfield (the owner) actually has a UA-cam channel
America's infrastructure it seems to been put on hold since the 80s.. The list of bridge's that need replacing is mind blowing let alone water pipes, powerlines etc..
And doesn't seem like it will be fixed, because, god forbid, the 'other side' gets some credit it for it.
The issue with the bridges seems kinda terrifying, especially after the Genoa road bridge disaster or even the pedestrian bridge in Florida a little earlier that year.
I hope that they are resolved before anything like that happens for you guys. It's horrible to think that public image in politics gets priority over the safety of the people.
The worst part is, a lot of the people in texas are blaming the wind turbines and green energy in general for being unreliable and useless in extreme conditions. Even though there are a ton of other countries that use wind turbines in sub zero temperatures. Its basically the governments fault for not managing and upgrading the turbines to handle cold temps. But then again, its very unexpected for texas to get these kinds of weathers
@@bluebaconjake405 You can't fix stupid
@Jake Johnson I'm not very familiar with the infrastructure in the US, so forgive me if I am wrong on this and disregard everything from this point onward.
It surprises me that you don't have something similar to the PS20 solar power plant array that they built in Spain, to help boost your green energy output during the 'normal' weather in Texas.
Wind turbines can operate in many different conditions, the largest windfarm being operated in the UK, however that is at sea so obviously is designed for its environment and generates a lot of power accordingly; its always windy at sea, and Texas is quite landlocked. If a solution could be found for the sea, it is likely a solution can be found for dry, landlocked areas too ?!
Surely utilising the method most effective for your environment, and with the recent climate (apparently but I have not seen first hand to be certain) being so infrequent in Texas overall, you could demonstrate how, overall, you could have a positive effect? In windy areas, close to the coast, wind farms could have a phenomenal impact on energy consumption. Likewise, inland states with lots of sunshine, for most of the year, could have a great impact on the energy production in states with a similar climate. Something like the PS20, in the southern states, could create a self-sustaining environment for them, with wind farms helping coastal states, and with further funding going in to energy storage, you could create a strong foundation for a self-sustaining, fossil-fuel free society, with the research into energy storage helping to ensure any natural disaster, that affects the ability to produce the green energy, can ensure supplies are available and reliance on fossil fuels is not necessary.
Of course this comes with a HUGE asterisk- * this is not solely aimed at the USA, we ALL need to work toward this, and a simpleton with a comment like me isn't going to provide all, if any of, the answers. As nice as the simple solution may sound, it doesn't make it viable, so I trust in the sensible powers that be to find and refine their own solution to the issues we are all faced with now.
I hope you don't judge me too cruelly, as I am but a simpleton, wishing out loud to those far more intelligent than me.
Personally, I think when politicians promote 'anti-regulation', they're really just advertising which lobby is paying them off.
As someone who lives in Moscow, I can tell you that although I have experienced -40 C, Moscow wasn't the place where I had problems with cold weather. Where I experienced the worst cold weather was in Guangzhou in February 2016 when it was only around 0 C - the thing is, without heating, warm clothes and with high humidity, it gets cold real fast! So I really feel your pain Joe.
Humidity really makes everything feel a lot colder, like I can have a tshirt at 10c when its dry, but when the humidity is 100%, even 15c is more than 1 jacket cold
*TMI pops up*
Me: HE"S ALIVE!
*champagne pops*
Agree
"Privatise the gain, socialise the losses." A word for the times.
made me shudder that :( so f'in true!
Everything thats wrong with Capitalism in one sentence, and it rings true in every crisis. Be it Corona bailouts for companies or bailouts for the banks or bailouts when the dot com bubble burst...
Every crisis is a capital redistribution from bottom to top, yet the majority seems to be opposed to taxes for the rich to redistribute the money back from top to bottom
@@dominicholder7323 And so far 'they' are winning.
@@imouse3246 They will always win :p Just see what they did with GME. Shorting it with 5 times the amount of shares that are in circulation and then disabling the option to buy the stock
@@dominicholder7323 Oh I am all over that cosmic disaster.
A Canadian here... Yea, I first found it funny how Texas was being slammed, since I did not fully understand how houses down there were built. Now, all I wanna do is send blankets, boots, coats and lots of good vibes. Yes, it will be something to smile at once it is all over with, but truly, I feel for you guys down there. Joe, keep the beard, for it will help you until it warms up! Lots of love from Canada!
As a Danish dude, i can vouch for the beard.
Houses are no different than Canadian houses. It’s the power issue. No heat, pipes freeze and bust. But they are having a heck of time with it all. Texas has their own power grid to avoid Federal Regulations. And it pretty much fell apart. And Joe is right, they never have weather like this.
@@pamelaneibuhr6959 no, they are different. Lot more insulation on Canadian homes, fireplaces almost standard, pipes buried deeper as to not freeze, thicker outer walls. Yes, different climates use different building methods and materials. Even just like, TX compared to Colorado you’ll find these differences.
You can’t “winterize” a house you are living in (the way you would an RV or car you store for the winter). It has to be built to with the cold. And 8 inch thick outer walls of brick facade, wood framing, 4” insulation, and sheetrock- which is literally just compressed POWDER with paper pasted to either side- DOESN’T hold up in cold weather. As Texans sadly are sadly learning.
Never thought I’d actually happy to be in Oklahoma, and so happy that all my family lives in the Texas panhandle, which is on a separate, much better grid than the ERCOT bs.
Funny- its a FEDERALLY REGULATED NOT FOR PROFIT grid- literally the opposite of what Texas created the ERCOT grid for because, you know, cApitaLISm can do EveRy tHiNG BETTER! They all have power just fine, and from a MUCH higher percentage of wind turbines- over %50- because oh I dunno, they have had their motors WEATHERIZED? Something Republicans are pretending is impossible and also to blame for all this... despite green energy providing only %10 of ERCOT’S grid, the majority of which runs on NATURAL GAS- and there are 4 NATURAL GAS PLANTS totally out of commission due to the DEEP PROLONGED COLD.
But there they are, lying their asses off with straight faves worthy of Oscars on FOX...
@@pamelaneibuhr6959. Not so. we cant put water pipes in the insulation of outside walls which caused Joe's disaster! and there are many other building, plumbing and heating regulations here in Canada to cope with extreme cold.
@@pamelaneibuhr6959 ... Really? I sincerely doubt that... For one, I bet that most Texans do not have a fully insolated house that is designed to keep the heat in (which Joe stated), I truly doubt they have furnaces as powerful as mine. I am pretty sure that my roof needs to hold a lot more snow then any in Texas... Sure, the house might have some insolation and have been built wonderfully, I just doubt it is designed to take on the bitterness like Texas has been slammed with.
As someone who grew up in the snow, being cold sucks no matter how acclimated you are. People have literally been freezing to death in their homes.
Reminds me of the joe rogan bit talking about Boston weather. “Every morning everyone gets in their car and goes *shivering* “fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck fuck”” accurate. Doesn’t get much easier
When people from down south "complain" about "cold" temperatures of 50 degrees; when they are jokingly referring to how cold it is; then I joke about how it's nothing. When it's below freezing and there are real problems because your infrastructure is not built to handle that, I don't joke about that.
Was also gonna say the 50F number. Above freezing it's funny, below freezing is when people die. Being Nordic I die at 30C/86F, which I recognize as funny, but above that heat strokes become a real problem without active cooling.
Anything below 75° Fahrenheit is unbearably frigid. I don't like, or enjoy, supposedly brisk, bracing, or _'comfortable'_ temperatures that make me shiver or get goosebumps at all. Wearing layers of clothing sucks. If I could spend the rest of my life _'fully dressed'_ in sandals, shorts and a tank top, I'd be fine. Cold weather feels like Death Incoming.
When it's colder in Texas than in Ohio, shit's messed up. Y'all don't deserve hurricanes, drought, AND winter.
Not really sure about the "deserve" part - if there are people who deserve a climate crisis, it's the people who caused the crisis. But so far people most affected by the shift in climate were nations who barely contributed to CO2-eq emissions. If a storm destroys the wealth of a nation that made its wealth by killing this planet... yes, that could be considered "deserved". Although it obviously sucks for the individual, maybe it causes a change in thinking, a change in politics. Now. When it's too late. (And yes, there is strong indication the massive cold front is a result of a heating arctic.)
I remember checking the weather a few days back and it was a fair bit colder in Dallas than in Ottawa, Ontario where I'm at. The big cold weather front actually missed us and we nearly had a thaw while Texas was freezing. That would have been our third thaw this winter so far and this is starting to be a normal thing here. Weather's getting screwier and screwier by the year.
@@SimonBarke Your reply did something I've often done: take a benign joke and take it very very literally, even when the core of the joke is actually kind.
Here's the thing, as soon as we get into being the arbiter of who deserves what, then we are almost as responsible for the bad things that happen to good people when the people in power make harmful decisions.
Your comment implied a schadenfreude for the people of the fossil fuel industry. But if you listen to Joe, you are presented a face of the human toll of this nature (I agree, not natural) disaster. No human deserves the kind of destruction and suffering we've seen out of Texas -- not even assholes. You want to get people to agree with you? Start with unconditional sympathy and empathy for their humanity.
One last thing: the only people who will actually suffer in this disaster are those who unequivocally don't deserve it. The people with power will always be able to escape the consequences, like being able to fly to Cancun, stay in a fancy hotel, easily afford to rebuild, etc. Please don't even entertain wishing suffering on anyone. The collateral damage is always to high a cost to justify.
@@lady14bug absolutely. I wholeheartedly agree that the people in power do share a much bigger portion of the blame. But the people who helped to put the ones responsible in power were not innocent. They benefited (lower energy prices) until they didn't (no electricity). And the ones in power escaped, yes. What will Texans do about that? All I'm hoping is that the mindset of the public will change. I hope we won't hear as much "I don't want to live in socialism, so I am voting for deregulation" as we have before. In the end it's us who give those responsible the power to do harm to us (which would be self inflicted) and to the world as a whole (which is a complete asshole move). Despite all the disinformation and voter suppression: the US is still kind of a democracy, isn't it? And people can remove and replace those in power?
What I am saying is: the people of Texas voted for deregulation and anti-environmental policies. They reaped the benefits while bringing harm to others. They now feel some of the consequences of their actions. This is not so much about Schadenfreude as it is about cause and consequence. And the consequences are currently hitting the ones responsible for the cause, which is not good, but it's better than just causing harm to others while just enjoying the good parts of destroying our planet. But don't get me wrong: I do think it would be much much better if no one would have to suffer and people would still come to their senses and change the world so it is better and more just for everyone.
AND Covid.
AND Ted Cruz.
Hey Joe. I’m sorry what you’ve been through. I’m from Winnipeg Canada 🇨🇦, and many of us here felt bad for Texans. Hang in there and stay warm.
My heart goes out to all who have suffered as a result of the cold.
I'm from Alberta, and I feel bad for Texans (given that their infrastructure just isn't set up for cold... Where we just came off a -40C cold streak).
Hopefully, this will be a wake up call that a) climate change might actually just be a real thing... b) this kind of weather can happen ANYWHERE.
I can see where Canadians might joke about how acclimatized for the cold.
I live in southern Alberta. We have 40C days in the summer (air conditioning is a necessity here in the summer) and we have - 40C in the winter. So we get it all. (I love the heat, by the way)
Stay strong in Texas! And please rely on each other for strength and comfort.
We're rooting for you.
I’m from New Brunswick Canada. Trolls are dumb. Extreme weather is relative. My friends and I are watching this situation with compassion. Hang in there.
When parties causing a problem do not have to bear the related costs, this is called a negative externality in economics and it’s basically a market failure. Regulation is one of the measures to bring markets back into balance in these situations.
DON'T TAKE MAH GUHNS ! ! !
So, I’m like the green energy proponents always pushing for the windmills that froze solid and stopped working??
@@Heywoodthepeckerwood I wouldn't normally do this, but you made it far too easy not to I'm afraid: 'So, I'm the guy that knows just enough about a topic to make sure you know I'm an idiot, and nothing more.'
@@JanjayTrollface did you just shart out of your mouth?
Amen
"Privatize the gains, socialize the losses". SPECTACULARLY PUT!!!
Not having access to other states grids is a serious problem, even if the Texas grid is a joke, the first transition should be to join the other 2 primary grids.
@@cryptocasey2262 !!!This is a scam!!! Absolutely do not call this number on WhatsApp! There is a vulnerability in WhatsApp that can allow an attacker to take control of your account simply by you calling their number. Report this person (account was created very shortly before this comment was posted) and this comment.
"When things go wrong, the people who caused the problem rarely get blamed."
I have chart showing the 9 phases of a project where one phase is “hunting down the innocents” and another phase “rewarding the ones that didn’t participate”. Been there a lot of times.
I see somebody is trying to deflect
Blame culture. Who are we to blame?
We need more regulations that make weather events illegal. Pray to the Government Gods to make this never happen again. Amen.
@@jaredchampagne2752 I completely agree with you that we should try to be independent. Absolutely.
And blame culture doesn't achieve much.
Although these extreme weather events seem to happen in Texas around once every ten years so they might want to do something about it.
Joe! Sorry you've had so many struggles lately. Glad to see you're stayin alive!
Tacking onto this, was wondering how you've been in all this Joe. Glad to know you're keeping on. Best of luck!
Keep the head up buddy.
In TN here. Thank you for saying what we all think! Our city has no plow. We have foothills and mountains, and freezing rain/ice is usually what we get instead of snow. My heart also goes out to all those in Texas. :(
Fellow Tennessean here! Nashville!
Another Tennessean here, down Columbia way. Prayin' for yall, Texas. And yeah, thanks for saying it....
I wish everyone in Texas the best. I'm in north FL, and we had a little bit of a similar sitch back in '89. Around Christmas, it froze over and snowed for about 2 weeks. The ditches froze, the roads were 'black ice' - and we weren't prepared for any of that. My car was actually in the shop most of that time, and I just walked everywhere I went. Trust me when I say that I was doing a whole lot better than the poor saps who were trying to drive around! I watched cars cross intersections at like 5mph, and they still slid around, sometimes even spun out. The airport (JIA) closed. I got a ride with a friend once (just once!), and we ended up getting stuck at the foot of a bridge - no traction. We got out, let some air out of his tires, and the 2 of us pushed his F150 over the Fuller Warren bridge. No lie. I worked at a hospital (I was on vacation at the time), and they started calling disaster drills. We had to go in and prepare for trauma & accident victims, putting together special trauma carts for the ER & such. It was ridiculous. After it finally warmed up a bit, we had T-shirts printed that said, "I survived the Blizzard of '89." Your going through a lot worse right now in Texas, and I feel for you guys out there. It sounds much worse than our little adventure was. No one should be laughing. If they want something to laugh at, then let them laugh at the same thing I do. Even though I'm a native Floridian, I'm hot-natured. I often go outside in weather below 40F wearing shorts & a T-shirt. What I laugh at is the fact the if it drops below 60F, I see young men walking around in long-sleeve flannel shirts, heavy coats, with gloves & hats like there in Michigan. That's funny to me. Even my wife laughs at them. I call them "Kennys" [like Southpark]. Anyway, be safe, everyone! You're on our minds! tavi.
His WhatsApp +1. 3 2 1. 2 5 1. 8 3 1 1.
Hey Joe, I live in your area, just for peace of mind, you can log into the city water department and check your readings to make sure they aren't changing to confirm you don't have any small leaks since they update every 6 hours, usually the middle of the night you should see them stay the same unless you use water at night. Also, I went to smartmetertexas website to download my electric usage to see just when the power was off and when it was on.. etc. It is kind of interesting to see how they were cycling the power. Cheers!
...When you’re so upset that you use Kelvin to describe temperature
When it goes to negative Kelvin we know he is really cold. ;-)
Ugh, I should have said negative Kelvin. Would have been a much better joke.
@@joescott-tmi or say its -274 degrees and watch all the smart cookies go "Ackchyually..."
@@joescott-tmi I understand. When you're cold your brain doesn't always think like normal. But on a positive note our weatherman just said we are having _Sparkle Flurries_ How special!
@@joescott-tmi You know it's a proper cold day when using negative Kelvin feels viscerally right.
14:55 Disposable hand warmers are actually just iron mixed with a few chemicals that facilitates rapid oxidation. So once a hand warmer is spent you just got a little bag of rust! Technology Connections talked about it in a video they did on reusable hand warmers just a few days ago. Hope things get better for you and all Texans. Your friends from way up north.
Was just going to mention the video from him !
That's where I saw that fact about them!
I knew I'd seen something recently and couldn't remember where. Technology Connections is great.
So, those are sort-of slow-burning thermite? (My brain's going awful places with that idea.) Haven't used any since I was a kid with a newspaper route... maybe I'll stick with gloves, since modern insulation's *so* much better than home-knit mittens forty-odd years ago were.
@@AntonPNym same reaction yes but different composition designed for a different purpose. No ignition, no flame, no other metals. Just (mostly) rusting iron bits. They don't combust. Perfectly safe for use and to dispose of!
Microwave a little bag of dry rice. Does the same thing, is cheaper, and re-useable.
Actually a well insulated house is good in keeping the heat in as well as keeping the heat out. Similar to a glass being able keep water in and out if you push it in a pot filled with water.
And whoooosh.. That's the point flying right over your head
The pipes are often ran under the house where it's not insolated here
@@paintballercali : Where I am in Canada, the water pipes from the street to the house are buried four feet deep in the ground, where geothermal heat keeps the water from freezing. . . *if* we’ve had enough insulating snow cover. . .
@@paintballercali The frost line for soil is no more than a couple dozen inches below ground, generally. Regulators failed massively here.
@@dewiz9596 yeah area are in the ground but then there is a 3 feet area under the house that is not insolated going from the ground to the house.
Thanks for the update....nice to know all is well. We're in Dallas, around Lovers and the Tollway. We dealt with rolling blackouts most of Monday and Tuesday (and part of Wednesday)...4 or 5 hours on, then 5 or 6 hours off. With the exception of a couple of hours on Wednesday, our neighbors across the street were not impacted (same subdivision, mostly the same vintage/style houses).
Joe, I'm from up North and it gets cold here often. We complain when it doesn't get cold when it's supposed to in the Winter.
I watched the events unfold in Texas and have been checking my UA-cam subscriptions for my Texas content creators like you and several others I follow. I'm completely empathetic for you guys and the struggle of what's been happening down in Texas.
Up here, after the third-4th day into a heat wave, people start dying from all sorts of heat related illnesses where other places out west may go months at a time above 90F but no one's laughing at us. I loved one of your quotes so much that I captioned the quote in a framed screenshot of you saying it and hung it on my office wall. "The more you know, the more you know how much there is to know". This quote right here is exactly why I'm subscribed to your channel.
It's framed on my home office wall sitting right next to my other quote that you happened to mention in that same video from Charles Bukowski: "The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence."
People's ignorance, arrogance and lack of empathy is enraging.
Message my trusted trader his currently handling my crypto for me and his making me huge profit
turning 2 BTC into 4 BTC in 9 days and making me $400,000 weekly by putting $50,000 indeed I'm amazed
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I’m in Ft Worth. Our house was hit with a 48 hour blackout and now we have no water. Whoever got those 15 min blackouts... I envy you.
Don't eat the yellow snow! But on a more serious note I feel for you, left a few tips in previous comment. (Sandbags and kitty litter for your car. ECT.) Sending you well wishes from WA state.
Americans want to say that they are the best but most of EU countries laugh on this situation whats happend, also election. Sorry
@@josipmatic4732 kind of off topic with a touch of ignorance but okay
I feel for you.
@@josipmatic4732 yes, maybe regulatory bodies could impose certain safeguards to home building codes or infrastructure codes, but remember that there is a century of infrastructure that is not designed to deal with a cold snap, never crossed their minds when they only deal with cold (sub zero temps) for less than a week, maybe every decade or so. Something that should be considered moving forward, learn from the past type idea, but right now, this is like Iowa Or Colorado having to deal with a hurricane or a tsunami... guaranteed they aren’t prepared for that, and why should they, seems so incredibly improbable.
For future: recommend a cutoff valve at the house entrance, the kind with a lever that you turn 90 degrees, in addition to the city's "thing." My plumber put one in at some point without my asking, and it's been a godsend.
Pipe closed foam lagging is cheap so I'd recommend some
And many stop cocks and a cutoff before every tap, shower
Especially if it has a drain past the valve so one could drain the water out of the pipes from within the whole house!
All houses in the UK have electricity, gas and water shutoff under the homeowners control. Why wouldnt you?
Yes, my supply splits into two. One goes into the interior via a stop cock, so I can quickly shut off that if there's an internal leak. The "luxury extra" is that the other goes through a short thick rubber pipe to a robust brass external tap. If that freezes I turn a blow lamp on it. The rubber is elastic and does not split while the water thaws. So within minutes I have a supply of drinking water just outside. Nuisance, not catastrophe. An example of good, cheap, design.
@@ajward137 Exactly! Same in Norway. I live in an apartment and have total control of central water heating, power and water for my apartment as well as access to building mains. I am astounded at the building standards and that they risked people's homes asking them to run taps in stead of shutting the water down.
Pipe in pipe is standard here. I highly recommend it. Say a pipe bursts, the outer pipe will guide the water to a safe drain in stead of having it leak and cause water damage.
As someone having lived most of my life in the North and now living in the South, trust me, this is really bad.
Perhaps a lot of the Southerners should have spent time in the North to see how things are done in first world States!!
I'm from Texas, but I've spent winters in Montreal. I'm the first to chuckle when we shut down the city when someone thinks they saw a snowflake. In this case, no one I saw was overreacting.
Even in hindsight, it's hard to think of what I could have reasonably done to better prepare.
@@RichardSmith-ot3zk No, there was nothing much you could have done! The problems were already set in place by the contractors that built your house as cheaply as they could and the utilities that did the same when setting water mains thru towns. The anti-regulation climate in Texas has its cost's. Texas is a cheap State to live in for a reason or two.
@@nixl3518 Your criticisms of housing in Texas are valid. I agree with your overall point.
In this case, my house is a pier and beam wood house built in 1925. (The house I grew up in is similar construction, but built in the 1870s). I blew in a ton of insulation in the attic and insulated around the perimeter of the crawl space. There's no insulation in the walls and no easy remedy. On the bright side, it can be 100-110 F and my electricity bill is $100.
There's plenty of bad design in Texas, like water heaters in the attic. That's why I prefer old houses to new ones. The main problem is that the power went out for days for many people. Wherever you live, in that weather with no heating, things are going to fail.
@@RichardSmith-ot3zk I don't know how your old house was built but blowing insulation in the walls is generally possible stud space by stud space. It's not cheap or easy and a lot of repairs result! The roof is where most of the heat is lost but if u have no insulation in the walls or the floor, your house is uncomfortable winter and summer! If the external walls are uninsulated and the pluming runs thru them, you basically are f@cked in a freeze!
But the problem with the power is basically the same as with housing!! If you don't consider the specifications of materials, the advice of experts and all you look at is the short term cost, you get a system that's made to fail!! The tremendous idiocy is compounded when a fail occurs, recommendations to prevent a repeat are provided and still, there is a failure to act.
The mentality of Texans that the market takes care of regulations has been proven to be wrong so many times one wonders if Texans have donkey genes!! They went out of their way to escape national grid regulations by keeping their power within the state, the only one to be so dumb!! There have been many, many disasters that have killed people in Texas exactly as a result of "anything goes"! They don't get more than a day's publicity. zero political pressure because the "fix" is in and life continues...without those who died!! Disasters occur as a result of cascading fails and we know this well from experience, yet Texas insists and Texas will fail again!!I
Fellow Texan here. I cannot believe the number of times I’ve thought “wow people are actually horrible!” this last week. Not just northerners but fellow Texans.
Thanks for letting us know your okay, y’all stay warm and stay safe!
I live in Prague (Europe with 4 seasons) and this year we had worst 2 weeks in winter for a long time (-17 C) and I can tell you that it is cold no matter if you are used to it or not. Stay warm.
Yeah, but our houses are at least built for it. Thick walls, proper central heating, good windows on anything remotely near a modern building... -17C might be rare these days with the global warming and the city keeping the heat in, but it is not something unimaginable for us.
@@matejlieskovsky9625 -17 is crazy! How the hell do you survive? I’m from England and this winter the coldest it got was -7 which usually doesn’t happen, and I was absolutely freezing
@@wolfzmusic9706 As I said, we are equipped to deal with stuff like that. And -17 was the night minimum, I did not go outside in such weather :-D
@@matejlieskovsky9625 How do you deal with it out of curiosity? When it got to -7 (felt way colder tho tbh), we just put our heating on and wore nice, fluffy, warm clothing. I was still freezing though, especially in my bedroom cuz two of my walls face the outside world.
@@wolfzmusic9706 I guess we are more used to the cold and our insulation and heating tends to be better. I am an outlier even by local standards - I don't mind the cold much and I only have one exterior wall so don't run the heaters unless it is actually freezing. -7 is roughly the temperature at which I start putting on a hat even for relatively short trips outside. Ask someone else to get a more representative answer.
My nephew and his soon to be husband live in Houston. My brother in law lives in texas too. I'm worried for all 3 of them.
Stay safe Joe....oh and get in the habit of carrying a flashlight. I started carrying one after some eye surgery paralyzed my pupil. A flashlight is very handy
Edit: i just gotta add this
I would die in the kind of heat you just shrug off.
I do get a little giggle when texas shuts down for a dusting of snow but it stops being funny when ppl suffer because of it.
3* is fine for me....-10 is cold to me but as a kid in Fairbanks it wasn't really cold until we got below -20. Its all relative.
May i suggest, for the future, investing in a buddy heater and a small generator . Not that i'm a prepper but my dad did believe in being somewhat prepared, he grew up in the depression.
Wow, I can’t believe you caught a plumber so quick! I’m glad you got it fixed. I hope you make a video breaking down what all happened in Texas with the power and everything. I’m also in Dallas, and I find all of this terribly confusing.
How on earth have I only just discovered your other channel! Yay got to binge watch all these videos now! Just aswell, I was getting withdrawals! Stay safe! COVID and snow storm! I feel ya!
Good luck to all of you down there in Texas. I really feel your pain. We've had some of the same problems here in Washington State over the years. We had ice storms here a few years back, and my home got down to 19 degrees inside. It sucked!!! No heat, no water - nothing. for 5 days straight. And then we got the power back, and then the power went out again.
I hope you are all able to get through all this crud. Please, please, please stay safe, and help take care of each other.
Hey Joe, not all Canadians are douche bags. Stay warm and safe
Yours what I'd expect as a "normal" Canadian response!!
Honestly a lot more of us are assholes than we realize sadly. I think it's just generally a human trait not to realize how cruel we can be to others without meaning to be. But yeah I've noticed more and more how often my fellow Canadians can be very much "unCanadian" lol. And yes stay safe and warm Joe!
Yeah, but we have a lot more a$$____s here than we like to admit. Last summer, people I know kept laughing at our American friends for their covid numbers. Meanwhile, as of today, 3.5% of Canadians are vaccinated compared to 17% in the US, thanks to our great Prime Minister, who always proudly criticizes the US at every opportunity.
@@adamkatolik1633 I dunno. I'd put more blame at the feet of provincial leaders than federal. There's plenty of vaccines sitting around in provincial govt stockpiles that arent getting out. Doesn't matter which province or which political party afaik.
@@adamkatolik1633 Trudeau doesn't really criticize the US at every opportunity. He's usually circumspect, even when he clearly disagrees with something, particularly when Trump did something egregious.
I live in the South, and when people from the North down here they finally learn why it's so bad here after a little bit of ice and snow. Up north, when it snows they have the plows, salt, trucks, and additional infrastructure to make things better. We just dont.
Sand bags over your rear wheel wells dude. Give your car some extra weight.
@@chrisnelson735 Only do that if you have rear wheel drive. It's not a great idea for a front-wheel drive car.
pay for it!
@@chesterbaumgart7381 ... ummm, yea?
Covid falls exactly into this same category of 99% of the time everything is fine... let’s not plan for that 1%.
This. And like Joe said, those who make those decisions create huge problems for everyone else when the shtf
I live in North Carolina and it's never sat right with me that people from up north will mock me for being cold when I have nothing but sympathy for them when they get a heat wave and can't cope with it. I'm glad someone else sees it the same way, and I'm glad you're doing well. Hang in there, Joe!
I'm in NC as well. Hurricanes aren't taken seriously until a Cat 4. We handle the heat and the humidity as a fact of life in the summer. Never once have I laughed about the times when they catch a heatwave in the north where they hit the nineties or higher and people begin to lose their lives. Its a shame.
It's gotta be something primal because everybody from a cold climate does it, even me. Maybe it's because we evolved to fear cold a lot more than heat so when we see people in warmer climates suffering in the cold we roll our eyes, whereas it is hard for us to imagine the heat being too much to bear when we're not actually in the moment. I'm not saying it's right, I'm saying we all do it so it's not like all the assholes are packed into the cold climates or whatever.
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On behalf of all of Canada, we are really sorry some of us were jerks, and we are eternally grateful you agreed to take Ted Cruz off our hands.
Speak for yourself. I'm still laughing.
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I understand that the official advice from the Texas government is "You should take a plane to Cancun, Mexico".
Senator Cruz our clown did just that...
@@jaredchampagne2752 this can't be a real fucking statement.
@@jaredchampagne2752 geesus you people are sick to the bone, seriously, there is nothing more that can be said. Research, by just watching other channels. There are people who raised millions for Texas (democrats, obviously), and the white house was in DAILY talks with your engergy provides, in relation to FEMA. You are a traitor. End of story.
Marie Tedntoinette
@@jaredchampagne2752 I heard that some lady in New York that goes by the nickname AOC managed to raise $4 million for the relief of Texans. MY senator from MY home state went to Mexico instead. He represents Texas at the federal level, so don't fucking tell me that he had no obligation or could do nothing. If a representative from a completely different part of the country could help, Ted Fucking Cruz could have too.
Nobody should be yelling (or laughing) at the people trying to deal with it, BUT Everyone SHOULD be yelling at politicians who don't take precautions. The cost to the government to get be prepared for these kinds of things is laughably small.
And yet, it costs more than nothing, which is their preference. The representatives of the people should have the welfare of their constituents as a top (if not THE top) priority, because I don't believe those same constiuents have DYING in their plans. But weirdly, that's so often not the way these things go. It's about what plays to the base. And things that they don't like would play to the base better if they spoke some damn SENSE rather than coddling them and their worldview to the point that they risk death by hypothermia. Their numbers will go down in the polls if all of their supporters lose homes, livelihoods, and lives to criminal inaction. Or, they should. But knowing our short memories, I'm sure there'll be murmurings, followed by, "It's still better than the Democrat, who wants to socalism this and fake news fraud that."
I honestly DO feel for all of them, but it's hard not to feel worse for the people who would have seen the sense in listening to experts about the climate and actually done something. There are still people, people who were impacted by this, defending Ted Cruz, who blamed the vacation fiasco on his daughters, as though that somehow makes it better while not exposing the empty area where his spine should be. How do you help people like that?
I feel for them, but I certainly don't respect them.
People elected those Republican politicians.
You're like my favorite Texan: humble, empathic and knowledgable.
And doesn't wear a big ass hat and say "y'all" all the time.
(I mean a really big hat like a 10 gallon hat not a hat made out of an actual ass)
lol, after the last 6 months its going to take around 50 years to convey that message to the rest of the world :D have fun
@Bob Hope hahah if this is parody - well done man! :D Especially in the context of the original comment...
Sweet guy ❤️. I am close to Houston, and I am one of the lucky ones, no loss of power and only on boil water advisory for several days. But yeah, I don’t even have an ice scraper for my car windshield. The most I ever had to deal with is frozen dew that can be scrapped off with a grocery card. Layers of freezing rain, snow, freezing rain, and snow again...the grocery card didn’t work this time. And we are on the same side politics wise, very sad thing. Anyway, think of that beautiful patio you’re gonna have this summer!
We're in Dallas...
Texas grid collapse would be an interesting topic. And what WE can do to COLLECTIVELY change so this NEVER happens again...
My husband who's a logistics manager, lost one of his driver's to the freeze. This was an experienced driver.
He got caught on road during this storm (polar vortex) and froze to death while waiting for help. Tragic and never should have happened.
We love your show and your uplifting attitude Joe! Happy you and yours are ok.
Did you enlist the clones in the clean up?
Well, I hope they helped instead of borking around. 😄
Actually, a house that is good at keeping the heat in is also very good at keeping the heat out. This is called a well insulated house, however, it costs more to build. Total cost of ownership will be lower in the long term due to savings in heat and cooling but most of us don't really care about the long term or are just unaware that beter building codes are available. Just my opinion.
Not so sure, I live in Norway - we have well insulated houses. However, if the summer temperature is high enough and the sun kicks all day, our house gets pretty darn warm inside. And it will keep that heat all night long. So it doesn't really help in warm weather.
@@Mosern1977 I live in Minnesota where it gets horribly hot in the summer and freezing cold in the winter. A well insulated home is like a thermos or coffee flask. Yes, it keeps coffee hot, retaining the heat of the coffee. But it also works in the reverse. If you were to put ice water in it, it would retain the cold keeping the fluid cold. A well insulated home works in the same way. If you have warm air from a heat source in the home, less will escape with good insulation thus keeping your home warm and reducing heating cost. If you have central air or air conditioning to cool your home, the insultation will hold the cool air in the home longer, reducing the cost to cool your home. But it is possible for a home to be over insulated, not allowing a flow of air and causing problems with carbon monoxide.
*i'm not laughing at you* i'm flattered to hear we Canadians have some sort of tolerance or advantage over the suffering incurred by mother Nature...but believe me when the power goes out (which it does often here) we still fuckin freeze, the plumbing freezes all the time and i have to melt snow for a day or 2 to flush a toilet i've done dishes in club soda ,nearly burnt the place down multiple times trying to use candles as a heat source .i know what desperation feels like, it's humbling to know how much we ALL rely on running water and a heat source. sorry this was hard on you , BUT i'm glad you're ok and not ill ! when i read the title vid i was worried about you. if nobody died, it's a win! that's the Canadian philosophy, whatever you survive , you earn the right to bitch about (and we sure do that). you're Canadian now Joe, things are going to be "eh"-ok.
Where do you live? the Yukon?? You might expect this sort of thing every year and are ready to handle it. How many people live where you do?
Texas has a lot of ignorant people that live on the cheap and expect to live like the rest of the US. "Cheap" has consequences, specially after they've been warned to spend more on their infrastructure!! They want to be the A-LONE star state!! So go ahead and do it on your own Texas!! No cryin' in your beer!!
Regulations and government exist to protect people not undermine them as the last generation has been taught to believe. We vote in the people we then do not trust!! Some logic!! This was Reagan's idea BTW a Californian!! Texas took him to heart. CA has the most regulations so it's expensive, but its safer!!
So we now reap the rewards of allowing government to cheat us by favoring those that line their pockets. We used to think corruption did not exist in the US, then found out we were the worst offenders....well the Russians and couple of others are better at it, but we're pretty bad! See Trump as the epitome of this subject!! It's not politics, just facts!!
Where in the remote Northwoods do you live? In 45 years in southern Ontario our only power outage was the one caused by the Ohio company's failed power line.
where do you live? power out all the time? Lived in Alberta (north and south), Manitoba, Saskatchewan,B.C; I think the longest power outage was 3 hrs and that was Edmonton when a wicked storm came through
My power has been fine in mid-northern Saskatchewan. Your heat should be gas anyways and run fine when the power is out. If its not then your doing it wrong
Does that here in Wisconsin also. Power goes out and everything freezes. It's best to bundle up and cower in the basement if you have one. I've taken baths with ladle and a bucket of hot water so my wiener didn't freeze off.
I'm sorry your plumbing issues were so severe, Joe! I finally got a plumber out to my house today. They gave me a discount, so I only had to pay $509 for repairs, and I feel fortunate that it wasn't worse for me. I never lost power and was able to work from home, which made all of this easier. A couple in our town lost power while they slept, didn't wake up, and they froze to death because that's how cold it got in their home. As you said, our houses are not winterized here in Texas; they're made to shed heat. I didn't know the couple who died, but I was sad to hear it happened. I'm sure there are many stories like that all across Texas. I'm glad it's passed now, and I hope everyone who hasn't yet gets their utilities back on soon.
Thanks for sharing Joe...sending you and all those in need warm wishes. Take care of your eyes. 😎
I'm in Waco TX and luckily I never lost power, but half of the city didn't have power for 3 or 4 days with temps in the single digits at night.
Wow... Sounds rough.
10 years ago the weather said: winterize, I’ll be back and be worst.
From the UK, hope you’re well, safe & warm Joe?!
Same, and I work abroad often so don't manage to keep up with the news a lot - I didn't realise Texas had been hit to severely!
Hoping you guys are past the worst of it, but most importantly, are safe and well.
Greetings from across the pond.
Edit - Also, we get ice at least every year and, somewhat regularly, heavy snow, and we are terribly underprepared each time we have to face it. Particularly on the roadways.
I can't imagine how difficult it must be for you guys when these conditions are incredibly rare (as you said, like once a decade), especially after seeing the footage of the incident at Fort Worth.
Really hoping you and those close to you can stay safe and stay positive.
ohh, busted pipes, I feel for you, Joe, I had that two winters ago and the 1st plumbers on scene couldn't fix it, then when resolved, on my low income I'm still paying for it on my credit. So glad you updated us with such a shared rant,. we care about you, you who brings us great stuff. With this year's storms, I'm thus far good but gratefully so, watching you from northern Kentucky.
The corporate executives thank you for the sacrifices you are willing to make to boost their profit margin.
Up here in Minnesota the utilities are required by law to maintain the infrastructure.
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When it comes to the leaks, I feel you man. I once had a neighbour who lived in a flat above me, they got some dodgy plumber to fit a new kitchen. I ended up waking to the sound of water raining down from the ceiling. Shitty situation to be in.
Yes, it's all relative. We've just had a cold snap here in the UK. It's been around zero for a week or so. Not so unusual here, but our heating failed for a day or so and it was miserable huddling around our one electric heater. So I fully sympathise.
yes, its usually condensor pipes on boilers that freeze up. Especially if the pipe is in the shade during the day.
just keep in mind we use the fahrenheit scale. 0F is -17.7C
I had an online gaming buddy describe the chaos in Wales to me about a decade back when you guys in the UK had a very cold period. He was freezing in his home (as in liquid was freezing inside) and it was bedlam over there because they were dipping to around -20C. It took me readjusting some mental furniture to even grasp the idea of -20C being very cold let alone it causing chaos. As were were chatting online, it was -35C outside my window (we were having a cold snap too) and I was totally comfortable in my 25C room while he was using his PC as a space heater in a sub-zero room. -20C sounded lovely to me since that would have been a pretty ordinary February day. We ended up having an in-depth discussion of British and Canadian home construction and winter attire norms while playing Eve Online. Aside from the obvious differences in home insulation (including windows), it was pretty clear that his notion of winter clothing was my notion of spring/fall clothing.
He simply could not imagine what -35C felt like at all and reacted like I was an alien when I said something to the effect of "It's kind of chilly but not so bad if you bundle up. Definitely want your scarf and gloves. Your face hurts a bit. You'll really feel it if the wind is up, though, because then it feels like -45C." I think his brain broke a bit when I told him that we had central air conditioning too because 30-35C was a hot summer day here. The notion of a place with a 70 degree Celcius annual variation in temperature (when he was used to 20-25C of variation in Swansea) and the notion that the city functioned just fine at either end of the spectrum just blew his mind.
I was thinking "why's this guy whining about 3 degrees, that's not even freezing".
Then I remembered that the US is "special".
The US, where 0 degC is nice and chilly and 0 degF is PROPERLY cold.
@Sin Page Difference is, people actually like the cold. No one likes 40C heat.
The US is special, we get all all varieties of weather.
@Sin Page You misunderstood FL's comment. To anyone outside the US, when someone says "It went down to zero today", we hear zero Celsius. Meh, that's not cold, put on a jumper. Then we remember the speaker is American, google "what is 0F in celsius", -18C, and go "oh fuck that."
Similarly to if I told you it was "40 degrees" here most of last week. You aren't picturing over 100F.
Born and raised Texan here. I moved up north and almost lost my mind when we moved into a house that didn’t have central heat and air. It snows here and I love it, but it took the kids a while to realize they still have school in the snow here versus Texas where they call school off for 1/2 an inch of snow that melts before 10am. :)
I hope you’re safe. :)
Sorry to hear. Most important you are alive and healthy. I wish you strength and success in fixing this mess. Love from the Netherlands, where we had a very rare week-long supercold weather as well this year, causing many problems.
As a Canadian, sorry.
I see what you did there. 🤣
Also as a Canadian... Seriously I apologize.
If you want some tips for dealing with the cold, let me know😁
I totally read that as "sorey". 😄
Also a Canadian, here, Joe. Sorry that you had to deal with negative ignorance, from my side of the border. You and yours stay safe, and take care of eachother, down there.
Joe, you're awesome. Don't feed the trolls. They live empty little lives.
There are trolls? Where? This is a no troll zone... If they come we ignore them!
@@robinsmith8846 The people from colder climate joking about Texas are possibly trolls, and do not honestly make a joke, but try to trigger him intentionaly.
Brit thinks "3 degrees isn't so bad" Brit checks conversion to Centigrade, and finds out it's -16C and realises it IS bugger cold!! Joe, I'm glad to hear you're okay.
We just came off a -40C cold snap. -16C is warm compared to that, and zero is downright balmy. :)
@@crooker2 Yeah. -16C still sounds mild to us Canucks. Zero used to be pretty weird winter weather around here but not any more. Ottawa's forecast to hit 1C on Monday. That will be the third thaw this winter (and we don't get chinooks out here so above -10C in February used to be a treat). It's playing havoc with the wildlife, both plant and animal.
@@paranoidrodent We're at 4 degrees right now, which is positively gorgeous for February! :) heheh
To roughly quote my school physics teacher "never omit the units!", which he said with near religious fervour. I was driving at 70. 70mph, 70kph, 70 m/s, , or whilst 70 years old??
An ex of mine worked for Servpro during a semi-historic freeze in Tennessee about eight years back or so. He was on 12 hour shifts that were invariably 18 hour shifts for about three weeks. Even after he was injured, they kept working him harder than they'd said they would when he tentatively ignored doctor's orders about sitting it out a few days. This was all while his own power was out and he was charging his phone in the car on the way to work, or siphoning from a power bank he rationed. After he was injured more severely after being guilted and goaded, he ended up quitting because of the way they treated him. It was a bit of a gold mine for him while it lasted (not unimportant to a college grad just starting out) all that overtime, but it was so so stressful and grueling, and seeing so many peoples' memories just floating around. Love letters between grandparents, the ink just seeping into the puddles, wedding photo albums with their pages stuck together with muck and grime, the first hair cuttings of a family's kids. And of course the home owners were... eager to get things fixed, and perhaps vented their frustration at the wait on the people who were trying to do just that, but had also been working ridiculous hours for weeks.
We just had a pretty big freeze for us, but this time it wasn't nearly as bad. We had brief power outages and we had to have garbage pickup delayed, the stores were really picked clean, but it didn't get desperate, and more people were ready, and the city was able to actually keep the roads pretty clear for most of it. My apartment doesn't actually have heat right now, so I had to bring in some extra heaters I'd brought from home just in case. It was tricky to find ways to be sure I'd not stress the wiring and pull too much power, but we eventually managed. I was happy my fiance drove up the night before (he didn't want to risk being separated the whole week if it got bad, since I'm losing my Mom to cancer, he likes to be at hand) over an hour away. We piled all the plankets up, even my weighted blanket and his huge 100% pure wool blanket that's super dense, and used heating pads at our feet, while wearing robes (he had to borrow a white and blue leopard print one, and I think he looked fetching in it 🤣) and we understood the power of body heat for the first time! Even my cat climbed in and polited pawed the blanket to let us know she wanted under too! When it looked like we might lose power, we cranked the heat up as much as we could, so we might have a degree or two to spare, and my Dad reminded me we could still soak in hot baths if we had to, to get our core temps back up (his doctor status is really handy sometimes). One of my regrets was not having a hot water bottle. I'd heard how useful they are for so many reasons, but this cemented it; I need to get one.
I think it's only the third time in my life we've had snow like this. The first time I was so young I don't remember, we had to isolate in just the study where the fireplace was, and huddled in a tent under blankets. My parents told us it was a game, cold camping they called it, to help us not be scared. But they were. They were utterly unprepared. It had never happened in their lifetimes. Now it's happened three times.
We've got to get better at this. The plan can't only work if everything goes perfectly right. And while people being personally prepared is glorious, reducing the burden on the state and local government, it can't be... the only game in town. If our representatives won't take measures to at least ensure (as well as they can) the safety, security, and lives of their consituents, what are they in office for? At some point the finger pointing of "he's not on my side because he likes this policy I think is terrible," has to stop. We're destroying ourselves. And when we can't even agree on science, it makes it hard to have any kind of real and reality based conversation. We are not prepared. We aren't prepared for what's happening now, and we're not prepared for what's to come. We've got rain, fire, water, and wind all against us, and if we can't get our act together, Mother Nature WILL take us out behind the woodshed, and I don't think we'll like what she'll do.
Joe my heart goes out to you and all Texans. You strike me as a good hearted guy and believe me, you are one of the very few things that has gotten me through this pandemic when I really can’t bear more depressing news or politics. I wish I could do the same for you when you’re feeling down. Please hang in there, so many of us count on you & are wishing you all the best!
In Minnesota, and NOT laughing at anyone going through all that. Its really tough and people have been truly suffering and dying. No laughing matter. Thinking of you all.
Insulation for hot is the same as insulation for cold (kinda) but power going out will pop pipes anywhere in the world it gets cold.... happens up north too.... rarely on this scale tho... gonna be a long fix!
C'mon Joe! We know what really happened.
You called the plumber and he was like "sorry, I really need to work on the pipes at the orphanage"
"um... do you watch youtube?"
"Well, yeah... um.. You're THAT JOE SCOTT??"
"Why yes, I am... And you know those kids need to learn to swim anyway.."
"Yes sir Joe, heading right over!!!"
I empathize with you, Joe. Born in Upstate New York, lived there for 10 years. Had my formative years on the Jersey Shore. Went to College at Texas A&M University. The first week was horrible, but believe or not I lucked out and was placed in one of the last 2 dorms on campus without air conditioning. Puryor Hall, the other one was right across from us, it was called Law. I say lucky because it forced my body to adapt quickly, and I found out my body liked the heat. Which is funny in itself because growing up I lived on the ski slopes. When I went home for Christmas break, I stepped off the plane and immediately tried to get back on. I couldn't stand the cold. I made a point to live down South for years, but eventually a job drew me back to New York. It took 5 years for my body to readjust. Sorry for the long winded tale,but I empathize with you. Stay warm. If I remember correctly, it's what they usually call a Blue Norther in Texas, but this one is going on way too long.
Well said, Joe! I've lived in New England and on the Gulf Coast and can attest to how much it sucks in Massachusetts when your window unit dies in August and it's 98 plus humidity 🥵
"Capitalizing the gains and socializing the losses" isn't an economic theory, it's just straight up corruption & price gouging. Capitalism would have the power company pay for it's own mistakes, not the customers. In the same way, if Best Buy built a shelf wrong and it collapsed that destroyed 10 TVs then capitalism would have Best Buy foot the bill for that mistake, not increase the prices in the store to cover that loss from their own actions. Texas lawmakers need to pass laws to make ERCOT responsible for it's mistakes.
And when those mistakes send the company bankrupt and now you have no provider left? This is why some companies are "too big to fail" or too essential to services and government will always be the insurance of last resort to capitalism.
@@AndrewJonkers No company is “too big to fail” in a capitalist system. The only way that happens is if there is no competition, which is anti-capitalism. ERCOT, or any other company that oversees an electrical grid, can be replaced if they fail.
@@NASA-Shill There is no way two companies are going to "compete" providing two independent electrical grids to your house. Get real.
@@AndrewJonkers I didn’t say that, I said that ERCOT is replaceable. It isn’t “too big to fail”.
@@NASA-Shill ok I get that, but replacing one anti-capitalist ERCOT with another one does not solve your fundamental problem of lack of competition. Texas has chosen slightly cheaper power for increased risk of black swan failures. Now you have to review if that balance was correct or not.
Joe , I hope this message doesn’t get swallowed up in all the other replies to this video , but first and foremost don’t ever let idiots on social media get to you , I understand that it’s difficult , but some people think it’s ok to say what ever they feel like from behind a keyboard 99.9 % of those people would not have the balls to criticize or ridicule anyone to their face . Second , I’m Canadian , but I have travelled frequently to the southern US for business purposes. When I heard about the weather that Texas was expecting , I knew there would be problems because of the way your homes are built and your infrastructure ( although I didn’t expect the power outages to be so wide spread ) . The one thing us northerners need to remember , is if we ever experienced two or three months of 100 F heat , it would make the death toll on the elderly and infirm from Covid look like a joke . I wish you and all Texans the best , and stay safe .
Hot hands are iron shavings. That's why they're magnetic. They use the exothermic reaction of iron rusting
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It was so cold at my house that the soap froze to the counter top and there was ice in my sink. I'm really glad you are ok Joe.
as a homeowner you have the responsibility to know where all things are and what they are called, bonus if you know the people you need to repair those things
Oh! you're in Texas - wow. A lot of Texans learning about the isolated power grid in Texas for the first time in their lives this week. Yay Liberty.
😂 it’s not isolated, we export to other states too, and we are taking from other states right now. There are 3 grids in the US, one of them is owned by Texas. Yay Liberty!
But unlike other states, we produce more electricity here at home and, usually we are independent from the other grids power needs.
@@Spkr4TRUTH i guess its kinda isolated since texas has their own grid. Its kinda seperate from the other states
@@Spkr4TRUTH - That's fair - although what if there's a big storm or a cold snap and it takes your grid offline? you won't even have the infrastructure to get the power you need from other states. Yay Liberty?
@@bluebaconjake405 not isolated, insulated I would say
@@JohnnyWednesday the issue is we have been reducing reliance on coal burning plants, and relying more one wind power in the plains and north Texas, but the idiots ( thinking it Texas, it will never get cold) didn’t purchase the winter weatherized turbine rotors, so 15-20% of our generation went offline at once. Our grid could still manage, but putting heavy drain on older infrastructure, risking a total collapse. Most grids are at least 20-30 years old across the nation. So they did rolling blackouts to spread the demand usage.
This whole Texas situation reminds me of the 98 ice storm in Ontario/Quebec. Hopefully it doesn't last as long as it did for us (some were without power/running water/heat for a month).
I was there when it happened and what was worse was the plunge to -20c temperatures right after.
Yes I remember that ice storm. That was horrific. Power line workers were out around the clock and they were the heroes of the day.
That was a Solar Flare?
@@davidmacphee8348 That was a separate incident. What we are talking about was a terrible ice storm that crippled parts of Ontario and Quebec.
@@Turtledove2009 What can you tell us about the Solar flare there?
A bad one happened in 1859
Glad you're okay, considering--hope that Texans can learn from this, etc., as should all of us.
I expect we'll have to see several of these events (abnormal weather patterns) all over the world before we get to see the majority take action. I expect even LESS of a response from politicians!!!
Unfortunately I suspect these sort of anomalies will increase in frequency and extremity. Skilled trades will become far more lucrative for upcoming generations. It may be time to wonder why senators have a longer term then presidents and edit the US political system. What an example we make for the rest of the world that we still rely on a system that was built when news came on horse and buggy, when democracy meant less then half the population could vote. And! And! Politicians and voters still find it easier to believe that a 4 year president is the savior from blood sucking pedofiles in the opposing party than it is to believe in decades of climate change research.
The simple yet unwanted answer: fund education. Teach children how to think for themselves responsibly and how discern credible data from crockpot theories
We were without power 2 days, indoor plants died, then the thaw busted a pipe (water heater to house not the cold taps we were dripping), 2" standing water in kitchen including under cabinets and even running to the carpets in hall/br/den, 2 days later still seeping from under fridge. And I'm grateful beyond words that the heat was on while I was swimming
I'm in NY and I can't imagine how bad it must be for you down there. I have air conditioning so the heat doesn't get me when it's 100 degrees. You guys are in a whole different world of hurt. I hope everyone down there comes out ok.
We northerners are just jealous you don't have to shovel snow 15 times per year, is all. Just remember, turn into the slide and pump the breaks.
You mean brakes.
Joe, I totally get your rant about particular type of northerners who laugh at people when they have issues with the snow. I live in Seattle. It is pretty far north--almost to Canada--but we rarely get below freezing here. It rains a lot, but it doesn't snow a lot. But when it does, everything shuts down. Partly because we have hills everywhere. (We're like a baby San Francisco in that way.) Only ignorant people would try and drive up a hill like that. Not only that, but we aren't built for it. We only have a handful of snowplows. The one thing we do have is wintery clothing, because it does get cold. (Just not THAT cold.) I honestly don't think Seattle has ever gotten below 10F degrees. Maybe once or twice very briefly, but we aren't cut up for that either. However, most of our winter is rainy and between 40F and 50F, so we do have wintery clothing, thankfully. But otherwise, we aren't cut out for power failures and frozen pipes and snowy roads any more than you are. So, I completely understand where you're coming from. I'd never in a million years *laugh* at someone in Canada getting 100F degree weather. I just wouldn't.
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@@cryptocasey2262 Why do I care?
Actually, heat waves are common in Toronto. They occur almost every summer, due to the humidity.
What temperature?
@@theflowerhead - Summer heatwaves in Toronto usually go in stretches of 40-50 days straight where the mercury holds steady at 40C -- 100 to 105 degrees F (American). What makes it a special hell, along with the sweltering humidity off Lake Ontario, is the killer air pollution, which makes the air unbreathable.
And the humidity that makes 40°C feel like 50°+ where we're soaked with sweat even when not even moving.
Be safe. I hope all of you out there get what you need ASAP. Your state, however, needs some SERIOUS maintenance and upgrades to the infrastructure. 💜
So when I watch Matt Risinger building houses in Texas, I hear him explaining the differences in building codes from there and where I am up north, and I always thought that it sucked everyone didn't have a national code to protect them, knowing one day a cold winter would hit the south and they'd be in trouble. I feel for the people down there that are suffering with no control over their own life, property, and comfort. Take care everyone.
PEX tubing Joe, PEX tubing.
Too bad it makes the water taste like plastic...
@@johnbeeck2540 We’ve never had that problem. That might be your water, or knock off tubing that’s using other materials
@@johnbeeck2540 it's vanishingly unlikely that the supply from pumping station to your house is copper all the way. Probably plastic for a modern installation, maybe some concrete, cast iron and maybe even lead for an old one. My house was re-plumbed with pex years ago and I didn't taste any difference. Are you speaking from experience or received rumour? If you're interested you could ask the water company what the supply pipe is made of.
Insulating houses help with keeping them cool as well as warm. Just saying.
Apparently insulation only works one way in Texas.
i bet they focus on wall insulation more than ceiling insulation... i would.
Karl-Fredrik... - Yes, it does, but the traditional way of building in southern climes to beat the heat was to shade the walls with wide eaves and to let summer breezes blow through the house. If you have an old house, it may not have any insulation in the outside walls. Since they never had cold winters -- and were able to keep the house cool in summer with shade and ventilation, they saw no point in spending for insulation. Most new houses use air conditioning to stay cool now, not open windows, so people do build with insulation nowadays, but it's still not much compared with northern states.
something to tell your grandkids about...had to walk to school 2 miles...up hill ...both ways,,in the snow..and we didnt have heat in our house
Yeah? I had to walk 10 miles, climb a mountain, both ways, in a blizzard, without shoes whilst carrying my little sister...and our house didn't have a roof.
I had to swim naked, against a strong current, under thick ice, while towing the family car, for 3 miles each way. Holding my breath for an hour was considered a minor inconvenience. The starving great white sharks and the killer whales did pose an inconvenience, since I was a tiny blind eight year old child with no arms. Did I mention that the sharks had lasers on their heads?
@@JCAH1 Bloody luxury. I had to do all of that but I was also dead at the time.
Err...I got better.
I'm in Dallas, too. Fortunately, no water pipes bust around me (I turned on all my faucets to slow water streaming). I did have rolling blackouts lasting 6 to 8 hours, with 3 to 4 hours of power so I could warm up - then alternating back. That lasted about 2 1/2 days. Got power back "permanently" by Noon on Wednesday. A real pain in the ass, but I still got off quite lucky. So I have no right to complain so far (but I'll wait for my electric bill, which comes due in a few weeks).
Good to see you doing ok, Bro.
Me Mum's in the Austin area & managed to get thru w/out power loss or broken pipes.
I'm grateful... she's 84 & only suffering stir-craziness due to Ice-solation. Spring is coming, along w/ TX summer. Best wishes, Bro.
As for Abbot, Cruz & crew....
PFFFFTTT. Lie to someone else.
Sorry to hear all that Joe. I'm from Ottawa , Canada. I could show you how to build your house and plumbing so it does not freeze!
The thing is we know how to build such a home in the South but almost nobody is going to spend the money to properly winterize a home for weather we will seldom see. As Joe pointed out it's common for homes in the North to not have air conditioning because heat waves are not that common there.
@@nanoflower1 : I’m from Ottawa too. The point is, if you build a house so you don’t freeze in winter, you’ll use a lot less AC in the summer.
@@nanoflower1 Yes, of course you are right. Highnsight is 20/20 and it is easy for me to say that. I wish you guys the best of luck dealing with this problem.
I don't think laughing at somebody’s misfortune is ok. I can see northerners smiling at the shock expressed in Texas at things that' are so much common knowledge up north. However, that smile quickly fades when you see the scope of the devastation. If somebody's pipes freeze up here it's fairly isolated, not community wide as it is in Texas right now. I hadn't been following the story because I have very limited media available right now. I worked construction in Florida for a season and was amazed that the homes we were putting up had no insulation in them. It was eye-opening to realize how different the challenges were in such a different climate. The image a lot of people outside of Texas have of Texans is the macho chest-pumping variety as evidenced by the too-often displayed attitude of ”Don't mess with Texas!” on bumper stickers. So that probably added to the amusement first felt by a lot of northerners. However, when you read stories of how really bad it's affecting the state, with widespread power outages, broken pipes, and water shortages our hearts go out to you. I used to be in charge of the care of dozens of buildings up North and have wanted to share my knowledge on freeze-proofing structures. Many Texans have probably never heard of things like pipe wrapping and heat tapes and such. Oh, what a difference a little latitude can make! Best wishes and Godspeed to all affected.
“Cheaper than some friends that live in California have to pay” .. California is the most expensive place I’ve ever visited. Vegas and NYC are close second. I live in wisconsin and have family in Texas and prices are fairly reasonable overall as far as food and gas.. man I miss fresh Texas fruits.. and so inexpensive too.. Imagining back to when I bought a case of strawberries that didn’t go bad in 5 days. Wishing you all the best. 🖤
His WhatsApp +1. 3 2 1. 2 5 1. 8 3 1 1.
i’m in the Houston area, lots of people had it way worse than me but i lost power at my apartment for 2 days and no water for 4 days. I survived by cleaning myself with isopropyl alcohol wipes in lieu of a shower... and some gallon water jugs and peanuts and bananas that i had in stock. Houston got shellacked real bad with with power loss. a City of 5 millions people and 2 millions Houstonians lost power! Crazy. But folks helped folks out! Government did NOT help! People helped their fellow neighbors get through it!
Thanks for the update. I hope things are getting better down there. I think you do such a great job with all your videos.
I don't condone the "laughing" at anybody during such a situation. Having said that; my family in California has made some comments and given the Texans sending rakes to California during the fires I can't actually blame them to some extent. Stay warm, & be safe.
californian here. the way so called christian regions attacked us for the fires, with merciless taunting and name calling, and relishing our destruction, and now blaming jews for the fires, to those who did that name calling in texas and other hard hit areas, i say, well, im not going to say it. i have no pity or empathy for such people. none.
As a Texan, I find it appalling that so many of my fellow Texans laughed in the face of other people's pain. So many of them, too, pride themselves on being good Christians, so it's particularly satisfying when Texas atheist groups, Muslim community centers, and liberal Christian churches do what they can to help while so many Evangelical members stick by their bootstrapping nonsense.
Poor tx man...
Respect from CA
you sweet summer childs
@@Charok1 lol...
Technology Connections did a whole video on those hot hands things just recently. You should check it out.
Love his channel
Another channel that absolutely deserves the number of subscribers that he has.
Good to see you are alive. Recommend Space blanket sewn between blankets.
Joe and all you other Texans down there, being a weather buff up here in a snowbelt in southern Ontario, Canada, I've been following the huge dive (nope, this was no mere "dip") of the jetsteam that has affected so many of you in such heart wrenching ways, and from one who really hates winter😝, I am moved to tears seeing what has resulted from this unprecedented (yep, this will probably be the most overused word of 2020 & 21) storm. Up here, we have building codes that take into account snow loads on roofs, higher insulation values to help keep us from freezing, and grading stipulations to prevent (in most cases) our homes from flooding once all this white stuff starts to melt. Some of us have down coats & snowshoes to help us keep warm and enable us to get around outside during the winter months. I don't think you guys have ever needed any of this, because who needs to worry about snow loads & flooding from thawing frozen pipes & melting snow down in Texas😕? I've seen several videos & news articles about already taxed population now feeling totally distraught because, not only have their roofs collapsed in on them, but water is literally pouring in from everywhere😖! So, on top of COVID, maybe losing their livelihood, and possibly suffering the lose of a loved one, they are now having to deal with losing everything else...including their sanity🤤. Not good at all😭! I really feel so bad for all you guys😢. I hope people will pull together and help one another out. It can be hard to think of something to say that would help lift people's spirits during this time and give hope & reassurance. I know not everyone out there believes in God (Oh, no! Not one of them people😒😘), but I truely just want to help anyone who is willing to listen to find reassurance & a positive hope for the future, so, please, check this link out ( www.jw.org/en/library/music-songs/original-songs/each-day-has-its-own-anxieties/). This is one of my favorite songs, and I know it will help lighten anyone's load. Joe, I find your videos not only entertaining, but educational too. I've watched them for many years now, so I haven't just searched out to a random channel to start preaching. I just really want to offer a quick pick-you-up😊. Anyway, hang in there, and I really hope the link will help brighten your day...month...year. There's tons of other awesome stuff on the site where this link is from - much food for thought, and millions have found comfort & satisfying answers to life's many questions on there, so go ahead & dig in😀. You may be surprised what you can learn if you just keep an open mind😊. Thanks so much for sharing what's been going on there, and thank you and all involved for creating such an awesome channel😄. Keep up the good work. Sandy