Insulation is that bad. Yes. Whether in Turkey or Texas corrupt deregulation is a killer.
I live on a main street in East Austin that had one of the longest contiguous power outages, ~72 hours, there was no cell service and no power (except verizon which would allow old school MAP SMS messages to go through irregularly), no ambulances, a friend had covid at the time and her o2 sats dropped below 80 and they still wouldn't send anyone.
The roads were iced over and slick, I moved to Texas as an adult from a cold weather region and it's just a different environment here in terms of failure to maintain roads and the freeze/thaw cycle that makes roads insanely slick with re-frozen water.
The local children's hospital had doctors shitting in buckets in the halls. All over the city water mains were broken, apartment complexes and homes flooded, power lines down.
My part of town is a combination of multi-million dollar homes owned by tech people such as myself and homes built in the 40s and 50s with no insulation. On day 2 my wife made a big pot of soup with distilled water we had on hand because water pressure in the city was low and they advised not to run water. Our gas was still on (others also lost gas) and we opened the windows in the kitchen so we wouldn't poison ourselves, we carted the soup around the neighborhood, it was a complete horror show.
We met one elderly man who started panicking after he realized we had no power and weren't the authorities and there was no timelines and no mobilization for aid, we were just at the mercy of the weather, he had had no communication with anyone and had been huddled in bed freezing, unable to draw blood to check his insulin because he was too cold so he had been randomly injecting himself with insulin.
A complete breakdown of public services with 0 communication in and out and zero official presence.
I have been in third world countries after monsoons and disasters and often there is a sense that at least someone is paying attention or bringing aid, this was a complete breakdown of government and infrastructure, I have never seen anything like it and I also lived through the 100yr flood in Nashville as well. Austin was just a bunch of housed and employed people quietly dying because our government is anti-humanist.
> Austin was just a bunch of housed and employed people quietly dying because our government is anti-humanist.
Good lord.
It was a once in a century weather event. Austin and Texas in general celebrates a limited government. So you should take responsibility and prepare accordingly.
If you seriously feel like the city government is anti-humanist and out to get you, then maybe you should pack up and leave town immediately.
Sounds like they’re doing far more for their community than the average person. Texas would be in much better shape if it had more people like that, especially in positions of power.
I live on a main street in East Austin that had one of the longest contiguous power outages, ~72 hours, there was no cell service and no power (except verizon which would allow old school MAP SMS messages to go through irregularly), no ambulances, a friend had covid at the time and her o2 sats dropped below 80 and they still wouldn't send anyone.
The roads were iced over and slick, I moved to Texas as an adult from a cold weather region and it's just a different environment here in terms of failure to maintain roads and the freeze/thaw cycle that makes roads insanely slick with re-frozen water.
The local children's hospital had doctors shitting in buckets in the halls. All over the city water mains were broken, apartment complexes and homes flooded, power lines down.
My part of town is a combination of multi-million dollar homes owned by tech people such as myself and homes built in the 40s and 50s with no insulation. On day 2 my wife made a big pot of soup with distilled water we had on hand because water pressure in the city was low and they advised not to run water. Our gas was still on (others also lost gas) and we opened the windows in the kitchen so we wouldn't poison ourselves, we carted the soup around the neighborhood, it was a complete horror show.
We met one elderly man who started panicking after he realized we had no power and weren't the authorities and there was no timelines and no mobilization for aid, we were just at the mercy of the weather, he had had no communication with anyone and had been huddled in bed freezing, unable to draw blood to check his insulin because he was too cold so he had been randomly injecting himself with insulin.
A complete breakdown of public services with 0 communication in and out and zero official presence.
I have been in third world countries after monsoons and disasters and often there is a sense that at least someone is paying attention or bringing aid, this was a complete breakdown of government and infrastructure, I have never seen anything like it and I also lived through the 100yr flood in Nashville as well. Austin was just a bunch of housed and employed people quietly dying because our government is anti-humanist.
At least we have warming centers now.