Wishing you and the family all the best, David! That is truly a nightmare of an experience to have to deal with at any time, but especially as a creator that's been trying to build a new space and catch up on projects.
Canadian here: When all that snow starts to melt, stay away from creeks and rivers. Also make sure the storm drains on the street aren't clogged or you will have more flooding.
We helped each other during the blackout. We cooked food, shared vehicles for warmth and power for charging phones and laptops. They brought fuel and water for us in turn. We had a good exchange going.
Nighthawke70 It’s been similar here in Portland, where that same storm hit first before heading your way. We had inches of ice and somewhere around 11 inches of snow, and many were out of power for like 10 days. People that lived IN town. I got super lucky and only lost power for around 4-5 hours. This was one monster of a storm ⛈. Glad you had people to help each other out. I still barely know my neighbors.
I know , I heard and saw that to. We are blessed with great neighbors here in Georgetown, Texas also. They were so great! Checking on my husband and I to see if we were doing alright. Calling us from the store to see if we needed something .We had extra wood that we shared with our next-door neighbor also. When we were in The Woodlands our neighbors were really helpful there to. Fort Worth also come to think of it. Maybe it's a Texan thing? I don't know, but through hurricane (The Woodlands), tornado (Fort Worth) and the Big Freeze (Georgetown) our neighbors have been a true blessing.❤️
A little advice from Russia, when leaving the house without heating with temperatures around 0 degrees or when it is very cold outside. Leave the water tap open a little. Although wasteful, it will help the water in the pipes not freeze.
Thats what we’re told to do in USA, but if someone has an electric water pump (i lived somewhere that needed one) without power you can’t turn anything on, this may have been the case.
So many were dripping their faucets that cities lost water pressure from the busted pipes & dripping. Some cities had no water due to such low pressure, then had to put on boil water notices once water was able to return.
our water was out for a day or so but whenever we did have it we kept the water running. Boil water notice as well, thankfully we filled up the bath tub before for washing things and had tons of bottled waters to prepare for hurricanes.
“I don't need money and the insurance is taking care of the damage” It suddenly struck me how honest this is in this day and age.... how many out there would have tried to take advantage of people's willingness to help. All the best David...stay safe...
I agree. David also mentioned in one of his previous videos as well. He doesn't put them annoying ads in the middle of the vids like a lot of other youtubers do.
There's always one dishonest bastard in the bunch, and I'm getting the feeling it's going to be the insurance company in this case. I seriously don't think David's going to pull a fast one on the insurance company, but I've seen Louis Rossmann's videos. Insurance companies are full of crap. I hope he watches his back on this one.
My step father was a homebuilder, every time we leave the house for an extended period of time he always turns off the water and evacuates the pipes. Never know when a pipe will burst.
My dad does that, plus emptying the fridge and unplugging appliances. You don't know when you can get your home flooded, hit by lighting or power issues.
@@grigss3027 I love the kitties meows. Too bad they're scared, but they're so cute. Mine have to move 6 hours away in a few weeks :) I want to be in the car with them but I will probably have to drive my own truck separately.
I grew up around hateful, reckless, and criminal neighbors during most of my life so when I was living in a "normal" neighborhood I was upset. When hurricane Harvey came and cut off half of the block's power, the other half open their homes and were nice to me It made me sick. I quickly moved out of that place and I am now living comfortable in the factory district where there is no one else residing for a mile around me.
@@gredangeo could you imagine if "being neighborly" was made mandatory by government? If you don't go over to your neighbors at least once a month and spend an hour helping them with yard work, you go to jail? Keep the government out of being neighborly, and keep government out of healthcare.
"I'm a little bit of a prepper." Also "my hybrid car was low on both gas and electricity." Thinking about all you folks in Texas. Wish there was more we could do.
seriously. Having extra food doesn't make you a prepper - FEMA suggests that everyone should have two weeks of food and water on hand at all times. Preppers measure their stockpiles of food in months or years, and of course have solutions for power / heat / fuel, etc. I personally have 120 gallons of gasoline on hand. Buy the ethanol free stuff, put in fuel stabilizer, and rotate the stock by filling up my cars with the old stuff first. Can get tedious, but I can always run my generator or drive where I need to go.
@@PsRohrbaugh He did say "little bit" of one. Not everyone wants to store fuel stabilizers, MREs, and water purification tablets. It's great ya memorized the FEMA page, though.
If I lived in the US I'd have a generator and UPS and water for several days. Especially after seeing how the government "handles" a big crisis like covid. I've also been telling everyone that covid isn't a a guarantee against another crisis happening at the same time, yes you can have a pandemic AND riots AND storms AND whatever else. Life isn't a game and the DM doesn't play fair.
@@SierraSierraFoxtrot SPOT ON! In a hundred years we've gone from "having to harvest enough crops to make it through the winter" , to "assuming that the grocery store will always be open". And for the most part, our society does an OK job. But it's not perfect, and your survival is ultimately on YOU.
When I found out about the panic happening all over Texas, I was so embarrassed to barely find out after living here over 30 years that El Paso wasn’t connected to the rest of the Texas grid. We got the snow and cold temperatures, yet non of the blackouts.
Aren't y'all like barely in the next time zone over, too? I feel like that would get confusing if you need to change your watch every time you drive to a nearby city.
@@Mikeological it’s true, we are in mountain standard time. Luckily we have smart phones or watches that change automatically when changing location lol. It sucks for analog watches yea.
@@Mikeological oh I do too but analog clocks lol. As for watches I just been using apple watches ⌚️. Those only suck because their battery only last 15 hours
The second you saw snow on the ground, you should have filled your bathtub with electricity so you had enough for your household needs to last a couple of days.
Today I learned: If I have to leave my house because it's freezing, turn off the water, and open a faucet to make sure there's no pressure buildup... I would never have thought about that. I hope I don't have to use that knowledge. :-)
That works fine. But if the whole house freezes most do not have all water lines draining down hill. Plus you have to use RV antifreeze in traps. Or veg oil. Best bet is to also blow compressed air thru lines and that still might not get it all. Have had to solder many a water line. Because they couldn't get all the water out when winterizing.
I live in Sweden and if I leave my house for more than a day it's second nature to turn of the water supply. It takes very little time and can save you so much trouble.
An alternative is to open the water cold and let it trickle down the drain. When water freezes it expands and if the water is off the the freezing water has no place to expand into. If you open the taps and let them drain then the pressure will not be bad. Do this for hot and cold pipes of course.
Same here, best wishes 8 Bit Guy! Reminds me of when my mother's house was flooded (along with the whole area). The flood only lasted a few hours, but it took months to get her back to normal.
Yeah that's crazy... Totally weird to be seeing all these snowy FREEZING COLD videos from places that aren't up north! The busted pipes are going to be off the charts.
I just can't believe how few folks have generators. Like, I know snowstorms basically never happen in Texas, but you still need a generator for normal storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes.
Have them use their transport boxes as their normal sleeping place. Ours does. We have taken 11 hour trips with her and didn't hear as much as a meow from her. She does fart though occasionally due to the vibration, and you wouldn't believe how much stink comes out of such a small cat.
Tips from the mountains of switzerland: Always completely drain all the water in all the pipes before leaving the house alone. Otherwise the water will freeze. The pipes will crack and you get big leaks.
@@taavi948 it would be common if house owners wouldn't know to leave heat on when they leave house for extended time periods. Every house owner in Finland I personally know, knows that if house freezes and you didn't prepare house for it, you will have really bad time after temperature rises. It is common knowledge.
@@taavi948 But you have this problems :D Turn your heating completely of and wait for it. The water in the pipes will freeze and if it's getting warmer, it expends and kills the tubes.
The county should have recommended everyone shutting the water off and draining the pipes. At least once they knew it was going to take some time to get the power back on.
I’m a bit surprised he didn’t shut it off before he left his house. I live further south in Houston and I did that at my house even while I was still staying in it. Dripped faucets the first night when we had power and did ok, the second night with no power and the inside of my house at 40 I went ahead and shut off water at the meter and drained the system.
The amount of homeowners with 0 knowledge on how their home actually works is insane. Don't feel bad for people who spend so much on a house but won't take care of it
@@nickbryant2318 THIS GUY IS A COMPUTER NERD THAT LIVES NEXT TO HIS MOM. Mad Respect for the 8-Bit guy too. Nothing wrong with that. Just maybe not a plumber.
I’m a contractor in East Texas. I have gotten more calls for burst pipe in the last 2 days than I’ve gotten in a standard 3 year period. I’ve been working non stop trying to fix people’s flooded houses. People don’t really get how unprepared we were for this.
I mean north of Waco most of the state got into sub zero temps during the snow storm. That's cold enough to freeze entire rivers solid. I don't think we've really had an event like this since the early 1980s. Because even in 2011 the temperatures didn't drop below zero. At worst they went down to like 9.
@@longfang98 Drywall has its shortcomings, but it does make modifications and renovation much easier. Most American homes use wood frames which has resulted in millions of acres of managed tree farms. While the pine grown in most tree farms isn't as good as old growth wood, it does replace old growth lumber resulting in more sustainable wood. That being said, wood homes can be built to last for centuries. There are many built 100-250 years ago that are still in use. By US standards, that quite old.
Leather combat boot and toddler which member should we have abortion the computer with a Snowman did Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Shannon M&T has accomplished Bruce Littlefield Furniture Outlet Tacoma. Upgrade solution what is Nimbus Coliseum and take a look at the Garden the Revelation option hot women in the latter one day ago may have just managed new paradigm coolest Noir
Remember to check the insulation and studs for mold. The insulation is easy enough to replace. The studs can be saved if you spray and wipe down with mold remover.
My house was wired for phone jacks, whoever built the home was really nice and used ethernet cable to run the phone lines, so i just rewired all my phone jacks to ethernet. Was a nice surprise, tbh.
Brilliant idea. I do similar. Ie if a 17” monitor breaks I might buy a 19” monitor. That way you get something new from all the grief. This is really horrid. Feel for you.
Heh heh. I had my water freeze a couple of days back and was tempted to use old aquarium water on the toilet, but luckily I got it unfrozen before that became a necessity.
Kinda nothing that could be done. Its not the first time nor the last that this will happen in texas. Problem is all of the infrastructure down to every nut and bolt was built without freezing temps in mind as it only happens once every 10 or so years. To fix the problem would involve rebuilding literally everything from major gas lines to every hose bib in the state. Atlesat a trillion dollars in repairs. Its easy and even realtivly cheap to manage for cold weather from the start. Its a whole different story trying to retrofit a system for cold weather.
@@cccpkingu Yep. Same thing with FL when it comes to Hurricane weather. It really boggles my mind after so many hurricanes they still havent updated building standards.
I can’t believe the news didn’t warn people to shut off their water or to leave it dripping. Seems so intuitive living in Wisconsin, but not so much in Texas I guess 🤷♂️
@@houseofgrindgaming3448 Gotta keep them sitting through those commercials to find out whether their dog's water bowl is cancer causing at 6. Honestly, as someone whose lived in Texas and now living in Indiana, I just gotta say it's a real wakeup call when you're not used to dealing with this kind of weather. I went from never having a wreck to smacking a telephone pole. Down south, we just never worried about the cold at this level. Temperatures would drop, but wouldn't stay low enough to really affect much. We're used to fighting the heat and worrying about hurricanes down there.
I shut my water off at the meter and opened up several faucets, and still had 3 pipes break. The good part for me, though: I was there when I turned the water back on, so it only took a few minutes to see the water start to drip from the ceiling - and I shut it back off. I have a section of ceiling sheetrock fall down in the kitchen. It could have been much worse.
They do.. i personally blew my outside lines out with compressed air. Youd thought Texas was in dire straits but i assure you we werent. Every time there is a natural disaster, the same shit happens. Milk, Bread, Power, Water goes away for a few days. Its not like Texas doesnt set its clocks by natural disasters.. because we do. Maybe it was Anderson Cooper standing in a meatlocker? idk.
My dripping water faucets kept freezing. They kept freezing even running at a rate faster than a drip. Had to put boiling water on the faucets to keep them running. Didn't turn off the water because we still needed to use the water throughout the day.
Tells people he doesn't need any money donations when he could easily overstate his predicament and capitalise on people's charity as many others might. This man is an awesome human being.
Now you can see how much of beggers some other youtubers are who do far more views, brand deals, and merch sales over any little thing they can trick young kids into giving them money
@@mycosys that would be cool, I am on my own myself with no help, no support, and no nice neighbor like that, and especially no job because of covid. So I can't even replace anything
Lake Worth here - we just got the okay to use tap water again today, I've never been so glad to wash dishes! The kitchen was looking like a war zone as we were using boiled bottled water to wash just what we needed at the time. We were lucky though, we had power the whole time so we could melt snow to flush the toilets. Hope things are improving for you!
Damn I’m sorry... that sucks. Hopefully everything worked out. I’m in California and the longest I’ve been without power in the last 2 years is 4 hours total.
@@vogelvogeltje I am jealous as hell lmao. I am from Texas and we had our power go out for 3 days back around August for seemingly no reason. Luckily during the blizzard it only went out for like 16 hours.
I was actually wondering how you'd be doing the other day, considering you live in Texas... You are one of my favourite creators, and it's unfortunate to see this happen to you.
While getting my morning started today I realized out of nowhere that he's based in Texas. I'm relieved to hear his family is safe, but it's all still all very unfortunate.
@@sasquatchhunter86 The Dems do it better than the Republicans. We at least require regulation of utilities which forces them to build things better. Here in Colorado, with regulated utilities, the only places that lose power more than a day are the high country areas where 3 or 4 or 6 feet fall overnight. Only once in 40 years have we lost power for more than 24 hours and that was when we had a six foot snowfall in one day. Most of the time the power is back on in an hour or two even during violent storms and serious (-20F) storms.
You are an example of the attitude to have during a crisis: calm, measured, still optimistic. Glad that you have a place to stay until your place gets back in order and that you and your family are safe and well. Wishing you all the best. p.s. Your floofy kitties are adorable--seems like they're adjusted fast to their new temporary home!
My thoughts as well. He seems to be in really good spirits talking about it. I’d be too upset to even mention it. May he and everyone else affected by this winter apocalypse have a speedy recovery from it.
I’m really sorry you guys weren’t given a heads up on how to prevent burst water pipes when temps get below freezing. Even with power and heat on in the northeast/midwest we still take precautions when temps get in to the teens such as: a Slow drip, insulate susceptible pipes and/or shut off water to house if power Is out or your leaving for more than a day. EDIT: Many of you have pointed out that some Texans knew to, or did do these things and still had bursts. If you shut water off at street, purge the pressure from the line, there won't be bursts. And if by some weird way pipe does burst, water will not continually pour into the house. If power was off for an extended period, Let the house warm up gradually. Then slowly introduce pressure to the house incrementally, with faucets open. This should help reduce the potential for a burst when re-pressurizing the lines
Yeah, in general Texas really didn’t do anything to help its citizens out during this. Weather disaster and a pandemic and not much really being done about it
It was sustainably cold for so long and access to power (or even water to keep running through the pipes) was so inconsistent that it wouldn't have always made a difference. I caught a pipe burst in my own slab despite taking countermeasures. The faucets were under control but a part of my slab foundation still got so cold that ice formed in it and created a pinhole burst. The only thing I could have really done was pre-drained all the plumbing before we had gotten below freezing in the first place. I'm not even sure that would have been sufficient since my burst appears to be down in the slab where some water would have settled regardless. Try to purge it with an air compressor? They don't put secondary shut offs for outdoor faucets into the plumbing here like I remember growing up in upstate New York.
Yeah shutting down your water supply and bleeding the pipes when you have to leave or power grid goes down is winter living 101. Hell I even cut the water off in tropical countries when I leave just in case.
I was thinking myself, the first thing to do when leaving a house in sub zero temperatures is to turn off the water. Drain the pipes if you can, but if the water is off, any leak will be minor by comparison. I've had a pipe freeze and burst because of about 1/2 a litre of water which didn't drain out, but the damage was limited to a couple of metres of pipe.
I live in Oregon and my work sends samples to Texas every day, we had to halt that process for longer than a week. Good luck and I hope everyone makes it through this life experience!
meh no big deal Texas had it coming not having a plan for that kind of power failure happening rolling blackout means turning grid off to power dead grids up for 15 minutes long enough to keep houses heated in that cold weather not just shut them off and forget about them🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
Literally my first thought when you said you went to your aunt's house was "he turned off the water, right?" One of those things we're used to doing up north; very sorry you had to learn it first hand.
We got caught off guard all the way down to monterrey mexico, lots of burst water pipes, water pumps blown and the like. We went full on "How bad can it get?"
I've lived in Florida my whole life and had no idea this was necessary in cold climates until a few months ago when I heard a horror story about this. Someone in the same situation as me inherited a relative's house up north. They had no idea that winterizing was necessary, and the pipes burst. The entire first floor turned into a solid block of ice and it totaled the entire house. Insurance wouldn't pay because it was considered negligence.
@@joerazakmex88 Here in Minnesota we are reminded about shutting off and draining outside water hoses starting in October. Ironically, the guy who is working in townhomes doing lots of repairs including on pipes is born in Oaxaca state of Mexico. So now everybody from Southern USA and Northern Mexico has to learn how to protect pipes in very cold weather when it is clearly forecasted in advance.
From a Canadian: I feel for you. My sister lives in Dallas, she's not happy, and said "that's why I moved away from this shit!". Stay safe, best wishes!!!!!
I'm sorry for your sister. If she really wanted to avoid snow and ice, Dallas was never the answer. Houston and basically anywhere close to the ocean and southern border would be way better. AZ, CA, LA, and FL have large cities that rarely have snow.
Sorry, dude. My house burnt to a pile of ash in the 90s, 100% of our belongings were destroyed. It sucks for sure, but at least you have most of your belongings and your family! Great neighbors you have there too. All the best! Congrats on the success of your channel, you deserve it.
@@harukatakahashi8822 1990, nobody is sure how. It was a large ~105 year old house, it went up in minutes. Probably related to the wood furnace though.
It's weird to see how things that are "normal" in some part of the world can be catastrophic in other parts. I hope everything returns to normal quickly for you all in Texas.
Yeah, that sort of snow and blizzard wouldn't be much of a problem here in northern Europe. Only traffic on roads need to watch out. But they are big here on putting salt on the roads so it's less slippery.
@@ryanjay6241 Well, when he says that they RELY on electricity to heat the house - you know you're in deep shit when the power goes out and there's a blizzard. :-) Chimneys - and consequently, ovens - are such a mainstay in countries with concepts like A Cold Winter, that I was surprised to learn that houses exist without them!
@@SimonWoodburyForget yea which is why its so ridiculous that california is now banning new developments from including natural gas. Its the reliable backup, our power goes out all the time but at least we have heat and hot water.
Yup, looking out my window right now we're getting much more snow than Texas got. But we're built for it here. The streets will be plowed soon and I can go to my fully stocked grocery store in my fully gassed car. Maybe drink some freely flowing water before I go. Gotta be thankful
@@TheDoomerBlox Rely on it for everything it seems. I couldn't imagine having electric heating without having a generator back up. Shit, my parents made sure to teach me how to safely light the water heater & furnace in case of power outages.
I remember helping a friend out when his waterbed exploded...almost all the furniture was ruined and everything had just been freshly renovated. Half the drywall had to be replaced, all of the flooring...but....after it was repaired, you'd never know it happened at all. Sounds like insurance isn't giving you a hard time, so I am sure everything will be back to normal before you know it.
@@encycl07pedia- for some reason my mum bought my brother and I waterbeds when we were kids. I don’t know why we were far from well off and she barely scraped through financially but that is probably why silly purchases. Luckily for us the only issue I had was sometimes the power cable would get knocked out of the wall and I would wake up really cold cause the water sack would suck all the heat from around it including me
@@unnamedchannel1237 As long as you don't poke a hole in it, a waterbed never wears out, is easy to completely clean, and is fairly easy to pack up when empty.
@@unnamedchannel1237 I've heard of that, but why on earth would you get heals anywhere near a bed? Forgetting the water bit, having them tangled in sheets/ripped sheets - stupid idea.
Oh man, that’s rough. I can’t imagine going through all of that. Thankfully your neighbors are happy to help out the weird guy who’s always hosing off computers lol. Wishing you the best!
it was way worse for me in texas in the 2001 ice storm, our trailer home was under a tree, we thought the tree was going to fall on us, took 1 month to get full power back
While great for recharging cell phones and powering small items for short periods of time cannot heat a home for even brief emergencies. One gallon of propane heat is the equivelant of 27kWh for around $1.50/gallon that's about 5 cents per kWh, here is what I found on a powerwall, $469.00 per kWh.
Here in the netherlands its commen sense to do so. Is it gona be below 0 C ? Turn water off to the garden and open the tap. Houses are fine becouse we build them good ;) thick stone walls with insulation and most ppl have gas cv or a fireplace.
@@firefly2472 In the USA there is a push to get rid of natural gas. Soon fireplaces will follow. So all the USA will have left to do is shut the water off when the lights go out. It's an exit strategy put on by the Democrats.
"...I don't need any money because insurance is going to cover this.." Such optimism. I hope everything works out for you. Stuff can replaced. Buildings rebuilt. Cars replaced. Your mom, your wife and your kids are a whole different story. Best wishes to you and your family. Glad they were safe.
@@RockwellAIM65 What would you rather lose permanently, your cars and bikes or your loved ones? Cars and bikes are fun, but people are what make like worth living. I would love to trade a car for an afternoon with my parents.
Sorry this happened. As someone whose basement has flooded half a dozen times, get dehumidifiers in there and just dry stuff out. You don't have to replace everything and likely shouldn't have to replace the drywall. It sucks, but you'll get back on your feet sooner than you think.
Same here. Our basement bloods every other year, in spring. So we have a dehumidifier otherwise it will get nasty. We bypassed the fill tank and ran the drain hose right to the sump
That is true, but you might as well take everything insurance will give you. The last thing you want is a mold problem creeping up on you later. If something like this happened to me and I had to spend my own money, though, I'd probably do what you're suggesting unless the mold had already set in.
I don't know about Texas but down here in south Florida, your walls get wet you rip everything out. If you don't, you will have walls full of black mold and serious respiratory problems.
The outside walls insulation will at least have to be fixing because it will never dry out. The inner uninsulated walls probably would be ok but may as well do them too while everything is out of the house and since insurance will cover it. Nothing more aggravating than water damage, other than smoke damage maybe.
I know it's way after the fact, but as someone in Texas who saw several of the dorms in my college lose power and have pipe bursts, all food options shut down except for a single dining hall that was never meant to serve the whole campus at once, and none of us knowing how to do everyday tasks when there's a foot of snow outside, I'm incredibly thankful for the colder states who gave advice. Normally, when it snows here, the first thing we'd hear is "pssh you got _1 inch_ of snow? Try 8 feet!" but this time, all I ever saw was Northerners (and people from cold regions in general) giving us advice about how to make the most of our clothes layers, how to protect pipes from freezing, how to drive on ice if in an emergency, how to conserve heat in a power outage, etc. _That_ right there made it way better for a lot of us, and we could not be more thankful for y'all's help. If the weather ever decides to pull an Uno reverse card somehow and y'all end up in an apocalyptic heatwave up there, we've got your backs.
I already get apocalyptic heatwaves. It's called Florida weather. _especially when your air conditioner barely works_ _because of a poorly insulated attic ceiling with the access door missing_
I know this comment is a month old, but that "you got 1 inch of snow? Try 8 feet!" is exactly what my grandmother says every time my city shuts things down because of snow. She's from Missouri and we live in Virginia. She really doesn't seem to understand that our roads aren't made for plowing (Mom learned this from a VDOT worker and that our plows don't touch the roads because of this, though I live in the eastern part so I don't know about the rest of the state) so we really rely on salt and sand to keep the roads from being too iced over. As for the temperature? So sorry that 40 degrees is cold to the rest of us.
@@AmbertheLunarWolf VDOT plows every road in virginia who ever said that is lying to you. THEY WILL EVEN USE BULLDOZERS ON THE ROADS. Virginia strictly regulates how every road is built now. THEY ARE ALL BUILT FOR everything from snow to floods. Salt is only good above certain temperatures. Too cold it isn't used but they use mixtures to give traction. You can tell you are from the far south. lol When we got 76 inches of snow in one night years ago you think they didn't plow the roads ? LOL
@@christopherfortney2544yeah. My dad lives in Virginia and I've seen VDOT do road work and they do not fuck around. If there's a problem, VDOT **WILL** get it fixed as quickly as they can get enough people out to do so. Really a major contrast to how it is in Ohio, where ODOT seems to take an eternity to even get like a surveyor or something to map out the roads.
@@legoman8960 Yeah, also being from Wisconsin, when I saw footage of the storm, I immediately thought, "that's it" as I see 3-4 times that much in my yard. I understand that this usually doesn't happen in Texas, but it is strange seeing that much damage when up here I have been through storms that dumped 4 times that amount and no damage was had.
Turning off the water would have been the first thing I did when leaving, but that’s coming from a Canadian who is use to these potential hazards. And if I lived in Texas I bet I wouldn’t have thought of it either! This just sucks and I’m sorry you had to go through all of this especially after having all the new studio work done. I hope everything is back to normal and back on track for you!
When leaving a house in freezing weather, always turn off your mains water, drain any water heaters if possible, flush toilets and add antifreeze to cistern and bowls. Leave all taps open slightly.
Thats an unrealistic task if you live in an area where its freezing 2/3 of the winter. There's always someone in my house so we just leave a heater on in the area most susceptible to frozen pipes.
@@LegendaryMike You are describing what to do if your home is occupied and has power. Saxman is describing how to winterize your house if you need to evacuate, or won't be home for the winter. Everything he describes is exactly what the "snowbirds" do before they head down to Florida for the winter: Turn off the water, drain all of the pipes, leave the taps open just in case, and fill any drains or toilets with a (preferably non-toxic) liquid that will resist freezing and evaporation to keep sewer gasses out. They do the same thing when they leave their Florida house and head back up north.
@@docferringer What I was thinking and what I replied didn't quite align. I was trying to avoid writing a long comment. I do apologize for the confusion. Now let's be clear, I Do Not disagree with what saxman said. I would use that advice If I lived in a state that sees snow every blue moon and was preparing for a snow storm. I was thinking that it's unrealistic for some people who live in area where it's 32°F or below for 2/3 of the winter season. It's highly unlikely for a single resident who works 50+ hours a week could do this on a daily basis. The ending was added because I am thankful that I'm in a minority of people whose home is occupied 24/7 and can use certain measures to prevent frozen/busted pipes. Also, we have a gas range (only the stovetop is used), water heater, and a fireplace so our pipes aren't much of a concern during blackouts. Ultimately, there must be an alternative to Saxman's solution for daily use.
once ice starts in your pipes, if you don't immediately open valves to compensate for the pressure, everything *will* break, ice can exert upwards of 40,000 PSI on every fitting and joint. My wellhead was freezing up because of the pressure tank. well would activate because i had my usual "it's well below freezing" drip rate going. This drip rate meant that the pressure tank was doing the heavy lifting, and the water in the pipe between the pressure tank and the wellhead was frozen solid. I had to tote a small personal heater out to the wellshed and defrost it. I then turned on a 1/4" stream on the outside spigot, and a smaller stream inside, as well as fully drained my pressurized RO filter so it would contribute to the drippage. Oh and i did all of that when it was -5 wind chill outside. Good times. I don't even own a jacket.
@@LegendaryMike . I’m not talking about leaving the house for a day or two, but when you need to winterise your property due to extended periods or possible power shutdowns.
Oh, that's nasty... I live in Canada, so we're prepared for pipes bursting, but when you live in a place where that "never" happens, it really sucks. :( Hope you manage to get everything sorted out and put back together nicely.
My first thought when I saw the news about Texas was "I hope the 8 bit guy is ok", thanks for this video. The snow storms was all over the news in Finland!
The only way to get your cats to stop serenading you in stereo is to put a blanket over their kitty carrier. The darkness and the warmth provided by the blanket usually puts them to sleep.
When we moved a few miles to anther town our cats mewed loudly the whole time. At the time I thought that cats had something like GPS, and they updated it with their known movements. Moving in the car generated errors which they report loudly. :-) Recently our cat escaped from his carrier in the car and you could see he had difficulties processing his visual field. Cats have edge and movement detection systems that they use to achieve their ultra-fast hunting reflexes. You can only imagine what their experience is with all the motion visible through the windows.
Department of Energy blocked gas a coal back up power days before the storm, due to emissions. This storm was not taken seriously by the federal government. And now we must pay the price. Dont blame Democrats or Republicans, look into those truly responsible and hold them accountable no matter their politics. Disaster relief money cannot be the only answer. Stay safe fellow Americans!!!!
I have a few friends in Germany and they were absolutely overwhelmed, it's crazy how it went from barely snowing at all in years to something like this.
Snow is an insulator... Pipes below ground or inside your house will burst faster with no snow than with a thick layer of snow during a real cold snap...
Stay safe, stay well. We had to deal with a family member's house flooding last year. One word of advice, never hesitate to stand back and take a deep breath.
the thing about the power going out, it's not just your fridge that defrosts, it's also the supermarkets, the distribution centres for the frozen and chilled food. also a good tip if the power is out, in freeing weather and no heat, turn the water off and drain the pipes in the house. when the power is back on and you can warm the place back up, you can do a quick and easy leak test before turning the water back on. it can save you a lot of time and expense. just open the highest tap (faucet) and use the lowest to drain. when you allow a lot of corner cutting and as near zero regulation of the power grid, you can expect these things to happen, especially after being warned about it a decade before.
Fun fact; a company tried to pull that off here in Florida during hurricane season. Needless to say that didn't hold well in court and they went out of business shortly after for failing to pay out what was owed
@@mjohnsimon1337 It's happened before. A bunch of rich guys in the mid-1800s bought a reservoir and earth dam in a Pennsylvania canyon prone to flooding and built a resort, weakening the dam in the process by lowering it to install a road and blocking the spillways with fish screens, which trapped debris. Predictably, the dam burst on May 31, 1889, and totally obliterated the town of Johnstown, killing over 2,200 people. The survivors sued, but the lawyers of the club argued that the incident was an act of God. The courts agreed and the survivors got nothing.
Stay safe, our house flooded via a broken pipe about 18-months ago. Unfortunately, we were out of town and a tremendous amount of water flooded every room! We’re still trying to get it back to normal! Our prayers go with you all!
David, thank you for sharing this with us. Looking forward to your next update. Speedy recovery and wishing you and your family only the best - from New Zealand.
Sympathies. For future: recommend 90 degree lever gate valve at house entrance in addition to city's underground valve. I know this is a minor issue at the moment, but when you have to dump water quickly, it can be a godsend.
In the case of Dallas though, it probably wouldn't make sense to have that in a house. In Oklahoma we just open cabinet doors, cover exterior taps, and keep interior taps dripping, because nothing else is credibly needed- we would only consider draining lines if the house was going to be uninhabited for months, or even years, if we would even consider it then. Dallas gets even less cold weather than we do.
Sure, we have Mr Fusion to generate the 1.21 GW of electricity but the internal combustion engine has run on gas and always has. And it's going to be about 50 y before a gas station opens. So, there is no way to reach 140 km/h.
Living in Canada, heard the news and was shocked by the situation in Texas. But until I watched this video, the channel making retro-tech contents which I am a big fan of. I feel more shocked. This is like you heard some bad things from the news and you feel bad, but it hearts you when you know your friend was involved. Hope you and your family all the best. Love your channel.
I mean it's one of those situations that were not prepared for. This freak winter shocked us as a state. Even 2011 wasn't that bad while it shut down Dallas it was only for like a day and everything got back to normal plus the temperatures never went to Sub-Zero. Most of north Texas even during snow storms still remains in the 2 digit range for farenheight here.
Hoping to see an update soon, and all is going well! Insurance companies when faced with these kinds of disasters tend to just deny everyone and wait for people to sue.
For the record, most areas don't have shutoffs for the spigots, don't have basements, and the water shutoff is almost impossible to find. Most areas in the US essentially hope it never gets cold enough for this to happen.
@@TheBarisaxman17 It would behoove homeowners to know where the main water supply cutoff is (and test it once a year or so) - not only for unexpected events like this but whenever a major leak happens otherwise. Just plain common sense.
Now you know something that's common sense here in Russia: when leaving a home on its own, shut off water, gas, and all electricity except for the fridge.
I live in Canada and water is the main thing to shut off when we leave for any period of time. Gas would be a good idea if you use a gas stove or gas dryer but I use electric but I still turn the power off to those because it’s a touch panel and I am paranoid that a spider will walk across the panel and turn the thing on lol.
@@Randomadventureswithpaul damn air compressor makes sense. Usually I drain mine by taking it off holding the back high and just working the high point down the hose.
I usually leave one of the faucet in each floor of the house on with a little stream of water... This helps to run water through the pipes and should help with frozen pipes.
Im so sorry that happened to you and your family. The Texas power crisis with that miserable snow storm was a disaster and a tragedy. A lot of damage was done. I'm glad to know youve had some help. I shall pray for you and hope everything woks out! Good luck and God bless you!
@@jenab3560 Never will be taken seriously. Republicans are blaming wind turbines, but real problem was coal and natural gas power plants. Republicans are pushing very heavily deregulation, which is terrible. Vote Blue. Red is evil
@@richardlighthouse5328 : The _actual_ problem is a long-running propensity to underfund infrastructure. Everyone wants either more military or more social services, so _everything_ else gets short-changed as a result.
@@richardlighthouse5328 the wind turbines were frozen shut too. It was lack of preparation. As one in the field of electricity, fossil fuels are more reliable. The Texas grid was simply too incompetent to prepare for frozen precipitation. If you want clean energy, the best method of reliability and safety is nuclear. Support nuclear power. Vote red. Trump 2024
Whoa, what a way to turn something on international news (from my European perspective) into something that hits surprisingly close to home. Hope you'll manage to get through this!
Luckily me and my roommates had started dripping all our faucets before the big freeze so we didn't get any leaks. But all our quadplex neighbors had busted pipes. They didn't drip their pipes.
I'm in Ontario and it's hard to imagine relying so much on electrical heat. I see why because it's so uncommon to need heat therefore the inefficiency isn't so bad but damn.
Tip from Northern Europe: dig down the water pipe 1m under ground. It should not freeze unlesss you get Siberian cold. If you are leaving the house for more than two days and don't have anybody to look after the house during very low temperatures, turn of the water mains and bleed the system as much as possible.
And leave the faucets open with the water turned off. You'll get a nice long icicle dangling off your sink, but it helps with leftover water in the pipes.
There's a lot of places in Texas that don't have 1 meter of dirt to dig through. A lot of the state sits on top of massive limestone aquifers. Go down half that in some places and you'll need to swap the shovel for a pickaxe because you've hit limestone.
@Mike Jones In warm places you should bury your pipes too because otherwise you'll get a couple of minutes of hot water every time you open the faucet in the summer, like I have :(
@Mike Jones The have what they call temperate zones I believe, and what zone you are in dictates how deep you should go with your pipes. Where I am they say about a 48" minimum. I have had the frost in the ground go well below that but my pipes are down farther. I am in Canada and it sounds like you get similar weather. Luckily where I am its been a mild winter with lots of snow. Really, its just as long as you are below the frost line. Even down a foot would probably be fine in Texas because the cold probably won't stay long enough for the frost to get that deep into the ground.
I heard about this in Texas, I know houses in Texas aren’t built for this. I feel really bad for your troubles. I wish you well and your house gets fixed and repaired for the damages. It really sucks that your house is ruined. It also sucks that the room you just did is now ruined. I wish you the best!
Actually fortunate houses aren't built in Texas like in Ohio... when my basement floods it is 6"-8"... Hedged my bets for this spring, bought a generator and a bigger pump to keep ahead of the April Showers... In our thoughts in Ohio, Dave... DaveP
2 days before the sh*t hit the fan me and my wife got ready, we purchased 4 weeks worth of groceries, we defrosted the fridge and stored our meet outside. Went to the gas station and got a full tank on me car and 3 full gas cans, went to the storage to pull 2 boxes of military meal and some extreme cold weatheer clothing (from my military days). and my ultralight camping cookware and burner and 3 extreme weather sleeping system. Wife said i was too much and over reacting, she was proven wrong really quick. Good thing we prep for the event. Only problem we had was no hot water and it was cold to walk around the house but other than that we survived the 4 days of darkness (lol). It was nice not having to work because there was no internet. 😂
Wishing you and the family all the best, David! That is truly a nightmare of an experience to have to deal with at any time, but especially as a creator that's been trying to build a new space and catch up on projects.
Yes
@Luke Clint lives in the Carolina's.
@Luke I think he's up in Wisconsin or something, where it's like it is for me here near Ottawa, Canada.
where I live this would be considered disappointing little snow
do they normally not get snow in texas?
@@evensgrey He lives in the Asheville area of NC (Mountainous region) - snow there is a bit more common than the rest of NC.
Canadian here: When all that snow starts to melt, stay away from creeks and rivers. Also make sure the storm drains on the street aren't clogged or you will have more flooding.
Yep good advice. A lot of water will form once things melt.
I have seen melting water from Swiss Alphs and that water is racing through the small rivers with very high speed. Very dangerous.
@@jankees4037 not that much snow in Texas though 🙂
It's worse because the ground is so dry and packed, it won't just run into the dirt. Vegas was the same when it rained. Floods really easily.
Here in Dallas we weren't prepared for something we haven't seen in 200 years and it shows.
1:47 Cats meowing in stereo. And if we upgrade, we can have Dolby ATMEOWS.
Thi comment is underapreciated
Wonder if the audio engineer had to use Meow Mix
@@LidLockTV Ha! Nice.
the back meowers are easy but where are you supposed to put the front meowers?
“Our neighbors helped us”
I wish I had neighbors like that.
Or maybe I should be more like that?
....or both.
We helped each other during the blackout. We cooked food, shared vehicles for warmth and power for charging phones and laptops. They brought fuel and water for us in turn. We had a good exchange going.
Where do you live?
@@mrp4242 Coastal Bend Texas.
Nighthawke70 It’s been similar here in Portland, where that same storm hit first before heading your way. We had inches of ice and somewhere around 11 inches of snow, and many were out of power for like 10 days. People that lived IN town. I got super lucky and only lost power for around 4-5 hours. This was one monster of a storm ⛈.
Glad you had people to help each other out. I still barely know my neighbors.
I know , I heard and saw that to. We are blessed with great neighbors here in Georgetown, Texas also. They were so great! Checking on my husband and I to see if we were doing alright. Calling us from the store to see if we needed something .We had extra wood that we shared with our next-door neighbor also. When we were in The Woodlands our neighbors were really helpful there to. Fort Worth also come to think of it. Maybe it's a Texan thing? I don't know, but through hurricane (The Woodlands), tornado (Fort Worth) and the Big Freeze (Georgetown) our neighbors have been a true blessing.❤️
A little advice from Russia, when leaving the house without heating with temperatures around 0 degrees or when it is very cold outside. Leave the water tap open a little. Although wasteful, it will help the water in the pipes not freeze.
Thats what we’re told to do in USA, but if someone has an electric water pump (i lived somewhere that needed one) without power you can’t turn anything on, this may have been the case.
So many were dripping their faucets that cities lost water pressure from the busted pipes & dripping. Some cities had no water due to such low pressure, then had to put on boil water notices once water was able to return.
yep, that's what I did in Houston just a few hours south of 8-bit guy. Saved our house i think. My neighbors weren't so lucky.
our water was out for a day or so but whenever we did have it we kept the water running. Boil water notice as well, thankfully we filled up the bath tub before for washing things and had tons of bottled waters to prepare for hurricanes.
From NY. In my experience, we tend to get
"Meowing in Stereo"
A classic album.
The secret of the superb sound: David implanted a MOS 6581 in the right cat and a 8580 in the left one.
Lookup "Duetto buffo di due gatti" by Rossini - actual classical aria with singers meowing. :)
Nothing like this I hope.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cat_organ
They’re meering loudly!
“I don't need money and the insurance is taking care of the damage”
It suddenly struck me how honest this is in this day and age.... how many out there would have tried to take advantage of people's willingness to help.
All the best David...stay safe...
I agree.
David also mentioned in one of his previous videos as well.
He doesn't put them annoying ads in the middle of the vids like a lot of other youtubers do.
Good point. Really shows David's integrity.
>I u
There's always one dishonest bastard in the bunch, and I'm getting the feeling it's going to be the insurance company in this case. I seriously don't think David's going to pull a fast one on the insurance company, but I've seen Louis Rossmann's videos. Insurance companies are full of crap. I hope he watches his back on this one.
Totally agree. I thought the exact same thing.
All the best to the whole family David.
My step father was a homebuilder, every time we leave the house for an extended period of time he always turns off the water and evacuates the pipes. Never know when a pipe will burst.
Smart man.
we do that here. and i live in Greece
I do that with my place in the mountains
Actually, if you are leaving for more than a day, even just the weekend, shut the water off and maybe the gas too.
My dad does that, plus emptying the fridge and unplugging appliances. You don't know when you can get your home flooded, hit by lighting or power issues.
_"we got to listen to the cats meowing in stereo"_
Lmao,even your jokes are smart
lmao sounds exactly like mine
yes
must have been a great car ride
@@heroslippy6666 heavenly ride imo, i love cats
@@grigss3027 I love the kitties meows. Too bad they're scared, but they're so cute. Mine have to move 6 hours away in a few weeks :) I want to be in the car with them but I will probably have to drive my own truck separately.
That's how a neighborhood should be. Helping each other when in need.
Southern hospitality and neighborliness.
I grew up around hateful, reckless, and criminal neighbors during most of my life so when I was living in a "normal" neighborhood I was upset. When hurricane Harvey came and cut off half of the block's power, the other half open their homes and were nice to me It made me sick. I quickly moved out of that place and I am now living comfortable in the factory district where there is no one else residing for a mile around me.
What a nice thought. Extend that compassion to healthcare, Texas and the rest of America could do great things.
Das communist
@@gredangeo could you imagine if "being neighborly" was made mandatory by government? If you don't go over to your neighbors at least once a month and spend an hour helping them with yard work, you go to jail? Keep the government out of being neighborly, and keep government out of healthcare.
Priorities: Do what you need to do. We'll be here when you get back.
"The cats meowing in stereo." Man... I laughed hard
Lol
New band name:
Stereo Püssy
@@RobeonMew yesss
Nobody noticed how the cats eyes are green?
@@MemeHut1000 and nobody noticed thwir fur was matte?
you not being funny
Upvote for stereo cats being awesome even during such a tragic time.
My cats are in 7.1 surround
I can just imagine them going "Are we there yet?" "Are we there yet?" "Are we there yet?"
Even if slightly out of phase...
And they're tuned the same as Cyriak's cats.
meowsome
"I'm a little bit of a prepper." Also "my hybrid car was low on both gas and electricity."
Thinking about all you folks in Texas. Wish there was more we could do.
seriously. Having extra food doesn't make you a prepper - FEMA suggests that everyone should have two weeks of food and water on hand at all times. Preppers measure their stockpiles of food in months or years, and of course have solutions for power / heat / fuel, etc. I personally have 120 gallons of gasoline on hand. Buy the ethanol free stuff, put in fuel stabilizer, and rotate the stock by filling up my cars with the old stuff first. Can get tedious, but I can always run my generator or drive where I need to go.
@@PsRohrbaugh He did say "little bit" of one. Not everyone wants to store fuel stabilizers, MREs, and water purification tablets. It's great ya memorized the FEMA page, though.
If I lived in the US I'd have a generator and UPS and water for several days.
Especially after seeing how the government "handles" a big crisis like covid. I've also been telling everyone that covid isn't a a guarantee against another crisis happening at the same time, yes you can have a pandemic AND riots AND storms AND whatever else.
Life isn't a game and the DM doesn't play fair.
@@SierraSierraFoxtrot SPOT ON! In a hundred years we've gone from "having to harvest enough crops to make it through the winter" , to "assuming that the grocery store will always be open". And for the most part, our society does an OK job. But it's not perfect, and your survival is ultimately on YOU.
Thanks!
Such a friendly nice guy. Doesnt deserve this! His neighbours are great! Chin up Texas!! From Australia..
Seconded from Australia.
When I found out about the panic happening all over Texas, I was so embarrassed to barely find out after living here over 30 years that El Paso wasn’t connected to the rest of the Texas grid. We got the snow and cold temperatures, yet non of the blackouts.
Aren't y'all like barely in the next time zone over, too? I feel like that would get confusing if you need to change your watch every time you drive to a nearby city.
@@Mikeological it’s true, we are in mountain standard time. Luckily we have smart phones or watches that change automatically when changing location lol. It sucks for analog watches yea.
@@joshWUa915 oh a lot of the people I know use analog or digital watches haha
@@Mikeological oh I do too but analog clocks lol. As for watches I just been using apple watches ⌚️. Those only suck because their battery only last 15 hours
oh yeah cuz western texas is part of the western power grid and not the texas power grid
"as you can see all my collectables are still on the shelf and still fine."
Wew.
Good for mental health
bludstone *Whew
I know, I would cry. Been collecting crap for 30 years, and no way to replace it.
The second you saw snow on the ground, you should have filled your bathtub with electricity so you had enough for your household needs to last a couple of days.
What?
@@pedrofelck
Correct.
That will not work idiot
I was gonna be annoyed at you but damn you really had me in the first half ngl 😂
I'll save this piece of advice for next time I need it, thanks bro.
Today I learned: If I have to leave my house because it's freezing, turn off the water, and open a faucet to make sure there's no pressure buildup...
I would never have thought about that. I hope I don't have to use that knowledge. :-)
That works fine. But if the whole house freezes most do not have all water lines draining down hill. Plus you have to use RV antifreeze in traps. Or veg oil. Best bet is to also blow compressed air thru lines and that still might not get it all. Have had to solder many a water line. Because they couldn't get all the water out when winterizing.
In freezing temperatures, you need to let outside faucets drip.
The water froze and burst the pipe inside his wall.
I live in Sweden and if I leave my house for more than a day it's second nature to turn of the water supply. It takes very little time and can save you so much trouble.
where i live, if no one enters your house to check while you are away, after 10 days you are not covered
An alternative is to open the water cold and let it trickle down the drain. When water freezes it expands and if the water is off the the freezing water has no place to expand into. If you open the taps and let them drain then the pressure will not be bad. Do this for hot and cold pipes of course.
Checking in almost a month later - hope everything’s ok, dude.
yea
Same here, best wishes 8 Bit Guy!
Reminds me of when my mother's house was flooded (along with the whole area). The flood only lasted a few hours, but it took months to get her back to normal.
Best wishes
Same here. Hope he is doing fine. All best wishes from Austria
Hi! best wishes from France, I miss yu guy!
I feel really bad for you. I hope everything turns out better in the future. Keep it up!
Yeah that's crazy... Totally weird to be seeing all these snowy FREEZING COLD videos from places that aren't up north! The busted pipes are going to be off the charts.
At least climate change is fake.
So this snow is totally normal phenomenon. Not great, not bad.
@@livinlicious Are you being sarcastic?
Never realized how much stuff i take for granted in my northern house. Stay safe man
Same
Ranch style home northern illinois two fireplaces and a wood burning stove in the grand room. We don't mess around up here
I don’t take my PEX plumbing for granted. My pipes freeze a dozen times every winter. Never had a break.
I just can't believe how few folks have generators. Like, I know snowstorms basically never happen in Texas, but you still need a generator for normal storms, tornadoes, and hurricanes.
True. After seeing all these horrible videos of pipes broken, it shows how blessed we are! I'm praying to Jeus that the weather warms up soon!
I can relate to the “cats in stereo” whenever we move them in our car
Have them use their transport boxes as their normal sleeping place. Ours does. We have taken 11 hour trips with her and didn't hear as much as a meow from her. She does fart though occasionally due to the vibration, and you wouldn't believe how much stink comes out of such a small cat.
@@dschoene57 my cat’s a farter too 🤣🤣
This was a fun description.
I can 2! Moved a few years back and had to listen to that for a few hours.
@@tiffanycamacho937 cat puff strong!
Tips from the mountains of switzerland: Always completely drain all the water in all the pipes before leaving the house alone. Otherwise the water will freeze. The pipes will crack and you get big leaks.
It may surprise many people that Australia has more snow than Switzerland and more camels than the
entire Middle East
Weird, I'm from Finland where it gets -30C and I've never even heard of such things happening.
@@andrew_koala2974 australia is a continent, no duh
@@taavi948 it would be common if house owners wouldn't know to leave heat on when they leave house for extended time periods. Every house owner in Finland I personally know, knows that if house freezes and you didn't prepare house for it, you will have really bad time after temperature rises. It is common knowledge.
@@taavi948 But you have this problems :D Turn your heating completely of and wait for it. The water in the pipes will freeze and if it's getting warmer, it expends and kills the tubes.
The county should have recommended everyone shutting the water off and draining the pipes. At least once they knew it was going to take some time to get the power back on.
I’m a bit surprised he didn’t shut it off before he left his house. I live further south in Houston and I did that at my house even while I was still staying in it. Dripped faucets the first night when we had power and did ok, the second night with no power and the inside of my house at 40 I went ahead and shut off water at the meter and drained the system.
The amount of homeowners with 0 knowledge on how their home actually works is insane. Don't feel bad for people who spend so much on a house but won't take care of it
To be fair most people thought power was going to be out for a few hours maybe a day
@@nickbryant2318 THIS GUY IS A COMPUTER NERD THAT LIVES NEXT TO HIS MOM.
Mad Respect for the 8-Bit guy too. Nothing wrong with that. Just maybe not a plumber.
The National Weather Service _did_ warn people about broken water mains and bursting pipes. People simply didn't listen or care.
I’m a contractor in East Texas. I have gotten more calls for burst pipe in the last 2 days than I’ve gotten in a standard 3 year period. I’ve been working non stop trying to fix people’s flooded houses. People don’t really get how unprepared we were for this.
I mean north of Waco most of the state got into sub zero temps during the snow storm. That's cold enough to freeze entire rivers solid. I don't think we've really had an event like this since the early 1980s. Because even in 2011 the temperatures didn't drop below zero. At worst they went down to like 9.
Its because all the houses there are made out of paper 😂
@@devinddst7467 "Its because all the houses there are made out of paper "
Drywall is a fire code requirement.
@@wisenber over here drywall doesn’t exist. All walls are brick, which is a problem with 5Ghz WiFi
@@longfang98 Drywall has its shortcomings, but it does make modifications and renovation much easier.
Most American homes use wood frames which has resulted in millions of acres of managed tree farms. While the pine grown in most tree farms isn't as good as old growth wood, it does replace old growth lumber resulting in more sustainable wood.
That being said, wood homes can be built to last for centuries. There are many built 100-250 years ago that are still in use. By US standards, that quite old.
On the bright side, while you're cutting up the lower drywall it would be a good time for home network upgrades.
Leather combat boot and toddler which member should we have abortion the computer with a Snowman did Kareem Abdul-Jabbar Shannon M&T has accomplished Bruce Littlefield Furniture Outlet Tacoma. Upgrade solution what is Nimbus Coliseum and take a look at the Garden the Revelation option hot women in the latter one day ago may have just managed new paradigm coolest Noir
@@walidfakhfakh3660 uhhh what?
What a way to make a positive out of the situation.
Yep, time to run ethernet cables, and why not, fiber (for futureproofing)
Remember to check the insulation and studs for mold. The insulation is easy enough to replace. The studs can be saved if you spray and wipe down with mold remover.
Smash 'n' Build if you don't spray the studs quick enough
David take this opportunity to run ethernet with keystone jacks to every room. I did that when this happened to me.
Great tip, since you're having to buy a new kit anyway 👍
Yes, definitely very important and educational, knowing your home network is empowering
My house was wired for phone jacks, whoever built the home was really nice and used ethernet cable to run the phone lines, so i just rewired all my phone jacks to ethernet. Was a nice surprise, tbh.
That’s actually a great idea
Brilliant idea. I do similar. Ie if a 17” monitor breaks I might buy a 19” monitor. That way you get something new from all the grief. This is really horrid. Feel for you.
One thing I learned this week is how much snow it takes to flush a toilet.
Survival skill level -- knowledge
Haha.. that's funny _and_ not *at all* funny at the same time. Hang in there.
Yeah, just find as many five gallon buckets as you can. Fill them up with snow and let it melt. Refill the bucket after... Repeat.
Heh heh. I had my water freeze a couple of days back and was tempted to use old aquarium water on the toilet, but luckily I got it unfrozen before that became a necessity.
Wait, your alive!
As someone who grew up with harsh winters, this whole event is just mind blowing to me.
Kinda nothing that could be done. Its not the first time nor the last that this will happen in texas. Problem is all of the infrastructure down to every nut and bolt was built without freezing temps in mind as it only happens once every 10 or so years. To fix the problem would involve rebuilding literally everything from major gas lines to every hose bib in the state. Atlesat a trillion dollars in repairs. Its easy and even realtivly cheap to manage for cold weather from the start. Its a whole different story trying to retrofit a system for cold weather.
@@TheBUGZNTA Just build better, and replace the stuff that breaks with better things and it will get there eventually.
Same here, I didn't realize how different homes and infrastructure are in texas
@@cccpkingu Yep. Same thing with FL when it comes to Hurricane weather. It really boggles my mind after so many hurricanes they still havent updated building standards.
@@Maverick.D. And they (even ins co's) still let people rebuild in places that will get slammed again. And people want to do so...
I can’t believe the news didn’t warn people to shut off their water or to leave it dripping. Seems so intuitive living in Wisconsin, but not so much in Texas I guess 🤷♂️
Most mainstream news isn’t good for anything but panic, pop culture and propaganda, these days.
@@houseofgrindgaming3448 Gotta keep them sitting through those commercials to find out whether their dog's water bowl is cancer causing at 6. Honestly, as someone whose lived in Texas and now living in Indiana, I just gotta say it's a real wakeup call when you're not used to dealing with this kind of weather. I went from never having a wreck to smacking a telephone pole. Down south, we just never worried about the cold at this level. Temperatures would drop, but wouldn't stay low enough to really affect much. We're used to fighting the heat and worrying about hurricanes down there.
I shut my water off at the meter and opened up several faucets, and still had 3 pipes break. The good part for me, though: I was there when I turned the water back on, so it only took a few minutes to see the water start to drip from the ceiling - and I shut it back off. I have a section of ceiling sheetrock fall down in the kitchen. It could have been much worse.
They do.. i personally blew my outside lines out with compressed air. Youd thought Texas was in dire straits but i assure you we werent. Every time there is a natural disaster, the same shit happens. Milk, Bread, Power, Water goes away for a few days. Its not like Texas doesnt set its clocks by natural disasters.. because we do. Maybe it was Anderson Cooper standing in a meatlocker? idk.
My dripping water faucets kept freezing. They kept freezing even running at a rate faster than a drip. Had to put boiling water on the faucets to keep them running. Didn't turn off the water because we still needed to use the water throughout the day.
"meowing in stereo" - my new favourite phrase.
Steremeow
Don't you mean your "furourite" phrase?
Great album
@Epikgamerwmp CCN: I think that was a song by The Cars, featured in the infamous Phoebe Cates swimming pool scene in Fast Times At Ridgemont High! :)
Mew furvourite purrase
Tells people he doesn't need any money donations when he could easily overstate his predicament and capitalise on people's charity as many others might. This man is an awesome human being.
would have been cool if he encouraged donations to the millions of others suffering tho
Now you can see how much of beggers some other youtubers are who do far more views, brand deals, and merch sales over any little thing they can trick young kids into giving them money
@@mycosys that would be cool, I am on my own myself with no help, no support, and no nice neighbor like that, and especially no job because of covid. So I can't even replace anything
Ik he's so wholesome and a good guy🙏
@@ChanceSarsis I'm so sorry about what you had to go through! Hopefully you can pull through
Dude, that sucks! I feel so bad for you guys. I live next door in FT Worth so I feel you.
Lake Worth here - we just got the okay to use tap water again today, I've never been so glad to wash dishes! The kitchen was looking like a war zone as we were using boiled bottled water to wash just what we needed at the time. We were lucky though, we had power the whole time so we could melt snow to flush the toilets. Hope things are improving for you!
@@Skraeling1000 the water was so bad it was unsuitable for the toilets??
BOBBY IS A NERD
@@AidanEvansGHS- Hail Satan!
Its hot in uk 11 degrees
Stereo cats lol, gotta hand it to ya despite a crisis you still have a sense of humor sir. ☺ Best wishes
Amateurs. I get surround sound meowing
Our “rolling blackout” was about 52hrs. Luckily we had a generator and damage was minimal.
Damn I’m sorry... that sucks. Hopefully everything worked out. I’m in California and the longest I’ve been without power in the last 2 years is 4 hours total.
Ours in Oregon was about 72 hours
Had a pipe burst in kitchen, thank God i had 1/2" sharkbites and copper.
ERCOT (being controlled by communist democrats) caused this
@@Slop_Dogg some were out as long here.
@@vogelvogeltje I am jealous as hell lmao. I am from Texas and we had our power go out for 3 days back around August for seemingly no reason. Luckily during the blizzard it only went out for like 16 hours.
I was actually wondering how you'd be doing the other day, considering you live in Texas... You are one of my favourite creators, and it's unfortunate to see this happen to you.
Yeah it’s very unfortunate
@@Hi-jv7ew I've never experienced anything of this sort before myself so I can only imagine
While getting my morning started today I realized out of nowhere that he's based in Texas. I'm relieved to hear his family is safe, but it's all still all very unfortunate.
same, I heard Texas and I instantly got worried
I can’t imagine somewhere like the Northern Territory (has similar temperatures to Texas) here in Australia getting snow.
Really sorry to see this. Hope everything gets better for you.
siberian texas
hi Elliot
ELL-EEE-UUT 🩸👈🛸
I watch your channel
Awwwwew
Texas: Where they ruin your house and then charge you $17000 for it.
Remember in November.
Texas unbridled capitalism and let it run wild
@@veramae4098 if you think Democrats have the answer, 50,000 homeless people in skid row say otherwise
Rename Texas to Taxes.
@@sasquatchhunter86 The Dems do it better than the Republicans. We at least require regulation of utilities which forces them to build things better. Here in Colorado, with regulated utilities, the only places that lose power more than a day are the high country areas where 3 or 4 or 6 feet fall overnight. Only once in 40 years have we lost power for more than 24 hours and that was when we had a six foot snowfall in one day. Most of the time the power is back on in an hour or two even during violent storms and serious (-20F) storms.
Wishing you the best. When I saw the news my first thought was "oh shit 8bit guy lives there". Glad to hear the warmer weather is coming.
Yeh,that was my reaction as well when I heard the news mention Fort Worth in Texas!!
@Dominic Cerisano I had to google wok faucets were.
I see,you mean taps :-D
Never mind everyone else then. As long as 8-bit is ok. Nice. Dig the compassion.
Same thoughts as well
Sounds like mold upon mold to me
You are an example of the attitude to have during a crisis: calm, measured, still optimistic. Glad that you have a place to stay until your place gets back in order and that you and your family are safe and well. Wishing you all the best. p.s. Your floofy kitties are adorable--seems like they're adjusted fast to their new temporary home!
My thoughts as well. He seems to be in really good spirits talking about it. I’d be too upset to even mention it. May he and everyone else affected by this winter apocalypse have a speedy recovery from it.
I’m really sorry you guys weren’t given a heads up on how to prevent burst water pipes when temps get below freezing. Even with power and heat on in the northeast/midwest we still take precautions when temps get in to the teens such as: a Slow drip, insulate susceptible pipes and/or shut off water to house if power Is out or your leaving for more than a day.
EDIT: Many of you have pointed out that some Texans knew to, or did do these things and still had bursts. If you shut water off at street, purge the pressure from the line, there won't be bursts. And if by some weird way pipe does burst, water will not continually pour into the house. If power was off for an extended period, Let the house warm up gradually. Then slowly introduce pressure to the house incrementally, with faucets open. This should help reduce the potential for a burst when re-pressurizing the lines
Yeah, in general Texas really didn’t do anything to help its citizens out during this. Weather disaster and a pandemic and not much really being done about it
It was sustainably cold for so long and access to power (or even water to keep running through the pipes) was so inconsistent that it wouldn't have always made a difference. I caught a pipe burst in my own slab despite taking countermeasures. The faucets were under control but a part of my slab foundation still got so cold that ice formed in it and created a pinhole burst. The only thing I could have really done was pre-drained all the plumbing before we had gotten below freezing in the first place. I'm not even sure that would have been sufficient since my burst appears to be down in the slab where some water would have settled regardless. Try to purge it with an air compressor? They don't put secondary shut offs for outdoor faucets into the plumbing here like I remember growing up in upstate New York.
Yeah shutting down your water supply and bleeding the pipes when you have to leave or power grid goes down is winter living 101. Hell I even cut the water off in tropical countries when I leave just in case.
I really think the government or local authorities should have given a public announcement of this. No ones talking about that.
I was thinking myself, the first thing to do when leaving a house in sub zero temperatures is to turn off the water. Drain the pipes if you can, but if the water is off, any leak will be minor by comparison. I've had a pipe freeze and burst because of about 1/2 a litre of water which didn't drain out, but the damage was limited to a couple of metres of pipe.
I live in Oregon and my work sends samples to Texas every day, we had to halt that process for longer than a week. Good luck and I hope everyone makes it through this life experience!
meh no big deal Texas had it coming not having a plan for that kind of power failure happening rolling blackout means turning grid off to power dead grids up for 15 minutes long enough to keep houses heated in that cold weather not just shut them off and forget about them🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
"Cats meowing in stereo" !!!!
That really got me!
They are so cute!
Literally my first thought when you said you went to your aunt's house was "he turned off the water, right?" One of those things we're used to doing up north; very sorry you had to learn it first hand.
We got caught off guard all the way down to monterrey mexico, lots of burst water pipes, water pumps blown and the like. We went full on "How bad can it get?"
@@joerazakmex88 It used to be a big problem when I lived in Juarez too. Everyone has to insulate their water pipes or disaster is sure to follow.
A lesson you only have to learn once!
I've lived in Florida my whole life and had no idea this was necessary in cold climates until a few months ago when I heard a horror story about this.
Someone in the same situation as me inherited a relative's house up north. They had no idea that winterizing was necessary, and the pipes burst. The entire first floor turned into a solid block of ice and it totaled the entire house. Insurance wouldn't pay because it was considered negligence.
@@joerazakmex88 Here in Minnesota we are reminded about shutting off and draining outside water hoses starting in October. Ironically, the guy who is working in townhomes doing lots of repairs including on pipes is born in Oaxaca state of Mexico. So now everybody from Southern USA and Northern Mexico has to learn how to protect pipes in very cold weather when it is clearly forecasted in advance.
From a Canadian: I feel for you. My sister lives in Dallas, she's not happy, and said "that's why I moved away from this shit!". Stay safe, best wishes!!!!!
Im up in Alaska myself. Also got family down in the states.
I don't blame her.
I am lucky that I live at southern Arizona. We don't have to deal with snow in general. Plenty of "snow birds" from Canada enjoy visiting here.
I'm sorry for your sister. If she really wanted to avoid snow and ice, Dallas was never the answer. Houston and basically anywhere close to the ocean and southern border would be way better. AZ, CA, LA, and FL have large cities that rarely have snow.
I guess it’s even worse in Texas cause buildings and infrastructure are just not made for conditions like this.
Sorry, dude. My house burnt to a pile of ash in the 90s, 100% of our belongings were destroyed. It sucks for sure, but at least you have most of your belongings and your family! Great neighbors you have there too. All the best! Congrats on the success of your channel, you deserve it.
What year and how did it got on fire please?
@@harukatakahashi8822 1990, nobody is sure how. It was a large ~105 year old house, it went up in minutes. Probably related to the wood furnace though.
@@Netbug wow, I was born in 1991, the house must have a lot of cockroaches right?
🤣🤣🤣🤣🤣
It's weird to see how things that are "normal" in some part of the world can be catastrophic in other parts. I hope everything returns to normal quickly for you all in Texas.
Yeah, that sort of snow and blizzard wouldn't be much of a problem here in northern Europe. Only traffic on roads need to watch out. But they are big here on putting salt on the roads so it's less slippery.
@@ryanjay6241 Well, when he says that they RELY on electricity to heat the house - you know you're in deep shit when the power goes out and there's a blizzard. :-)
Chimneys - and consequently, ovens - are such a mainstay in countries with concepts like A Cold Winter, that I was surprised to learn that houses exist without them!
@@SimonWoodburyForget yea which is why its so ridiculous that california is now banning new developments from including natural gas. Its the reliable backup, our power goes out all the time but at least we have heat and hot water.
Yup, looking out my window right now we're getting much more snow than Texas got. But we're built for it here. The streets will be plowed soon and I can go to my fully stocked grocery store in my fully gassed car. Maybe drink some freely flowing water before I go. Gotta be thankful
@@TheDoomerBlox Rely on it for everything it seems. I couldn't imagine having electric heating without having a generator back up. Shit, my parents made sure to teach me how to safely light the water heater & furnace in case of power outages.
I remember helping a friend out when his waterbed exploded...almost all the furniture was ruined and everything had just been freshly renovated. Half the drywall had to be replaced, all of the flooring...but....after it was repaired, you'd never know it happened at all. Sounds like insurance isn't giving you a hard time, so I am sure everything will be back to normal before you know it.
I remember thinking waterbeds were awesome as a kid. Now as an adult I can appreciate all the things that can go wrong with them.
Quite a few high heals went through waterbeds in the 70’s and 80’s 👹
@@encycl07pedia- for some reason my mum bought my brother and I waterbeds when we were kids. I don’t know why we were far from well off and she barely scraped through financially but that is probably why silly purchases. Luckily for us the only issue I had was sometimes the power cable would get knocked out of the wall and I would wake up really cold cause the water sack would suck all the heat from around it including me
@@unnamedchannel1237 As long as you don't poke a hole in it, a waterbed never wears out, is easy to completely clean, and is fairly easy to pack up when empty.
@@unnamedchannel1237 I've heard of that, but why on earth would you get heals anywhere near a bed? Forgetting the water bit, having them tangled in sheets/ripped sheets - stupid idea.
Oh man, that’s rough. I can’t imagine going through all of that. Thankfully your neighbors are happy to help out the weird guy who’s always hosing off computers lol. Wishing you the best!
I forgot you existed. I need to start watching your vids more often, I really like them
Get out.
it was way worse for me in texas in the 2001 ice storm, our trailer home was under a tree, we thought the tree was going to fall on us, took 1 month to get full power back
We need to install a DIY powerwall on your home
While great for recharging cell phones and powering small items for short periods of time cannot heat a home for even brief emergencies. One gallon of propane heat is the equivelant of 27kWh for around $1.50/gallon that's about 5 cents per kWh, here is what I found on a powerwall, $469.00 per kWh.
@@1965ace You know not who you speak to young Jedi. jehugarcia is the man when it comes to powerwalls.
@@salty6pence672 just watched his videos, this guy knows his electricity, holy shit. he just earned a new sub. That channel is nuts
Have a professional do it. Idiots
Note to self: If they power goes out in the winter, turn off the water.
and drain the pipes.
Here in the netherlands its commen sense to do so. Is it gona be below 0 C ? Turn water off to the garden and open the tap.
Houses are fine becouse we build them good ;) thick stone walls with insulation and most ppl have gas cv or a fireplace.
That's turn off water and open all the taps / faucets to drain as much as possible out.
The weather channel and the news should be telling people these kind of things periodically during power outages.
@@firefly2472 In the USA there is a push to get rid of natural gas. Soon fireplaces will follow. So all the USA will have left to do is shut the water off when the lights go out. It's an exit strategy put on by the Democrats.
0:26 "Definitely not going to be doing any retrobriting today, I don't think," he says while standing in the snow with an almost English stoicism.
It WAS very English wasn't it! Understatement haha
@@turbocat1984 his upper lip must be rock hard
Almost. Very close.
Hey man! So sorry to hear about this :( best of luck my friend ❤️
Was not expecting you here. Like the content btw.
Wow , that was an unexpected visit from somebody I also subscribe to. Even in the internets, it's still s small world...
now we know what doctor mix watches on UA-cam. same shit as the rest of us lol
@@lawrenceplays Same, although it makes sense if you think about his other channel: 8-bit keys.
Hi Dr Mix!
"...I don't need any money because insurance is going to cover this.." Such optimism.
I hope everything works out for you. Stuff can replaced. Buildings rebuilt. Cars replaced. Your mom, your wife and your kids are a whole different story. Best wishes to you and your family. Glad they were safe.
My cars+bikes can't really be replaced -- all the others got exported to Europe over the last 20 years!
I know right? I thought the same thing...and insurance doesn't cover every single dollar.
@@RockwellAIM65 What would you rather lose permanently, your cars and bikes or your loved ones? Cars and bikes are fun, but people are what make like worth living. I would love to trade a car for an afternoon with my parents.
@@Caderic Depending on where you are, getting insurance to even acknowledge you have a legitimate claim is like pulling teeth.
Beginning of 2020: Australia on fire
Beginning of 2021: Texas frozen
Its 2021
@@KingRey. I know, but Texas will be frozen in 2022. Wait and see.
@@KingRey. whoops
Beginning of 2022: Florida meteored
Sorry this happened. As someone whose basement has flooded half a dozen times, get dehumidifiers in there and just dry stuff out. You don't have to replace everything and likely shouldn't have to replace the drywall. It sucks, but you'll get back on your feet sooner than you think.
Same here. Our basement bloods every other year, in spring. So we have a dehumidifier otherwise it will get nasty. We bypassed the fill tank and ran the drain hose right to the sump
That is true, but you might as well take everything insurance will give you. The last thing you want is a mold problem creeping up on you later. If something like this happened to me and I had to spend my own money, though, I'd probably do what you're suggesting unless the mold had already set in.
I don't know about Texas but down here in south Florida, your walls get wet you rip everything out. If you don't, you will have walls full of black mold and serious respiratory problems.
Spray mold and mildew spray and put oil based paint.
The outside walls insulation will at least have to be fixing because it will never dry out. The inner uninsulated walls probably would be ok but may as well do them too while everything is out of the house and since insurance will cover it. Nothing more aggravating than water damage, other than smoke damage maybe.
Note to self next time winter is coming : When leaving house unattended, make sure to set the main water valve to closed.
You should also empty what is in pipes if you do that. Water that frezes will expand.
@@PerTrygveMyhrer yep, critical second step.
And electricity also. A mainfunction (falling tree, water inside) may burn the house .
Or use pex instead of copper
And drained of water. Closing the valve alone does not help you
I know it's way after the fact, but as someone in Texas who saw several of the dorms in my college lose power and have pipe bursts, all food options shut down except for a single dining hall that was never meant to serve the whole campus at once, and none of us knowing how to do everyday tasks when there's a foot of snow outside, I'm incredibly thankful for the colder states who gave advice. Normally, when it snows here, the first thing we'd hear is "pssh you got _1 inch_ of snow? Try 8 feet!" but this time, all I ever saw was Northerners (and people from cold regions in general) giving us advice about how to make the most of our clothes layers, how to protect pipes from freezing, how to drive on ice if in an emergency, how to conserve heat in a power outage, etc. _That_ right there made it way better for a lot of us, and we could not be more thankful for y'all's help. If the weather ever decides to pull an Uno reverse card somehow and y'all end up in an apocalyptic heatwave up there, we've got your backs.
I already get apocalyptic heatwaves. It's called Florida weather.
_especially when your air conditioner barely works_
_because of a poorly insulated attic ceiling with the access door missing_
I know this comment is a month old, but that "you got 1 inch of snow? Try 8 feet!" is exactly what my grandmother says every time my city shuts things down because of snow. She's from Missouri and we live in Virginia. She really doesn't seem to understand that our roads aren't made for plowing (Mom learned this from a VDOT worker and that our plows don't touch the roads because of this, though I live in the eastern part so I don't know about the rest of the state) so we really rely on salt and sand to keep the roads from being too iced over. As for the temperature? So sorry that 40 degrees is cold to the rest of us.
@@AmbertheLunarWolf VDOT plows every road in virginia who ever said that is lying to you. THEY WILL EVEN USE BULLDOZERS ON THE ROADS. Virginia strictly regulates how every road is built now. THEY ARE ALL BUILT FOR everything from snow to floods. Salt is only good above certain temperatures. Too cold it isn't used but they use mixtures to give traction. You can tell you are from the far south. lol When we got 76 inches of snow in one night years ago you think they didn't plow the roads ? LOL
@@christopherfortney2544yeah. My dad lives in Virginia and I've seen VDOT do road work and they do not fuck around. If there's a problem, VDOT **WILL** get it fixed as quickly as they can get enough people out to do so. Really a major contrast to how it is in Ohio, where ODOT seems to take an eternity to even get like a surveyor or something to map out the roads.
When it comes to cats meowing throughout the car ride, try covering the carriers in blankets. Works like a charm for me!
Thanks, the vet ride wont be so bad now!
what's wrong with full stereo surround sound? (-:
@@CrazyTechReviews full 360 Tru surround sound Dolby atmos dts x setup
@@CrazyTechReviews it can be heartbreaking
Does this work for noisy children also?
It’s quite strange seeing Texas look like Massachusetts. I hope everything goes well for you here forth.
It’s strange too me as well. As someone who lives in Wisconsin.
@@legoman8960 Yeah, also being from Wisconsin, when I saw footage of the storm, I immediately thought, "that's it" as I see 3-4 times that much in my yard. I understand that this usually doesn't happen in Texas, but it is strange seeing that much damage when up here I have been through storms that dumped 4 times that amount and no damage was had.
That moment when you realize why he's wearing a Krusty Krab shirt.
Hope things get better for you soon.
I don't get it. What's that shirt supposed to mean?
@@aadityaphadnis8399 because the krusty krab is underwater
@@scriptedreality2330 also I think Sandy the Squirrel is from Texas
Turning off the water would have been the first thing I did when leaving, but that’s coming from a Canadian who is use to these potential hazards. And if I lived in Texas I bet I wouldn’t have thought of it either!
This just sucks and I’m sorry you had to go through all of this especially after having all the new studio work done.
I hope everything is back to normal and back on track for you!
When leaving a house in freezing weather, always turn off your mains water, drain any water heaters if possible, flush toilets and add antifreeze to cistern and bowls. Leave all taps open slightly.
Thats an unrealistic task if you live in an area where its freezing 2/3 of the winter. There's always someone in my house so we just leave a heater on in the area most susceptible to frozen pipes.
@@LegendaryMike You are describing what to do if your home is occupied and has power. Saxman is describing how to winterize your house if you need to evacuate, or won't be home for the winter. Everything he describes is exactly what the "snowbirds" do before they head down to Florida for the winter: Turn off the water, drain all of the pipes, leave the taps open just in case, and fill any drains or toilets with a (preferably non-toxic) liquid that will resist freezing and evaporation to keep sewer gasses out. They do the same thing when they leave their Florida house and head back up north.
@@docferringer What I was thinking and what I replied didn't quite align. I was trying to avoid writing a long comment. I do apologize for the confusion.
Now let's be clear, I Do Not disagree with what saxman said. I would use that advice If I lived in a state that sees snow every blue moon and was preparing for a snow storm. I was thinking that it's unrealistic for some people who live in area where it's 32°F or below for 2/3 of the winter season. It's highly unlikely for a single resident who works 50+ hours a week could do this on a daily basis.
The ending was added because I am thankful that I'm in a minority of people whose home is occupied 24/7 and can use certain measures to prevent frozen/busted pipes. Also, we have a gas range (only the stovetop is used), water heater, and a fireplace so our pipes aren't much of a concern during blackouts.
Ultimately, there must be an alternative to Saxman's solution for daily use.
once ice starts in your pipes, if you don't immediately open valves to compensate for the pressure, everything *will* break, ice can exert upwards of 40,000 PSI on every fitting and joint.
My wellhead was freezing up because of the pressure tank. well would activate because i had my usual "it's well below freezing" drip rate going. This drip rate meant that the pressure tank was doing the heavy lifting, and the water in the pipe between the pressure tank and the wellhead was frozen solid. I had to tote a small personal heater out to the wellshed and defrost it. I then turned on a 1/4" stream on the outside spigot, and a smaller stream inside, as well as fully drained my pressurized RO filter so it would contribute to the drippage. Oh and i did all of that when it was -5 wind chill outside. Good times. I don't even own a jacket.
@@LegendaryMike . I’m not talking about leaving the house for a day or two, but when you need to winterise your property due to extended periods or possible power shutdowns.
The stereo cats be like: Meow, meow, meow, meow.
meow meow, meow meow, meow meow, meow
mmeeooww mmeeooww
Better than normal music!
WOOF.... That scared em. 👍
More like...
Meow
Meow
Meow
Meow
Meow
Meow
“Treat this like a flood…” It _was_ a flood!
At least it’s not actual floodwater mixed with raw sewage though.
+David Barts That’s what I thought
Not according to insurance!!
Oh, that's nasty... I live in Canada, so we're prepared for pipes bursting, but when you live in a place where that "never" happens, it really sucks. :( Hope you manage to get everything sorted out and put back together nicely.
Three hours ago, when this was posted, I was sitting in my sofa and wondering if the 8-bit guy was affected by all of this.
me too. he's the only one I "know" in Texas.
Such a nice guy Albert Einstein
Same. I wondered the other day.
My first thought when I saw the news about Texas was "I hope the 8 bit guy is ok", thanks for this video. The snow storms was all over the news in Finland!
The only way to get your cats to stop serenading you in stereo is to put a blanket over their kitty carrier. The darkness and the warmth provided by the blanket usually puts them to sleep.
When we moved a few miles to anther town our cats mewed loudly the whole time.
At the time I thought that cats had something like GPS, and they updated it with their known movements.
Moving in the car generated errors which they report loudly. :-)
Recently our cat escaped from his carrier in the car and you could see he had difficulties processing his visual field.
Cats have edge and movement detection systems that they use to achieve their ultra-fast hunting reflexes.
You can only imagine what their experience is with all the motion visible through the windows.
As far as I know, beating the box from the outside and yelling will stop it, too.
Wrapping them tightly in a plastic bag stops the meowing too...
@@Jimbogf no 😰no 😢no 🐈⬛🐕🐈haha funny
Just put them inside a box with packing peanuts
"we got to listen to the cats meow in stereo" lul i can appreciate that joke.
Wow, sorry that happened to you. Stay safe.
Department of Energy blocked gas a coal back up power days before the storm, due to emissions. This storm was not taken seriously by the federal government. And now we must pay the price. Dont blame Democrats or Republicans, look into those truly responsible and hold them accountable no matter their politics. Disaster relief money cannot be the only answer. Stay safe fellow Americans!!!!
@@danbam465 100% agreed
I'm from Michigan. Don't take it the wrong way, but welcome to the seasons.. Good 👍
I feel you. Got a broken water pipe after having around 80cm of snow in germany.
Deutschland ist gut!
@BalbinoGD Yes, germany.
I have a few friends in Germany and they were absolutely overwhelmed, it's crazy how it went from barely snowing at all in years to something like this.
@@jdatlas4668 Yea I totally agree. My sister had about 140cm of snow on her balcony, it was madness.
Snow is an insulator... Pipes below ground or inside your house will burst faster with no snow than with a thick layer of snow during a real cold snap...
Stay safe, stay well. We had to deal with a family member's house flooding last year. One word of advice, never hesitate to stand back and take a deep breath.
the thing about the power going out, it's not just your fridge that defrosts, it's also the supermarkets, the distribution centres for the frozen and chilled food.
also a good tip if the power is out, in freeing weather and no heat, turn the water off and drain the pipes in the house. when the power is back on and you can warm the place back up, you can do a quick and easy leak test before turning the water back on. it can save you a lot of time and expense. just open the highest tap (faucet) and use the lowest to drain.
when you allow a lot of corner cutting and as near zero regulation of the power grid, you can expect these things to happen, especially after being warned about it a decade before.
Has insurance declared it an "Act of God" and that they're not paying, yet?
Fun fact; a company tried to pull that off here in Florida during hurricane season.
Needless to say that didn't hold well in court and they went out of business shortly after for failing to pay out what was owed
Those people are the scum of the earth!
@@mjohnsimon1337 It's happened before. A bunch of rich guys in the mid-1800s bought a reservoir and earth dam in a Pennsylvania canyon prone to flooding and built a resort, weakening the dam in the process by lowering it to install a road and blocking the spillways with fish screens, which trapped debris. Predictably, the dam burst on May 31, 1889, and totally obliterated the town of Johnstown, killing over 2,200 people. The survivors sued, but the lawyers of the club argued that the incident was an act of God. The courts agreed and the survivors got nothing.
@@mjohnsimon1337 but doesn’t Florida get a minor hurricane every year and like a giant one every 5 years 😆.
@@Ralph-yn3gr Yeah well, as soon as religion gets involved with anything at all it`s going to be a complete shitshow..
Stay safe, our house flooded via a broken pipe about 18-months ago. Unfortunately, we were out of town and a tremendous amount of water flooded every room! We’re still trying to get it back to normal! Our prayers go with you all!
And you're still smiling and joking. Man, I admire your good spirit !
David, thank you for sharing this with us. Looking forward to your next update. Speedy recovery and wishing you and your family only the best - from New Zealand.
Sympathies. For future: recommend 90 degree lever gate valve at house entrance in addition to city's underground valve. I know this is a minor issue at the moment, but when you have to dump water quickly, it can be a godsend.
That and a T and valve on the house side to drain the house piping.
In the case of Dallas though, it probably wouldn't make sense to have that in a house. In Oklahoma we just open cabinet doors, cover exterior taps, and keep interior taps dripping, because nothing else is credibly needed- we would only consider draining lines if the house was going to be uninhabited for months, or even years, if we would even consider it then. Dallas gets even less cold weather than we do.
Good advice for sure
I live in Texas. Can confirm that the snow caused chaos and hell for everyone here. Stay warm, David.
Sooo, it's a cold day in hell?
@@capretta444 Yes. Yes, it is. ❄️
Sure, we have Mr Fusion to generate the 1.21 GW of electricity but the internal combustion engine has run on gas and always has. And it's going to be about 50 y before a gas station opens. So, there is no way to reach 140 km/h.
Living in Canada, heard the news and was shocked by the situation in Texas. But until I watched this video, the channel making retro-tech contents which I am a big fan of. I feel more shocked. This is like you heard some bad things from the news and you feel bad, but it hearts you when you know your friend was involved. Hope you and your family all the best. Love your channel.
I mean it's one of those situations that were not prepared for. This freak winter shocked us as a state. Even 2011 wasn't that bad while it shut down Dallas it was only for like a day and everything got back to normal plus the temperatures never went to Sub-Zero. Most of north Texas even during snow storms still remains in the 2 digit range for farenheight here.
Hoping to see an update soon, and all is going well! Insurance companies when faced with these kinds of disasters tend to just deny everyone and wait for people to sue.
Ugh, man, I am really sorry for what you’re going through. That sucks so much. Switch to freeze proof outside spigots.
Tip: always shut off all outside tap before the winter to avoid any freeze damage!! 😉
(You can reopen them when the spring arrives.)
All you have to do is shut the main water off and turn on all the lines let them run out 10 mins of work and nothing would of happened
I always use the extended hydrants for that reason
For the record, most areas don't have shutoffs for the spigots, don't have basements, and the water shutoff is almost impossible to find.
Most areas in the US essentially hope it never gets cold enough for this to happen.
@@TheBarisaxman17 It would behoove homeowners to know where the main water supply cutoff is (and test it once a year or so) - not only for unexpected events like this but whenever a major leak happens otherwise. Just plain common sense.
1:52 life’s the same, we’re meowing in stereo
Life's the same, except for wet shoes...
@@dcpyatt nice
Life's the same, the battery's gettin' low
Life's the same, We'll move to mom's with you....
@@GoSlash27 Nice nice
Now you know something that's common sense here in Russia: when leaving a home on its own, shut off water, gas, and all electricity except for the fridge.
Good advice! Even in the summer washing machine hosrs burst, ice makers leak.
I live in Canada and water is the main thing to shut off when we leave for any period of time. Gas would be a good idea if you use a gas stove or gas dryer but I use electric but I still turn the power off to those because it’s a touch panel and I am paranoid that a spider will walk across the panel and turn the thing on lol.
@@Randomadventureswithpaul damn air compressor makes sense. Usually I drain mine by taking it off holding the back high and just working the high point down the hose.
@@Randomadventureswithpaul Same here in Germany.
I usually leave one of the faucet in each floor of the house on with a little stream of water... This helps to run water through the pipes and should help with frozen pipes.
Im so sorry that happened to you and your family. The Texas power crisis with that miserable snow storm was a disaster and a tragedy. A lot of damage was done. I'm glad to know youve had some help. I shall pray for you and hope everything woks out! Good luck and God bless you!
This has actually happened in 2011 and the feds told to winterize the grid and water utilities, but was never done.
That's sad. I hope this time things are taken seriously. Leaders and representatives need to be held accountable
@@jenab3560 Never will be taken seriously. Republicans are blaming wind turbines, but real problem was coal and natural gas power plants. Republicans are pushing very heavily deregulation, which is terrible. Vote Blue. Red is evil
@@richardlighthouse5328 : The _actual_ problem is a long-running propensity to underfund infrastructure. Everyone wants either more military or more social services, so _everything_ else gets short-changed as a result.
Very sad first thing you do lose power is to shut off water....in freezing weather too. Sad to see
@@richardlighthouse5328 the wind turbines were frozen shut too. It was lack of preparation. As one in the field of electricity, fossil fuels are more reliable. The Texas grid was simply too incompetent to prepare for frozen precipitation. If you want clean energy, the best method of reliability and safety is nuclear. Support nuclear power. Vote red. Trump 2024
It's a good thing that the studio wasn't in construction anymore when that happened.
Whoa, what a way to turn something on international news (from my European perspective) into something that hits surprisingly close to home. Hope you'll manage to get through this!
Luckily me and my roommates had started dripping all our faucets before the big freeze so we didn't get any leaks. But all our quadplex neighbors had busted pipes. They didn't drip their pipes.
Old 70's diesel Mercedes FTW, I've run one on cooking oil for years.
Running old diesel on cooking oil is considered tax fraud here because you are supposed to pay diesel/gas tax which is included in diesel/gas price.
In that temperature cooking oil will freeze
@@DripDripDrip69 you have to have a tank heater for the vegetable oil and switch to diesel at start-up and stopping.
@@jk8557 it's illegal to use off-road diesel in a vehicle but not vegetable oil.
@@jk8557 But surely you only have to pay tax on a product that you're buying? If you don't buy any diesel then why should you pay tax on it?
Even after all this he still has those nerdy shirts on point.
"the cats meowing in stereo" GIVE ME AIR lol
"Father, why have you imprisoned us, have we transgressed upon you?"
You ever hear cats meow in 7.1 surround?
hahah it had me dying too
I'm in Ontario and it's hard to imagine relying so much on electrical heat. I see why because it's so uncommon to need heat therefore the inefficiency isn't so bad but damn.
I'm honestly wondering if gas pipes would have been more dangerous in a freeze.
@@FurnitureFan Nah. Only water expands as it freezes; that's what cracks the pipes. Also, I think gas pipes are much tougher.
Tip from Northern Europe: dig down the water pipe 1m under ground.
It should not freeze unlesss you get Siberian cold.
If you are leaving the house for more than two days and don't have anybody to look after the house during very low temperatures, turn of the water mains and bleed the system as much as possible.
And leave the faucets open with the water turned off. You'll get a nice long icicle dangling off your sink, but it helps with leftover water in the pipes.
There's a lot of places in Texas that don't have 1 meter of dirt to dig through. A lot of the state sits on top of massive limestone aquifers. Go down half that in some places and you'll need to swap the shovel for a pickaxe because you've hit limestone.
@Mike Jones In warm places you should bury your pipes too because otherwise you'll get a couple of minutes of hot water every time you open the faucet in the summer, like I have :(
Tip from Southern Europe: build a concrete house with tiled floors. Water cannot ruin it.
@Mike Jones The have what they call temperate zones I believe, and what zone you are in dictates how deep you should go with your pipes. Where I am they say about a 48" minimum. I have had the frost in the ground go well below that but my pipes are down farther. I am in Canada and it sounds like you get similar weather. Luckily where I am its been a mild winter with lots of snow.
Really, its just as long as you are below the frost line. Even down a foot would probably be fine in Texas because the cold probably won't stay long enough for the frost to get that deep into the ground.
In Korea, when a typhoon comes in summer, it's serious, but it's serious that Texas resources are exhausted.
I wish you daily life again :)
Yeah we've had bad shit in australia too. It seems like the earth is pretty unhappy with humans right now!
What state is Korea in?
@@StinkySkunk100 uhh he’s probably talking about south Korea and it isn’t a state
@@StinkySkunk100 *YES*
I heard about this in Texas, I know houses in Texas aren’t built for this. I feel really bad for your troubles. I wish you well and your house gets fixed and repaired for the damages. It really sucks that your house is ruined. It also sucks that the room you just did is now ruined. I wish you the best!
Actually fortunate houses aren't built in Texas like in Ohio... when my basement floods it is 6"-8"... Hedged my bets for this spring, bought a generator and a bigger pump to keep ahead of the April Showers...
In our thoughts in Ohio, Dave... DaveP
2 days before the sh*t hit the fan me and my wife got ready, we purchased 4 weeks worth of groceries, we defrosted the fridge and stored our meet outside. Went to the gas station and got a full tank on me car and 3 full gas cans, went to the storage to pull 2 boxes of military meal and some extreme cold weatheer clothing (from my military days). and my ultralight camping cookware and burner and 3 extreme weather sleeping system. Wife said i was too much and over reacting, she was proven wrong really quick. Good thing we prep for the event. Only problem we had was no hot water and it was cold to walk around the house but other than that we survived the 4 days of darkness (lol). It was nice not having to work because there was no internet. 😂