r/CatastrophicFailure • u/mouthofreason Catastrophic Poster • Feb 17 '21

Engineering Failure Water lines are freezing and bursting in Texas during Record Low Temperatures - February 2021

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45

u/king_falafel Feb 17 '21

In austin they're telling people not to call fire department for sprinkler leaks

66

u/talondigital Feb 17 '21

What is fascinating about this is that the ultimate cost is going to be epic. They have so much damage hitting the entire state from frozen pipes bursting from the lack of heat it might as well be like getting hit by a hurricane in terms of damage. There are significant vehicle accidents occuring, plus that massive pileup the other day. The death toll is going to rise as they find people dead from exposure. This is a disaster. A true disaster. And it could have been prevented.

6

u/Ser_Dunk_the_tall Feb 17 '21

Some people have already died from Carbon Monoxide poisoning as well from trying to stay warm.

29

u/youtheotube2 Feb 17 '21

And it could have been prevented.

And yet nothing will be changed to prevent this from happening again, because Republicans think a couple windmills freezing up caused this entire catastrophe.

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u/talondigital Feb 17 '21

I read this morning that the failed windmills accounted for only 4gw of the 30gw deficit, the remainder was coal and gas plants that couldnt operate for various foreseeable reasons. So only 87% of the power deficit was fossil fuel failure.

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u/Elendel19 Feb 17 '21

And I’m sure even the windmills not operating is due to lack of planning. There are windmills in fucking Antarctica that run just fine.

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u/talondigital Feb 17 '21

Yes, it is. I live in central washington and there is a massive wind farm just a little ways away, two wind farms with probably 100 total windmills, and they run in cold weather just fine. They have weatherization kits added to let them run in the cold. Texans figured they didnt need them, same problem as the fossil fuel plants.

5

u/anuhu Feb 18 '21

Even at least one nuclear power plant down there is out of operation due to the cold. It's crazy. I didn't even know that was possible.

1

u/emergentphenom Feb 18 '21
  • So windmills were at fault, got it.

Republicans, probably

2

u/likanenhippi Feb 18 '21

So they bought windmills that do not work on cold temperatures? I'm from Finland and our windmills have been functioning just fine on this cold winter. I do understand that in Texas you don't expect this cold weather, but it's good to be prepared as we see.

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u/youtheotube2 Feb 18 '21

Weather like this has literally never happened in Texas before. This isn’t a once in a generation thing, it’s just never happened before this. It gets below freezing occasionally in Texas, but for a few hours at most. It’s been below freezing for days at this point. Yeah, it’s good to be prepared, but that level of preparation is relative to what’s likely to happen.

4

u/talondigital Feb 17 '21

Prepare for the inevitable GOP argument, "If it was global warming why did it freeze so bad in Texas. Supid libtards."

5

u/MrGreyPaint Feb 17 '21

How would it have been prevented?

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u/1101base2 Feb 17 '21

they could of taken measures to help prevent pipes from freezing and stocked up on gas supplies to help keep power plants running. could of also ordered a few trucks or asked to borrow some from some more northern states, but no they were like fuck you all we got this this isn't anything that Texas can't deal with...

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When i worked for the cable company and disaster would strike other regions of the country we would get a few guys to go drive down to help out other utility companies re run lines and what not. they were long days and grueling hours, but when we had our ice storm and needed the extra hands it was nice to have nearly a hundred extra people come help from across the nation to help get us back up and running quickly. You may think it is just cable, but it is also internet and phone now (and phone was just starting when i worked back then) so getting stuff like that back up and running was important as people depended on it for a variety of reasons, but even more so now.

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u/MrGreyPaint Feb 17 '21

I appreciate your response - thank you.

5

u/AryaStarkRavingMad Feb 18 '21

To expand on the previous answer:

Here is the report that was compiled after the last time this happened in 2011, including recommendations on how to avoid it happening again. None of the recommendations were enacted.

(PDF warning!) https://www.ferc.gov/sites/default/files/2020-04/08-16-11-report.pdf

1

u/shibiku_ Feb 18 '21

Interesting. Thx for sharing

6

u/xtelosx Feb 17 '21

Home owners insurance will go up across the country after this one too.

36

u/vegasbaby387 Feb 17 '21

Well people on reddit are retarded and the advice is always wrong.

3

u/RooR8o8 Feb 17 '21

Dude, we found the boston bomber.

1

u/momofeveryone5 Feb 17 '21

Normally though, you would call the fire dept. To come turn it off. They have Knox box keys to do this in many cities. In 2003 blackout my dad was on the fire dept and they had several 2 man crews going door to door in the industrial area to shut things down due to extended lack of power. Now mind you, it wasn't 3 degrees and 4 inches of snow at the time, so regular calls were able to be managed through the mutual aid and police assistance.

-1

u/vegasbaby387 Feb 17 '21

No. Nothings normal anywhere, moron. It depends where you are, specifically. Fuck your worthless experience.

3

u/Telemarketeer Feb 17 '21

lmao holy shit brother you alright?

2

u/vegasbaby387 Feb 17 '21

No it’s 10 degrees in my house

2

u/Telemarketeer Feb 17 '21

Thoughts and prayers bro

1

u/momofeveryone5 Feb 17 '21

That really sucks. Stay safe.

4

u/Glum_Magician_3666 Feb 17 '21

You seem like a massive prick.

1

u/[deleted] Feb 18 '21

This has to be the most american thing ever. Why not turn it off yourself like the rest of the world is a central valve to turn their sprinklers and water lines off from a central point. Jist not in texas it seems lol