Worst Yet

I can remember snow, I can also remember ice. Just two winters ago we had record breaking snow fall.

Every year we usually have a day or two of ice and that shuts most everything down for a couple of days, but we have never seen anything like this.
Five to eight inches of ice on the roads. All of North Texas is shut down and has been for three days now.
I know we are not used to seeing this stuff and we all don’t know how to drive in it but it’s not all us this time. The picture to the right is going through our little town.

Take a look at the picture below. This is I35 going through Sanger up to Oklahoma. There are hundreds and hundreds of trucks stranded on the road. I agree that it probably only took a couple of us dump Texas drivers to cause all this, but these guys have been there for three days now.
I’m just saying that I  have never seen anything like this before. To top it all off, this morning we had an earthquake.
The end is near my friends, LOL
   

The store shelves are empty at our local grocery store. They cannot get any shipments in. Thousands of folks are out of power. Just yesterday the report was up to 200,000. Food is running low in the houses that have power and folks are almost in a panic state. The only thing keeping people sane is the fact they cannot go anywhere and we will be thawed out Tuesday.
Now, all this for only three or four days of shut down. Can you imagine what would happen if this was for a month? I almost feel sorry for the folks that think I am the radical one.

Saying all that, I also found holes in my preps as well. Our time in this shutdown has not been a cake walk either. In just three days I have found out if this prolonged, I would not have enough wood to heat the house. I am already out of wood and only have enough in reserve for one day just in case our power goes out. I need more wood stored.  I am relying on our “not so good heater” to keep us warm.
My stored drinking water is not what I thought it to be. Over the past few months we have become slacked in our preps and if our well was to freeze up we would have not had enough water to get us through this week.
I don’t have any deicer in the truck so we have to waste gas to thaw it out enough to leave in a hurry just in case we need to and speaking of gas, I only have a day or so stored up for the generator. Over the past few months I have used it and not replaced it.
My bug out bag are not equipped for this kind of weather. I keep hot weather items in them because that is more of what we have. I would need a complete overhaul of our bug out bags to prepare for this.

My wife was telling me some of her friends were hiking to the store just for supplies only to find the shelves almost empty. How can folks not prepare ahead of time and why do those same folks think we are the crazy ones? I didn’t have to walk anywhere and I won’t.

It’s amazing what happens in just a short time of bad weather or a complete shutdown.
What would these same folks do if this or something worse lasted for a couple of months? I am glad I found what I am lacking on now instead of later.

Stay warm and safe,
Jerry