We are finally thawing out from the Southern Winter Storm that swept through last week. When I got off work Friday before last, I knew we were probably going to get a little snow and would most likely be working from home a couple of days into the new week. I had no idea we would be working from home the entire week and freezing our tooshies off!
Hubby decided to leave for Houston, Texas on Saturday (the 13th) just in case the storm started coming in sooner. I had NO idea when he left that Houston and all of Texas would be getting the very worst of this storm. By Sunday night, his hotel lost power. We started to get snow here in Mississippi. By Monday morning he was still without power and had to tough it out another night, going to the car during the night to warm up. The snow and sleet arrived here. The funeral home in Houston had to push my mother-in-law’s funeral out to what we thought would be Friday. Husband was miserable and could not stay that long. He managed to convince the funeral home director to let him see his mom Tuesday afternoon to say his goodbyes. The weather was getting worse there but he was positive he could make it home and be better off than staying. I was nervous, but he is a truck driver with over 20 years of experience. He started home at 3:00 Tuesday afternoon.
By 11 PM that night he was still crawling through Texas. The roads were horrible, but he had an emergency backpack with supplies, extra food, and water. I told him I would be by the phone waiting for updates. He called at 1 AM to report he was in a terrible backup on I10 in Louisiana and had been there for two hours. It really looked as if he might have to leave the car and accept a ride to safety. This is the backup he was in:
Naturally, I was scared and nervous. He promised to let me know if he left the car. He called back two hours later to tell me that he and some more drivers were able to use the shoulder and go around the backup. The cause was several 18 wheelers unable to get up the incline on the interstate. In total, what should have been an 8-hour trip took my husband 23 hours in those treacherous conditions. He arrived home Wednesday afternoon, exhausted and shaken. I am so thankful he made it home and managed to stay safe. My car looked like this:
We spent the entire week making sure to leave faucets dripping, cabinet doors to the sinks open at all times and just trying to stay warm. I am so thankful we never lost power or had any plumbing issues. It dipped down to 7 degrees one night. The highs were 11 and 16 a couple of days. We just aren’t built for this in the South and neither is our infrastructure.
It honestly could have been so much worse. I’ve lived through an ice storm where we lost power for two weeks, but not in such horrible cold like what this Southern winter storm blanketed Texas with. If you’d like to help, this article has a great list of places in need of monetary donations and other items.
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