Sandstorms in that area can damage car paint, it's literally the same effect as sand blasting. It's best to avoid such conditions when possible.

You may want to check that your car is okay. If the damage requires repainting, it may be provided or partially so by your auto insurance (depending on your coverage).

At work all day, been sleeting here for most of it. Not looking forward to the drive home. A coworker let us know it took her over an hour to get home and she lives in the city. Kids tell me it's snowing or hailing at home. Lot of calls about people falling the last few days. Everyone be careful out there!

aka Stacey_mb

We here in the center of Canada are in the midst of the brutal polar vortex and are under an extreme cold warning although we always say, but it's a dry cold! I went for a long walk today and with being bundled up, it was quite pleasant. Stay safe, everyone, and be careful of that ice.

We park in the garage, and so Kevin's truck had very limited exposure to the sandstorm, but we happened to be lucky. We have a two-car garage with plenty of storage, and so there is no need to park on the street here. We were in the sandstorm for only a couple of minutes, and not during the worst of it. We did see a lot of evidence of the sand in our pool, however.

We also saw several Alberta license plates in Cathedral City.

Well....my water coming out of the tap is 38F. I want to know how Debby can possibly have any water that can actually move through the plumbing!

Took me well over an hour to get home tonight. Took me a long time to slowly walk from work's doorway to my car. It was completely iced over and for some reason no one brought us more salt, just came hours before and scraped some of the snow off to make a slick mess. Thankfully it snowed enough after the freezing rain earlier that it provided some traction on the roads and parking lot. I drove between 20 and 30 mph all the way home. Most of the way I saw no salt trucks until I was nearly home on the main road outside my town. I'm glad I'm off the next 2 days. I did injure my eye. As I was sitting in my iced over car letting the defrost work, a coworker came behind my car and started scraping my car. I felt bad so I grabbed my own ice scraper to help her and jabbed one of my eyes with the brush part of the scraper. Half my eye is blood shot now.

I got halfway up my driveway before my tires spun. The boys came out and tried to push my car without doing anything so I got out and we all three dug the snow and ice out from my front tires and then we were able to get it the last couple of feet into my garage.

What a journey home Kathy! Hope your eye gets better soon! You got two nice exchange students there to help you out. I am wondering sometimes if I should take in a couple exchange students. We are empty nesters, and have plenty rooms in this big house, a good sized kitchen to cook & feed people, but I don't really know how to cook tasty stuff. I am 100% sure kids won't like my cooking. Lol

We had 6" of snow over night, temp is 21 F right now, not bad at all. Tonight's low will be 9 F. I don't mind cold temp as long as we have power.

Kathy, I'm so glad you made it home. We haven't had any black ice or ice this year which is unusual. It is so sneaky and so treacherous. Stay safe.

matthais just a small bit of information but water pipes are placed at differing depths to prevent the pipes from freezing. Mine are older pipes and are placed at what used to be the normal depth of 5 feet. I just measured it to be certain. When the city replaced the main water line they moved the cutoff valve and needed longer casing for this area. The engineer who my husband knew commented that he wished the newer areas were still at that depth because it would save lots of broken pipes.

Well....my water coming out of the tap is 38F. I want to know how Debby can possibly have any water that can actually move through the plumbing!

Houses that are built in cold winter places are built with that in mind. Good insulation and the plumbing is not situated where it can freeze. The only winterization I do, with regards to plumbing is to remove the garden hose from the outside faucet. The outside faucet still works even during the coldest temperatures.

matthias_lang, living in Canada building standards are much different than they are in the lower parts of North America. And I do own a furnace that keeps the house warm. LOL

SW PA the usual unpredictable weather. Some winters are colder, some not. Some have plenty of snow , some very little. The other seasons are the same unpredictability. There has been summers that it didn't get out of the 70s and wet and others that were stinking hot and dry. Every year the weather is different and every season is different year to year. It changes day to day. There are days that in the morning you have on shorts and by night time you have on winter coats, gloves and boots.

Totally miserable. No water or electricity. All of my dogs are inside....most are outside dogs. More cats than I can count. I slipped and fell when trying to shovel the steps. Slipped and fell in the big water trough when trying to break the ice...wet up to my shoulders. Running out of clean, dry clothes. Ice this morning is so thick I can't even break it with a hammer. Have a generator that runs Jody:s oxygen concentrators, but I didn't have the strength to start it, and later to open the gas cap. Thankful for good neighbors who helped me, and even brought us supper.

Yesterday we had tornado warnings, very heavy rain/wind for a while otherwise all is ok in Fl

Industrial and construction techniques/standards and plumbing approaches always reflect local conditions. Florida construction and codes focus on hurricane safety. Colder climates focus on that. Cellars are welcome in Midwestern homes for tornedo protection. California's are heavily influenced by seismic considerations. Japan's too. Building a house in my area with standards needed to perform well in US or Canadian plains winters is unnecessary. Building a house like mine in an area like that would be stupid (and also likely not permitted).

Whenever an area experiences circumstances that are rare but possible, problems happen. Be it a 100 year rainstorm or flooding, a 100 year hurricane, a massive earthquake, or whatever. I heard the Texas governor say that the last time Texas had such conditions was about 100 years ago. Whether that's true or not, of course, doesn't matter but it says something. Events with 1 in 100 type odds don't happen when the 100 year timer goes off but it's rare that any planning or projects are built to be able to survive such events. And that's what it is.

Summersrhythm, I don't think they care how you cook so much. Mine like some foods, others not so much. They also like to cook themselves, which is good. European kids aren't used to eating big breakfasts so one got some cereal bars and another I buy healthy cereal for. I also keep fruit on hand. I'm eating a big ole omelette this morning. They've liked the large breakfasts I have made but they don't want to eat that way all the time. I'm not up most of the time when they have breakfast anyway so it works out.

we've had below zero nights for the past 2 weeks and during the day, it barely gets into double digits. over the past 3 days, we've had a total of about 7" of snow.

eden is NOT impressed!!

20 below actual temp this a.m. ... might climb above zero tomorrow for first time in days ...

wind chill is brutal ...

Thanks Kathy. It's nice to know that. :-)

Marilyn, hope your power will be restored soon. Glad you didn't have any injuries from falling on ice. Are you in TX?

I bet your canines and felines are very grateful to be inside, Marilyn. It looks like it will warm up on the weekend, 50’s/40’s and higher starting Saturday, so hang in there.

Very sad animal situations, a declawed tiger in a tiny make-shift cage without any kind of shelter was rescued in the San Antonio area and taken in by a wildlife refuge. His cries were heard and reported by someone in the area, otherwise he would have frozen to death.

A primate and exotic bird rescue, also in the San Antonio area, has lost many of their animals to the cold, due to the power failures. They caught the ones they were able to catch and took them to the zoo and volunteer’s houses, but too many succumbed.

Here we go again, round 2 of Va ice storms from h@ll. Thursday looks very bad, again, maybe worse? Just hoping that the weak trees and branches have been whittled down and most of the damage is behind us. Haven't put the generator in storage yet.

Got 13.2 inches of snow today, but my new snowblower handled it. Hit 20 degrees for the first time in 10 days...yea!

Here's my deck:

Very sorry to read of those without power and struggling due to harsh weather, praying for your safety.

reminds me of the book, My side of the Mountain

hunker down in a hollow old tree

Summersrhym, yes, I am in Texas. I live near Lufkin, what they call Deep East Texas. I moved here about 18 months ago, after living on the coast all of my life up until then.

Having fun in the snow in Texas.

https://www.facebook.com/100013765784118/posts/1073523853116464/

marilyn, hope you will get your power and water back soon! You're a trooper, hang in there! Warm weather is coming.

Teens, with snow and ice today. This weekend+ it'll be in the 50s and 60s. So I only have to hang on a couple of days. I wish everyone a safe and quick end to winter.

Took a couple hours to completely dig the driveway and my daughter's car out yesterday. Kept having to go in and warm up. I tried to talk her out of going to work but she needs the money so she went. She did spend the night at a friend's house so she wouldn't have to drive back late at night. She said the main bypass was okay but the roads in Lexington were really bad. Luckily her friend lives a short distance form her work. We're getting another winter storm this evening sometime. I have to work tomorrow and the next day but hopefully the roads will be better than the other night. Luckily I don't have to drive too many side roads to and from work. Supposed to get above freezing this weekend!

Cold and except for brief times twice a day there is no electricity. I have flashlights and Sterno but it is miserable. It is a planned outage by Texas New Mexico to prevent forest fires due to weight of ice breaking lines.

It was 10 below this morning when I got up but it's up to 20 now and nice and sunny. I do have a wood stove if the power goes out and I did have to use it in November overnight. My main heat source is a natural gas furnace as the pipeline goes through my yard. I really feel bad for all of those people without heat and power.

Power was just restored. I truly have been taking it for granted but am happy and grateful to have it back.

We were without power for 30+ hours. We got it yesterday, but have had rolling blackouts since then. We had a pipe break today so the water to our house is shut off. We have water in our bathtubs to flush the toilets and I had our emergency drinking water so we are ok there for now. We have a generator and portable heater, candles and plenty of food so we've done better than most. We could watch tv, but didn't have internet and little cell coverage. It's a mess here and a lot of people lost water and have been without power even longer than us. I ran to the store today. There was no milk, bread or eggs. Most people in this area have gas stoves so we could cook. I'm sure a lot of people lost food in their refrigerators and freezers. Plumbers are scheduled 4-6 weeks out... possibly more. I called around today and didn't get an appointment. I have neighbors who know how to do the basic fix if I can get the parts.

We are tired from patrolling the house and trying to keep everything safe,. Like I've said, we have been lucky. So many people have had it much worse. The news has been filled with too many stories of carbon monoxide poisoning and house fires because of people just trying to keep warm. People are living in their cars because it is warmer than their houses and apartments.

I'm glad things are returning back to normal for you.

Why are you "patrolling the house"?

We were patrolling the house to look for leaks and frozen faucets. We didn't want a bad situation to turn into something else. We also had to keep turning the generator on and off and do some switch outs on appliances between the generator and house electricity.

Adellabedella, you are the 1st person I know who prepared nicely for a disaster. A nice DR job! :-)

I often wonder especially in cold situations at the "loss of food" when power goes out. Ice cream will melt but at the temperatures that most areas have been having the worry should be more from keeping the food from freezing.

Summersrhythm, experience is a really good teacher. We have been through several natural disasters at this point including ice storms. We had wood burning stoves installed in our other houses because we knew crippling ice storms were a possibility. We never would have expected a cold weather event like this in Houston.

Maiflour, the reason why people lose food is because the weather doesn't necessarily stay cold and neither does the house particularly in the more southern states. In a previous ice storm in another storm, we had the ice that knocked out power and then the outside temperatures warmed up enough that the ice melted, but the weather was still uncomfortable and went back in the 30's at night. It was enough that you couldn't keep the food outside to keep it cold. The weather has stayed cold this time, but my guess is some people just weren't up to the task of moving their food to coolers or outside. We were able to heat our house a little more than most people. I keep 2 liters bottles and juice bottles filled with water in one of my freezers. They are great for coolers and you can stick them in the refrigerator if the power goes out. I tried to stay out of the freezer aside from grabbing that. We have a sensor on our refrigerator that tells us temp. It was above recommended when we hooked up the generator to it.

Not only people, but stores are having supply problems - partly due to lack of power and partly due to interruptions of shipping.

My sister in Austin is supposed to get her second Covid vaccination on Friday, but it will still be freezing until around noon, and the location she has to go to is far from her house. I think she may have to reschedule, unless the appointment is in the afternoon. It is definitely not safe to drive in Austin if there is ice on the roads.

Four inches of snow here in PA overnight and the temp is now 27. I will not complain thinking of those in Texas who are in dire straits.

Houston is under a boil water order and so is Austin. Lots of people without water and electricity in both places.

I was lucky enough to snag a plumber in the neighborhood. One of my neighbors shared his number and I was quick enough to grab him. We should have water tonight. We are under boil water order, but that hot shower is still going to feel good tonight.

I was switching my kids around in their bedrooms since the oldest is at college. I'm going to paint the upstairs bedroom of my oldest child in the next few days and put my middle child in there until we can get his room/guest room back to a livable condition. Once the pipes get fixed, the sheetrockers are going to need their turn too.

bragu_DSM 5, I just noticed that the gas pump in your photo has the following letters:

" Д/T "
indicating that that gas pump is in Russia, possibly Siberia.

I thought that pump looked foreign, plus gas hoses do freeze in Russia, allowing them to free-stand.

adellabedella it goes to show that having lived during the time when people would pack food for trips in paper boxes lined with newspaper and straw were common the knowledge has been lost. While people now would probably not have straw and neither did everyone back then. Food can be kept cool and safe for at least more than four hours that many think as being unsafe if the think of ways to use the coldness of the items. I am sad when I see people throw away the fresh veggies and fruits that they have kept in their refrigerator that only recently were kept on the counters except in really hot weather.

I never even considered going to Cancun.

I went through Cancun in 1977 when it was still under construction. My destination was Cozumel, after visiting Mérdida, Uxmal, and Chichen Itza. After that, I went back to Cozumel almost every year (until 1983), but I've never stayed in Cancun.

A week ago we had about 5 to 6 inches of snow that lasted through the weekend. Tuesday warmed up enough that all the snow melted. But then Tuesday night it rained a lot and Wednesday started turning colder, and over night into this morning it sleeted about 1 inch. I spent the evening on the snowplow as it was misting slightly and freezing up on surfaces. And then just went to check on the gator which stopped out near one of the pastures, and slipped and fell on the icy stairs out front.

Maifleor, I've seen people throw away things I would still consider safe, but some of these people were out of power for 36 hours to four days. I would think most of us have coolers, but some people probably didn't consider using them. Some folks lost water early on too. They may have decided to go straight to convenience foods. I'm not sure. I was pretty surprised to learn that people had thrown out uncooked eggs. I'll cut out bad parts of an apple, potato or tomato. A lot of people don't. I'm not sure if they don't know they can or just think it is a waste of their time. Usually, food is pretty easy to find.

People were posting that the stores had milk, eggs and bananas today so we ended up at Kroger. It was kind of sad, the freezers were blocked off. It was apparent that they had to throw away a lot of food... I'm assuming for lack of electricity. They must not have back up generators. I had gone to HEB yesterday. They didn't have milk, eggs and bread because everyone had bought it. Their trucks are running and they have a great supply chain for emergencies. I've been really impressed by how they have handled the hurricanes, pandemic and now this horrible ice storm.

Bob, what is "the gator"? I hope it wasn't you who slipped and fell!

A “gator” is a utility vehicle.