Individual Responsibility in disasters

[PondPopper]

OP you nailed it.. SPOT ON!!!!
The wussification of America is becoming more evident with each passing year... It is incredible and dam sad how many grown men(20-50)have no clue how to prepare or respond in these situations..... It's amazing how many people had no fire wood, no food, no water, no gasoline and no propane... We where warned..

[BarBBar]

If you are a CPAP user like I am, you must find a way to run it without power. Without mine, I have gone into heart failure due to suffocation caused by my severe sleep apnea.

During the first power outages, I would sit in the cold 54 degree candlelight waiting for the power to come back. As soon as it did, I hooked up to my CPAP and slept, only to be awakened by no air an hour later when it cut off again. As cut offs became longer, I forced myself to stay awake, feeding the fireplace to save my plumbing with my heat pump out of action.

I did have a backup battery to run my CPAP, but it was not charged up. It must be recharged every six months. I did not have a car charger for it (a phone charger will not work), and I could not travel to friends who still had power due to road conditions. Eventually, power came back yesterday, and I charged the battery (which will only charge for one night's use per charge). Fortunately, power came back on yesterday, and last night my CPAP ran while I slept for ten hours.

I have ordered a car charger for the CPAP back up battery. I might also order a generator, which would also run a CPAP, for belt and suspenders coverage. I also have a back up machine, and a separate battery cord for it also. If you are not on a CPAP now, you might be in the future. Sleep apnea has killed lots of folks, usually from heart failure and strokes, but also drivers falling asleep.

[Duckologist]

If you are a CPAP user like I am, you must find a way to run it without power. Without mine, I have gone into heart failure due to suffocation caused by my severe sleep apnea.

During the first power outages, I would sit in the cold 54 degree candlelight waiting for the power to come back. As soon as it did, I hooked up to my CPAP and slept, only to be awakened by no air an hour later when it cut off again. As cut offs became longer, I forced myself to stay awake, feeding the fireplace to save my plumbing with my heat pump out of action.

I did have a backup battery to run my CPAP, but it was not charged up. It must be recharged every six months. I did not have a car charger for it (a phone charger will not work), and I could not travel to friends who still had power due to road conditions. Eventually, power came back yesterday, and I charged the battery (which will only charge for one night's use per charge). Fortunately, power came back on yesterday, and last night my CPAP ran while I slept for ten hours.

I have ordered a car charger for the CPAP back up battery. I might also order a generator, which would also run a CPAP, for belt and suspenders coverage. I also have a back up machine, and a separate battery cord for it also. If you are not on a CPAP now, you might be in the future. Sleep apnea has killed lots of folks, usually from heart failure and strokes, but also drivers falling asleep.

I'm covered, I have a battery pack that will run my cpap for a couple of nights plus 2 generators.

[locolobo]

Agreed! . Have seen s#!* happen for 65 yr now. I know that in a pinch I may be left to fend for myself and my family. And I was a boy scout. Be Prepared!

[MASTERS]

This weather has made me severely disappointed in the general public. Simply put, people are selfish, lazy, unprepared & ignorant. Pass the blame every chance they get. **** shame. They are willing to risk first responders well being and saftey for their lack of preparedness, and have little to no guilt for it.

I have plumbing repair supplies, generators, gasoline, propane, cord wood, food and water standing by waiting on their chance to do work if the need arises.

Remember men, your wife & kids are always watching. They need to see that dad is ready to take care of them if the **** gets ugly.....

If anyone in Bexar or Wilson county is in distress and needs help getting by get them in contact with me, I’ll do all I can to help.

[gumbl3]

We are less than a year out from the run on grocery stores, tp, etc etc... People took their "free" covid money and bought tvs when they should have learned their lesson and had an eye opener... I certainly learned a bit then and feel like I was well prepared, not comfortable but surviving relying on no one.. will take lessons from this and apply them to the future.. we are well on our way to third world status, writing is and has been on the wall.. thankfully there's a few left with the american spirit that will continue to take care of themselves and they neighbor.. hopefully this is a wake up call that last March and April should have been

[CaptainDave]

I agree more with beleg. I agree with personal responsibility suggested by the OP, but I just don't think it has anything to do with the severity of what is going on right now. It seems more of a boastful statement at this time. We should be able to depend on utilities in these times.

The OP fails to realize the only disaster in "significant natural disasters" was whoever failed to warn everyone that the systems would fail. Mainly due to margin system designs to these conditions. The conditions were known and the design issues should have been known. They continued to fail when emails and all news organizations kept asking people to drop their thermostats below 68 while many around here would have been thrilled to get above 38. It is obvious to even the dumbest of people that a hurricane or tornado will cause system failures, this, quite the opposite.

Worst case energy draw event or not, just a 25% or 50% power up time would have made things significantly different. Complete failure is unacceptable.

While I agree with the premise of the OP, I also agree with the above. Leadership in these organizations failed on many levels. Obviously, the issues for the power outages are multiple (i.e. too much reliance on wind/solar, lack of winterizing equipment and back-up generators, lack of foresight for power demand, etc.). This weather event was widely reported over a week before it occurred. Even as of last Sunday, people were told to try and conserve power and be prepared for intermittent power outages whether due to ice/downed lines or rolling blackouts.

Sorry, but preparation for rolling schedule blackouts is much different than prepping for no power for 2-3 days at a time. It's becoming clear that many of these people knew of the possibility of grid failure due to extreme cold and the inherent lack of preparation for it over the last several years. ERCOT or whomever, could have at least been straight with that to the public, but they weren't. Heck, they were still talking about rolling blackouts when the majority of outages were not hours, but days.

Myself and family were prepared, at least enough. We had plenty of bottled water, canned goods, batteries, etc. from our hurricane stash. Natural gas stove and fireplace work just fine lighting with a match. With that said, had I known the true possibility of grid failure and potential for a multi-day power outage, I would have done more. Another thing that nobody seems to mention is the cellular service. At least around the Houston area, cell service took a dump for 2 days. It was difficult to make calls, text, etc., even just to see how family members were holding up. I'm not sure how you prep for that.

So our leaders, not only failed on the long-term based on the shear lack of contingency planning for an event like this; they also completely failed by not properly informing the public last week.

Like I said, I also agree with the personal accountability aspect of this. It's not just the reliance on utilities. There's way too many people that live day by day with little regard to the future. You can see that by something as simple as a run on water during an event like this. It shows the most people don't even maintain more than a couple days worth of drinking water on hand.

[SL1]

Having spent 30 years in commercial development I will say the government and every utility company I have ever dealt with has been reactive instead of proactive. I always try to be prepared for me and family. Right now they are more focused on who to blame then fixing anything.

[meltingfeather]

100%

I also expect of myself that I will do what I can to help neighbors, friends, and family.

[Rcole1310]

By God's grace we've been good so far. Haven't missed a beat. I did what I could to help friends and neighbors (wrapped pipes, moved plants) and I'm at peace with that little effort. Having said that, I'm about to get serious about being able to ride out a two week event. Too much drama happening nowadays not to be able to comfortably hunker down in place. Anything beyond two weeks and it's time to head or the hills I guess.

[ThisLadyHunts]

A well known Meteorologist tweeted last Thursday “it feels like 5 days before Harvey, but a winter event.” I think we can all agree this was one of the most significant natural disasters to hit Texas, effecting 2/3 of the state.

There is plenty of blame to be spread around, from state officials, ERCOT & SWPP, down to local providers/co-ops. But can we truly depend on utilities during times of natural disasters? What is our personal responsibility?

I take a hard line here. It’s my responsibility to protect my family. To ensure we can survive. That means have the skills and supplies to do so. I believe we have become too dependent on these creature comforts and forget running water central heat and especially electricity are relatively new functions in a home. It might not be comfortable, or fun, but I think we need to expect these failures be that from a winter event, a spring thunderstorm/tornado and certainly the coastal folks know from a hurricane, and be prepared

Many have been saying this same thing over a number of different posts, but nobody as succinctly as you. Thanks for sharing.

[ruger41]

This is just my opinion but there are too many people that are capable of taking care of themselves that are depending on the government to save them. The OP was spot on! You need to be able to take care of you and your family. You should not trust anyone to do that. But the other side of the argument is also right. The ones in need should be able to depend on the government for help, that's one of the reasons they are there. To be clear, "in need" does not mean everyone, and that is the problem. The general public thinks they are entitled to everything and shouldn't have to take care of things themselves because "I pay taxes!"

[curtintex]

Lot of truth in this mans statement. A lot of us are willing and able to provide for our family in an event like this. The weaker and elderly not so much. That’s different totally!

It’s my responsibility to help provide for the weak and elderly. Yours too. As well as the responsibility of any able-bodied man to help those that truly need it. Love thy neighbor.


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[glen]

I have been made fun of for being a prepper by many people. Heck we moved recwntly and i only took essentials and im still better situated than most. I have three sealed 5 gallon buckets with food resources- temp cooking resources- life straws - and some basic survival supplies. I have that with me staying in a VRBO. Once i move ill go back to better supplied. Will can protein and veggies for 6 months supply- 6 more months of dried-

Nothing anyone can do about your situation for this event. Do best you can. Improve your situation for the next event. The next one may be real bad.

Be able to provide yourself food- process water- prepare food and heat. Improve your own situation and events like this are not stressful. I see folks under a tremendous amount of stress because if their situation. If you are one of them dont forget this cold snap

[ren087]

Exactly!!!