What does freezing in your house look like? I wouldn’t have known until 2 days ago. February 15, 2021. I woke up at 2:30 am to my neighbors generator roaring so loudly, and then it hit me. I came out from under my covers to a freezing cold house. I realized very quickly that the power went out about an hour earlier. I put on socks, another layer of sweat pants, another sweat shirt, a beanie and gloves. I went out to the living room and movie room and grabbed all the blankets. I checked my pipes, which were intact, thank goodness. I was “prepared” I thought, by letting all my faucets drip. I had stocked up on bottled water, snacks and food that was shelf stable.
Little did I know that it would be 34 hours later (2 nights) that I would have my house/neighborhood’s power restored. The first night of the 15th, I made it work. It was in the 20’s and started to ice/snow. I had 4 blankets and Lucy to keep me warm in our queen bed. My mind wouldn’t shut off however as I’m in a new home, and unfamiliar with how this house would do in sub-freezing temps. I’ve heard horror stories of pipes bursting and no power. I checked the twitter news feed and learned that it was not just my neighborhood. It was up to 4 million Texas homes without power, that’s about 8 – 12 million people without heat! I don’t want to get into the issue of how this happened to the “energy capital” of Texas because the state’s infrastructure and agency who oversees the energy distributors, (ERCOT) wasn’t ready. But that’s for the elected officials to handle and now the legislature will investigate.
I do want to write how this has impacted my mental health and physical experiences during those 34 hours. Monday after I forced myself out of my warm bed, I washed my face with frigid water, and brushed my teeth. I needed to keep the water moving in the pipes. I changed clothes, into new layers to go out into the house. I read tips about keeping one room in your house warm. So, I kept the doors to my master bedroom closed. I put Lucy’s coat on and bundled up to walk her outside in her first experience of snow & ice. She pottied, after some coaxing & figuring out what was happening. I tried to keep her on her same routine, food, water, medicine, playtime throughout the day in our long hallway catching and chasing the ball. She was confused why we didn’t go outside or for a “ride” but I managed to focus on keeping her preoccupied. She was a trooper.
I facetimed with my parents to check in, and let them know we were making it. I was sharing with them that it was pretty unbelievable and unreal. But that we were pushing through. I read a few of my favorite scriptures in my quick flip book I’ve had for years to encourage my mind. In Mark 11:22 – 25 it says to pray for anything/everything big or small. And really believe without doubt. So I stated to the Lord out loud, I believe you can restore power to this large state grid. I know you can, in your way and time.
I went to my room, to read a book to keep my mind distracted and opened my drapes to let sunlight in. But, to my demise, my newly (but poorly installed) track came down on the left side. Imagine hotel room style tracks on the ceiling with long tall drapes… But now, the whole left panel was completely hanging off in my hands. I was super frustrated. After calling the blinds company to put me on the “help fix it” list for later in the week, I messaged our neighborhood family who help families fix things in their house & property. They so graciously came over 30 minutes later and helped me re-hang my track and drapes. These drapes are important to block the windows cold air that escapes into your house. So grateful to them, for that help, but the bonus was his comment of saying – WHY are you not using your next door neighbors generator? I told them, they were in NJ and offered me to go inside, but I had a dog, and I knew they wouldn’t want my dog in their house. So out of courtesy, I declined. He said, well, ask to hook up an extension cord! Genius! So I messaged my neighbors and they said absolutely! So the family fixers went back to get 3 extension cords. With their help I had an extension cord into my back porch, through back door and into my room! I plugged in a strip cord with devices and 2 small space heaters.
I enjoyed 3 hours of heat in my room! It was lovely! I had charged devices. I had warm toes and fingers. I took a nap and enjoyed it. I went to my kitchen to flicker on the stovetop to make soup. And then a few hours later, made some avocado toast to use up the veggies I had before it went bad. As I got ready for bed, I felt that extension cord and it was HOT. Like real hot. I felt the cord from end to end and knew that was not going to be safe overnight. Darn, how disappointing. I unplugged my devices and my space heaters. I went to unplug the cord at my backdoor to the outside extension cord to my neighbor’s house and found they had melted into each other so I couldn’t fully unplug it. After consulting with my neighborhood family fixers, they suggested just throwing it out. He even came over to my section to exchange the cord, but the power wouldn’t work in my gate to open 😦 They are getting some good deliveries and baked goods from me this weekend.
So at 7 pm (pitch black, real cold – like 20’s) I tossed the cords outside and layered back up. I moved my refrigerated food in coolers, to the garage so it wouldn’t freeze but stay cold. I checked the temperature in my garage and it was 38 degrees.
After Lucy did her business, we went back to bedroom. I layered up 6 – 8 blankets. Checked my pipes one last time, got ready for bed and tried to sleep. I checked the weather forecast, it was going to be 12 degrees overnight. I put my laptops, phones, ipad under my pillows. It was the weirdest feeling to go to sleep and pray, “Jesus please keep me alive. Help me and Lucy not to freeze to death”. I never thought I’d have to pray that prayer! I’ve prayed that for many people, for many people experiencing homelessness. I’ve given away blankets, clothes, gloves, hats, socks, shoes, etc. not really knowing what those individuals were experiencing. Boy, has my empathy grown for individuals experiencing homeless or homes without heat. But never did I ever think I’d experience it or pray that prayer for me and others in my neighborhood and the state, freezing inside our homes.
I woke up at 330 am bone-chilling cold under a sheet, comforter, down blanket, fur blanket, wool blanket. So I went to add more layers. Checked Lucy who’s ears were freezing, but body was warm. I rolled her up in blankets. Added socks and put my beanie back on my head that had come off while sleeping. My devices were freezing so moved them down in the bed to the warmth.
My mind was racing, how is this possible that I’m freezing in my own house? I listened to the water drip in my bathroom and prayed for my pipes to not burst. I prayed for my neighbors. I heard the generator and got frustrated. I thought about what I’d do, in all the what-if scenarios. What if my dog dies? What if my pipes burst? What if I start to freeze and not get warm?
I couldn’t believe I was thinking these things. So I prayed again, “take every thought captive” and prayed for peace to sweep over my mind so I could rest. There are only so many things I can control and at that point at 4 am, I tried to sleep. I remember looking at my phone at 530 am and went through some meditations in my head so I could sleep. I woke up at 830 and said out loud, WE MADE IT! Lucy looked at me like, lady, you’re crazy, go back to sleep. I glanced at my phone had texts and messages for days. Thanks to those friends who checked on me. It did make me feel loved, even though I was super lonely and just battled some major depressing thoughts all night. But my God protected and provided for me and for so many others.
I made myself get out of bed around 9 am. Responded to family texts and co-workers checking in. This has to be a declared weather emergency, I hoped. And had a thought I need to work, then quickly assessed and said nope. Can’t do it. I had just slept through 2 nights of freezing cold and made it, but I wondered who didn’t make it through the night. As I washed my face, brushed my teeth, I layered up to check my pipes in every bathroom. I measured the surfaces temperature: 55 – 57 in my house, 41 in my garage. Lucy was 95 degrees 🙂 I read, prayed, and planned to write this blog, but just couldn’t get to it yet. Then the miracle happened. At 1030 am, the power came back on, throughout the neighborhood. I immediately made hot coffee (I had STOK cold coffee, to keep my caffeine fix, first world problems), plugged in the phone and ran to my garage to get an HEB ready meal: egg bowl to microwave. Oh my goodness, it was lovely.
I have been in a state of gratitude since 10:30 am. And watching the news, to see how they’re working to restore power to the other 3.99 million homes in the state. I appreciate all things power and all sources of how we get power. I appreciate my HVAC system! I appreciate sharing the energy grid with my neighbors, and doing my part to conserve right now, since they asked us to. I took a hot shower and that instantly made my mental health improve. I can’t explain why, but it was the best hot shower I’ve taken in a long time. Then I dried and straightened my hair, because I can make it 4 days without washing it again, considering I may lose power again. Plus, that also made me feel better. Then I got Lucy outside and she did her business and loved the sunshine (35 degree sunshine) and all the mud puddles from melted ice and snow in my backyard. She stayed all of 10 minutes playing outside. We’ve rested and taken naps today. We’ve thrown the ball down the long hallway of the house to get exercise. And just went out again for another outside jaunt with the ball. I’m in a much better place mentally. My house is 68 degrees and I’ve only got 2 layers on.
Checked on friends and everyone’s in a different place. All of us are wondering how we got here, though?
We (Houston metro area and most of Central and SE Texas quite frankly) were told Sunday night there would be rolling outages, not outages for straight 2 – 3 days. This is a different type of scenario for people. Especially those who don’t have well insulated homes. Or maybe those who are not loaded down with comforters, blankets, throws, or pets for body heat. Not many have generators, some but not many. Welfare checks are happening all over Galveston and Harris counties now. We are learning of 20 – 50 deaths from the cold just in Galveston county. This is unreal. A person who was homeless and refused to go to a shelter, did pass away. A grandmother with 3 elementary school age kids died in a house fire, and the fire department discovered they were heating their home with candles and a fire in the fireplace. That’s heart wrenching. A lady and her 8 year old were found in their car in their garage, dead from CO poisoning. In addition, they just reported there was over 100 CO poisoning calls to the Texas Medical Center hospitals in the past 24 hours.
I write this mainly for myself, because writing is therapeutic and helps me process what happens in life. When I go back and read these “events” such as the Hurricane Harvey aftermath, it reminds me of what I’ve been through, experienced, and what I should be grateful for. It serves as a nice reminder for me. Maybe it gives others a perspective and maybe a plan for the unknown if that’s possible? My next post will list items I had on hand I used, and those I didn’t but wish I would have. I did that with Harvey and some people have said it’s been useful. It’s also a quick reference for me to check my list of supplies each season to season.
Pictured below is my beautiful dog Lucy, who’s been the best companion through all this. She’s a happy camper tonight in our 68 degree house. Stay warm y’all. Say a thankful prayer and have an attitude of gratitude for your power and heat tonight.
~Jennifer & Lucy
jennifer cofer 