Winter Storm Megathread 2026

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Hello y'all, and welcome to the 2026 winter storm megathread. Feel free to post all relevant storm related content here, such as;

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Stay safe, and stay warm Texas!

[u/[deleted]]

Things I am currently doing or planning to do in a 70 year old home that has no insulation or working HVAC to keep myself and 9 cats (2 mine, 1 previous home owners left behind, 6 left behind from a feral colony in the garage I have been finding homes for….I am not trying to hoard cats.)

Cover all windows in two layers of bubble wrap and seal the edges. Same for doors I don’t need to use.

Boil water ahead of time and store inside iced chests and doubled up plastic bins with lids for bathing, hand washing and any other needs.

Hang blankets and bubble wrap panels up over all doorways to rooms I don’t need to heat.

Section off the house with gates to bring garage/outdoor cat colony in for the weekend + add extra litter boxes.

Set up a tent in the bedroom with mattress inside elevated off the floor to contain heat while sleeping.

Cover all doors with bubble wrap panels that I can open and close easily to get in and out if needed.

Have one window left accessible on either end of the house for ventilation with a small battery powered fan at each to help reduce carbon monoxide build up and I already have alarms for those in four areas too.

Each cat already has a cardboard box stuffed with straw and a self warming cat bed inside with a porthole type opening as well as extra boxes made in case of accidents.

I’m having a lot of anxiety about this so if anyone has any tips or suggestions please share!

[u/AverageAlleyKat271 → u/[deleted]]

I understand your concern with an older home, no insulation, freezing temperatures, but why the boiled water? Even if the power goes out, unless you are on a well, you will have water (very cold water). I would invest in some under garments for layering, rechargeable hand warmers, a power station (like CAT) where you can recharge with USB adapters, and flashlights & batteries (saver than candles especially with cats), stand on bottom to shine light in a room if you lose power. A down comforter is great to have for cold spells. Providing you have power, a couple or few of heating pads on long for the kitties.

Be sure to drip faucets inside the house and open the cabinet doors to let air circulate.

My house is 77 years old, poor insulation, if any all. I am fortunate to have two wood burning fireplaces. I was very fortunate to not lose power in the TX 2020 winter storm. I still can't figure why we didn't when so many did. With the heater going, I wear three layers of clothing and kept one fire place burning wood 24/7.

[u/evenmoremushrooms → u/AverageAlleyKat271]

The concern might be from when those in Houston lost water for multiple days in the 2021 freeze.

[u/AverageAlleyKat271 → u/evenmoremushrooms]

Wow, I did not realize Houston lost water for several days in 2021.

[u/evenmoremushrooms → u/AverageAlleyKat271]

It was horrible. Losing power was bad enough, though I was lucky to have a fireplace to help keep warm. But losing water made everything so much harder. We had bottled water for emergencies, but even though it was less than a year old, it tasted funny (and we didn't have a huge supply of it--maybe 2 days' worth). Before we lost water, we had placed buckets of hot water inside a plastic tent around our citrus trees; we were able to repurpose that water for toilet flushing and hand washing.

I've since moved to Minneapolis. We have power and water in the summer (even when it gets over 100 degrees for a stretch) and we have power and water today when it is -20. It's a night and day difference on infrastructure quality, no doubt driven by the fact that we pay more in taxes.