Houston - Resident shopping for cold cuts because her apartment is without power and she had nothing to eat. Kroger employee yells out: “We can only take card(s).” ~ "power outages could last for weeks" at one of America's biggest cities....

submitted by In-the-clouds from houstonchronicle.com

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[–]Musky 4 insightful - 1 fun4 insightful - 0 fun5 insightful - 1 fun -  (5 children)

Oh man.. we were heading to a concert when that crazy weather hit. Over a million homes without power in the county. We fired up my father's genny for the first time.

[–]In-the-clouds[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (4 children)

I'm glad to see your update. You were someone I wondered about as you are the only person I know that lives in that area of Texas.

You say you used a generator to produce electricity.... Did you use that to keep the fridge powered? What were the most important things to keep on? Has the power been restored yet?

[–]Musky 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (3 children)

His generator was just powering the tv, router, lights and two fridges. I think the only thing they can't run on it is the central AC, but he has a couple window units in case they're needed.

I was surprised, a mere 20lb tank ran everything for 9 hours.

Our power went back on at 2:47am , theirs didn't come online until 6pm. Pretty impressive times considering the widespread outages.

[–]In-the-clouds[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (2 children)

It's good to have a way to keep perishable food cold. You do seem to have fared well considering it could be weeks before the rest of the electric grid might be repaired.

[–]Musky 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (1 child)

They're saying everyone should have power by Wednesday.

As of 10:30 a.m., more than 82% of CenterPoint customers, or 2.3 million, currently have power. The company is working to have restorations substantially complete by the end of the day Wednesday to customers who are available to receive service.

https://www.centerpointenergy.com/en-us/corporate/about-us/news/1745

https://hostux.pics/images/2024/05/19/10000168613be3330e0abccaf3.png

[–]In-the-clouds[S] 2 insightful - 1 fun2 insightful - 0 fun3 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

That sounds more optimistic. But do you see the wording: "to customers who are available to receive service"? That is vague, but lower down they specify that some houses have damage that customers must fix themselves. I suppose they are not "available to receive service". And for those it could be weeks before they might be able to hire an electrician to fix their house.

If the equipment is damaged, customers will need to contact a qualified electrician to make repairs before the company can restore service to them.

There will be a wait time on these jobs: waiting for insurance adjusters to authorize payments and waiting for an electrician to be ready to work. Some people might not even be able to afford the deductible on their insurance, or have no insurance.

Another source says Texas currently has power knocked out for 408,766 customers.

[–]In-the-clouds[S] 1 insightful - 1 fun1 insightful - 0 fun2 insightful - 1 fun -  (0 children)

This does remind me somewhat of my grocery store dream.