8 Important Lessons Learned From a Freak Texas Winter Storm

texas was recently hit with a freezing blizzard that left millions hunkered down in their homes without power what did our friends in texas learn about living without power hi i'm jonathan and kyleene jones and we are the provident preppers our hearts ache for those who have been suffering with unseasonably cold weather many of which have been without power heat and even water we have an incredible online community and many of them have been willing to share their stories with us so that we can all do a better job of being prepared for the next time disaster strikes in this video we're going to talk about some of these lessons and some important stories take some notes so that you are ready next time disaster strikes your neighborhood let's talk about eight lessons that our community has learned from the freak texas storm and we want to give special thanks to lavonya and courtney for their help in this they were amazing so courtney emailed me with some of the things that they had learned her initial contact was just thanking us for how much some of our videos had helped them but in turn i asked her more details and you can visit um the providentprepper.org and see the the post that we created where it has her whole story on it and she did a fantastic job of just taking a bad situation and making it into something fantastic for her family the first lesson that we can learn from this freak storm is to prepare for the unexpected our poor friends in texas don't usually experience weather like this and instead of having beautiful 80 degree weather they were below freezing and covered in snow nerdy advises us that we should stay humble and prepare for anything and carrie pointed out that there are people in parts of texas where they didn't even have warm coats and they are freezing which is a really good reminder for all of us regardless of the climate that we live in we need to prepare for climate extremes and i had to put this picture in to mock ben and jonathan because we are used to this weather and check out how they're dressed both of them are in shorts they're out to feed the animals and ben is just wearing crocs no socks no anything and a t-shirt yeah i tell her it's because we need to be tough so yeah i have no desire to be tough lesson number two is knowledge is power so even if you don't have a whole bunch of gear if you've got some basic knowledge you can do some great things one of the best pieces of knowledge i think that came out of this was about the tent and about how to create a micro environment one of the things that journey of light and love points out is thank you for sharing knowledge we work to make these videos but if you read the comments our community is incredible about sharing different pieces of knowledge that we all can benefit from and lesson number three is advanced preparations make all the difference too many times we wait till we're in the middle of the storm before we start gathering the provisions we have to get things in place in advance so that we can be safe in the storm and i love what john said he said that his daughter called when it hit the oklahoma panhandle and said dad it's very very bad get your plan going right now and i did and we were fine and i think that's a fantastic representation of a dad who knows the importance of developing a family plan he has prepared and he was ready to implement when he needed it to protect his family we are going to go through several of the categories that would be wise to prepare for in advance of an emergency so we're gonna we're gonna take these a little bit at a time but i think that each one of these categories is worth mentioning and the first is safe power outage lighting you need to be able to light your world without electricity a lot of times the first thing we think of are candles but we need to remember that any flame source um can be a fire hazard especially if you have small children or animals around and maybe the most obvious one in this case is power outage heating being able to stay warm having what you need to be able to stay warm if your normal systems go out and make sure you have the safety gear that you need smoke alarms carbon monoxide alarms and fire extinguishers one of the comments that were made frequently within the community is about carbon monoxide it is incredibly dangerous but people need to know how they are going to tell if they are building up carbon monoxide this is a battery operated digital readout carbon monoxide detector if you have any level of carbon monoxide it's going to start reading the difference is the ones that just alarm it has to reach a certain threshold so if you are cooking inside of your home or if you have a heating device anything that's burning a flame you should have this if it starts to register carbon monoxide immediately you need to do something to mitigate you need to open your windows you need to turn off that device you need to do whatever you can do to make sure that your levels are down to a safe level and that fire extinguisher in the wall that's actually my kitchen because i'm a little bit accident prone and john has found that having one nearby with me nearby is a very good idea always your first line of protection is the way that you dress make sure that even if you're living in arizona you have warm clothing you don't need to have a lot of it but man layering in that clothing your hat your gloves your socks warm socks and just the ability to stay warm because you can even sleep in all of those clothes to help keep you warm the most valuable feedback that we had received was from people who had taken the knowledge of the tent right and implemented it because a tent can create a micro environment where it just conserves your body heat diane mentions that her granddaughter and her put a little pup tent up on the bed which kept their body heat in just fine linda mentions that they didn't have a tent so they put blankets over the kitchen table just like the tent they played in as a kid this is a great time to improvise some of our viewers have talked about using even cardboard boxes inside your house anything to be able to conserve that heat and love me as scotsman again noted that a small tent set up in an inner room with lots of blankets it can keep you toasty warm even when the power goes out nature girl talks about how sleeping bags are really good option to keep you warm um flannel fleece and cotton sheets and blankets you just can't have enough things to keep you warm and remember that your animals get cold and they need to be kept warm too and they make great warmers actually never underestimate the power of a candle so tina anderson recommends that we layer up on clothing and light candles even one candle light will keep you from freezing we created an entire video on how to use small emergency candles at for light heat and cooking during an emergency this is a little tea light heater where it just has seven little tea lights in it um the container it's a just a can it makes it significantly safer to burn those in the house especially because sometimes the paraffin will flash and that can create a problem but um using it in this way it it is it going to heat your entire room no it's not but it can make a difference when you're really cold now one of the things that beth dawson said was that they made a terracotta pot heater and it helped out so much when we make this heater we like to use a folding camp stove because they are really sturdy you'll see that there are you can improvise and you can use bricks or different things to hold it up that are non-flammable but be super careful because this is dangerous but in this folding camp stove we use safe heat which is designed to be a fuel that's used by caterers to keep food hot we put a small terracotta pot on top of that portable stove and plug up the hole with something that's non-flammable like aluminum foil and then put another one on top this is not going to heat your whole room but it's just like that candle heater it's a place that has some warmth and when you are really cold it can make all the difference our favorite portable alternative heat sources are the mr buddy heaters these are fairly inexpensive and very safe they are rated for indoor use be careful above 7000 feet though because the low oxygen sensor doesn't work properly so if you are at a high elevation this is not something i would recommend now gentlemen if you want to keep your wife warm and happy this is a great way to go a wood-burning stove is such an excellent tool if you can do it sheila just went through a nine-day power outage in oregon and one of the things on her list is definitely to buy a wood burning stove that is what happened to me when we did our self-imposed power outage i was so cold so when we built this new house that was the first thing that i bought we didn't even have the walls completely framed before i had that stove delivered because i didn't ever want to be cold again something that we got a lot of comments on was the broken water lines and the inability to have water making sure that you have emergency water on hand is so important evil mentioned that few cities were running out of water and they were being asked to limit the amount of water that they used and also to boil the water because the water was no longer safe we have an entire video on how to store water for emergencies and we really recommend that you go and look at that and store water so that if your water supply is disrupted you have safe drinking water to depend on this is really cool this came from courtney so they got a little bit creative to be able to get some water they started catching the water that was melting from the snow off of their roof into in just an ice chest and they had all kinds of containers she said that they found every container that they could to start gathering water in brady reminds us that you can gather snow and bring it to a boil and then add cocoa or something to make it taste better sherry mentions that a 10 gallon tub of snow melts into just a little over a gallon of water and that it takes all day for it to melt at 60 degrees inside the house and she said they just went through a week without water think about how nice it would be to have stored water and yet it's important that you know how to be creative for when you do run out of your stored water another comment that we had frequently from some of our viewers was about emergency sanitation and that you know once your water is cut off it creates a whole lot of other issues when it comes to sanitation in our newbie prepper series which is really cool if you go to step three we have a video on beginning sanitation and that's a really good place to start once you get this down a little bit we have one that's really in depth that you will want to visit in the future when you don't have power cooking can become very problematic one of the problems in texas was that yes people could cook outside on their barbecued grills and things but suddenly it was really cold and snowy outside and nobody really wants to be outside so it's important to learn how to cook indoors safely during a power outage a year ago in november we decided that it would be a good idea to do a month-long grid down cooking challenge and you can find the playlist where we go week by week exactly what we did to cook without using electricity or natural gas but it really taught us a lot including how to eat just the bottom off of cinnamon rolls that have been turned into char this is how we learn alcohol is a good fuel to burn indoors it tends to burn very safely and most of the time if you get the right kind will not produce carbon monoxide only carbon dioxide as long as there is plenty of oxygen for complete combustion now we did a comparison because john's the geeky engineer who likes to compare everything so we took four different kinds of alcohol and compared the way that they burn and with the cost and all that good kind of stuff and that is covered in our video best alcohol fuel and we're going to leave links to all of these in the description of the video so make sure that you look and it's interesting because not all alcohol fuels are created equally safe heat is one of my favorite alternative cooking fuels because it's safe to store in the house and it's safe to burn in the house now during our grid down cooking challenge i actually fell in love with the sterno stove i was not a fan of butane stoves before but sometimes cooking with fuels like alcohol take a really long time and butane is just a hot instant fire but not all butane stoves can be safely used indoors this is one that's by sterno and it's designed for caterers it is designed for indoor use camping stoves are not designed for indoor use and cannot be safely used indoors and there is a whole video on power outage cooking with butane on our site and you might want to investigate that propane is a fantastic cooking fuel however most of the cooking devices are not rated for indoor use you've got to be really careful to use any devices according to the manufacturer recommendations so that you can keep you and your family safe we took our propane oven and stove actually into the garage to shelter us from a little bit of the weather because it was really cold you can't see our garage windows in this photograph but they were open a little bit to provide some ventilation for the garage that camp shelf up in the upper left-hand corner is something that we always keep on our back patio so it's really easy to go in and out and cook on it now the folding camp stoves fantastic outside not inside your house i so adore having my wood burning stove it brings me incredible comfort and i know not everybody can have one but if this is something that you can do it's a great thing to have for emergencies it's a lousy emergency cooking device in the summer time but it's really cool in the winter time we created an entire video on how to safely cook indoors so make sure you look for that link if that's another idea that you need to explore another important consideration is making sure that you have a pantry full of foods that don't require refrigeration a lot of these shelf staple foods can be eaten directly out of the package or warmed with just a little bit of work if you'd like to learn more about how to create a plan and develop your three-month supply of shelf stable foods this video is the video you should go to because everybody's different right we all do things differently and in this video we have several different people and the way that they've built their food supply in order to meet the needs of their families a few comments that i think are worth noting is that evil said that while walmart was able to read the credit cards just fine there was a line that stretched across the store from people waiting to check out but the pumps at gas stations were struggling to read the cards that was kind of interesting sheila ann mentioned that everything was sold out within hours at the store selena mentions that she's a prepper but she wasn't at all prepared for last week she said that her family was one of the fortunate texans because they had a four by four and they were at least able to access the stores when they needed to before the shelves were empty and help neighbors out that couldn't now the hard part is finding these things right now because the stores are empty so the roads were impassable and she was blessed because of the vehicle that she had which is another reason you've just got to keep this food in your home because you may not have the transportation to get it or it may not be available at all the other thing that gets forgotten is emergency communication you need to be able to have power for your communication devices so that you can know what local officials are telling you to do what's happening with the storm things like that also you need to be able to tell people that you're okay right you need to be able to have some kind of a working cell phone or device to communicate with others christy recommends that we keep your vehicle gas tank full and make sure you have a phone charger that can be used in your car we were without power and iced in at night while the car ran i charged the phone ran the heater and got a little bit of sleep but don't ever do that in your garage right that would be really bad another great tool is having some backup power the portable power stations are such a great way to go in this picture you can see our portable power station charging a phone a laptop and a cooler all at the same time make sure that you understand the capability of your power station and its ability to meet your needs evil mentioned that his town is officially out of gas but they say most of the snow and ice will be melted by sunday walmart is almost completely empty again if you don't have gas your generator will not work so you need to learn how to safely safely did i mention safely store fuel for emergencies and make sure you know how to use that generator safely and never indoors we've created two videos one is on this shelf life of stored fuels and the other is how to store them safely for emergencies so if you have a generator or you're going to be using fuel those are definitely videos you're going to want to check out fasting mentioned that we should buy usb powered things so you can charge with a solar bank and fasting you are absolutely right my very favorite is hybrid lights i have had some for i don't know at least several years yeah yeah and they're still working just like they did the day that they were purchased um their little flashlights my oldest ones and they have been through all kinds of camping trips and grandkids and i'm just really impressed with this brand if you look at these you'll notice i'm charging my cell phone um and each one of these devices is a little bit different the cell phone is plugged into the lantern and it has several different ports i've opened the covers on most of these so that you can kind of see how they keep it hidden away and then the covers just go back on nice and snug so that when you're not using those they're kind of hidden away the best part of using solar usb chargers like the these lights is that you just leave them in a window and they will continue to charge a year from now these lights are still going to be good so i could use them for a long term grid down event and still have light hybrid light has offered any of our viewers who would like to go and purchase one of these a 20 off if they just use the discount code provenant and there is no limit to the number of times that you can use it or the number of things that you can purchase lesson number four is last minute list of preps so you should have a list as part of your plan of things that you will do as time allows unapologetic vegans said if you know a bad storm is coming spend time cleaning laundry dishes and kick up the heat a few degrees lesson number five is we don't really know the duration of a crisis or the effects of the aftermath in the case of texas we're looking at crop failure that hard freeze killed a lot of crops and damaged things like fruit trees that will take many years to be able to re-establish it's created supply shortages we have a lot of broken pipes and there's only so much pipe to go around so even after an event you still need to be able to be self-sufficient and have a supply of things on hand even one of the things that he commented about is that that people are racing still to get gas because it will be three to four weeks before their power gets back on i know how bad it is when your water pipes break we had this event happen to us during this summer and it was a nightmare and it took us months to be able to get our home back to to normal also the damage that occurred to the grid and these roads aren't used to being frozen and so we've got a long road ahead to repair everything that the storm has caused not to mention economic losses and time off work lesson number six is build self-reliance that's what this is really all about that's what our mission is to help you do the things that will bring self-reliance and peace of mind in these times of crisis one of the things that lavanya did that i thought was just so wise was that he has this gas fireplace they've got natural gas but it won't work because he doesn't have power so he rigged it up so he could use the batteries those d batteries in order to be able to start his fireplace and keep it going and then he had neighbors who were in the same position and he went and helped them carla mentions that she learned to be appreciative about what she has not to take for granted the comfort of warm safe home that's full of food i learned that necessity is truly the mother of invention and i will survive this in order to be suffering light you need to increase the skills that you have and to stop the needed supplies adrie raindrop had a lot of good things to say but one of the things that she said is i'm gonna start gathering equipment to be better prepared for next time and lesson number seven take care of each other we had so many beautiful stories of people looking out for each other because community will thrive regardless of what happens if we all work together and sometimes that means that we need to sacrifice in order to help others ruby carter said i'm in texas and we went without heat for the past seven days we don't have a fireplace and our entire area was out of propane kerosene and diesel by day two we even had to help families break up furniture box springs and wood fences to get wood for them to get some heat with no salt trucks and plows here the roads were so bad even first responders couldn't get to people to help them day three no gas food or water and pipes bursting all over the place i was stocked up with food water and dried milk which i'm helping people with as of today because the food and wood is coming in slowly kudos to ruby that is exactly what we need to be doing we've got to help each other brian mentions that although he wasn't a prepper he did have things in place he said my wife and i have been hosting family and friends that are not as fortunate as we have been thank you brian and your wife for blessing your neighbors lesson number eight is eventually the weather clears and the power returns we should take the optimistic view and it really helps if we have what we need so that we can take care of ourselves and others and then realize the better times are coming beth dawson points out that one week out from the texas winter storm was 75 degrees now but still a bit shell-shocked and she goes on to explain that she's going to take this opportunity to be better prepared for the next event i think the biggest lesson to take away from all of this is to prepare for the future work together to make sure that you and your community are ready ice road trucker stevo left us this fantastic comment thank you so much you were very very kind but he says guys i am an ex-brit army specs op i love the stories as they brought my own personal survival memories flooding back i cannot speak highly enough about your prep video and this is a video that has actually gone wild it's six life-saving tips to survive a winter power outage and we were incredibly blessed that we were able to put this video out before this storm and help give people knowledge like the tent that hopefully helps some of them stay a little bit warmer but we need to all share that knowledge with each other and prepare for the future if you're new to prepping check out the prominent prepper newbie prepper 10 simple steps to get started this is a video series that we are creating just for newbie preppers and we've only gotten the first five of them out so keep watching because more are coming start with newbie prepper start here that's the first step and it just walks you in and then we go step by step by step and every video as you complete the required actions and read the material you are going to be so much better prepared and if you are out of water and you just want to jump ahead to figure out how to store your water check out newbies prepper step number five check them out a special thanks to all of our viewers who contributed in the comments and shared with us their stories so that we could create this video to help others and a special thanks to lavanya and courtney and their adorable girls for sharing their story and those really cute photos and now your homework is to take those notes and figure out where you need to shore up your plan take some action to make sure you're prepared for whatever comes your way and now for the question of the day what have you learned about living without power comment below and thanks for being part of the solution 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Channel: The Provident Prepper

Views: 41,634

Rating: 4.938705 out of 5

Keywords: Polar Vortex, 2021 Texas Winter Storm, Emergency Preparedness, SHTF, TEOTWAWKI, Prepper, Winter Storm Preps

Id: ZwhXqZ9LM7Q

Length: 26min 49sec (1609 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 24 2021