Power back on east of the Domain just now.

Praying that it stays up.

EDIT: Well, it lasted about 15 minutes.

We've been cycling up and down today, roughly 20 minutes off and 40 minutes on except for it failing literally before my Zoom interview started and staying off the entire hour. Thank goodness for mobile hotspots.

Aust Ag said:

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Has anyone here ventured out today?

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I went to Mass at noon and then came home on Anderson. They are mostly just slush now.

East Round Rock by Dell Diamond. We were without power for 43 hours, and got it back last night. It rolled off and on throughout the night, and has been on constantly since 6:00 am. While the power was out, I moved most of the food into a cooler and put it outside. I then took a large tub, filled it with packed snow, and turned my refrigerator into an old-style ice box (kids, ask your grandparent what an ice box is). It worked perfectly. Outside faucets have been dripping since Sunday night, and no busted pipes. My backyard is going to be a swamp when everything melts, but I'll deal with that over busted pipes. I've got enough food to go through next week easily.

Out East we've got slushy ice crusted snow everywhere but the ground warmth is slowly melting it. The freeze tonight is going to make wet roads bad again by dawn tomorrow. We have rolling blackouts that are fairly tolerable, Internet over cellular hot spots, but our water is a trickle now. We have plenty to drink and cook with and for pets but can't easily wash dishes or of course clean. I figure it'll be restored by this weekend. Living out in the country means we have plenty of food.

78745 - Water out as of about 2pm. All other services normal.

Made it from RR West to Highland Park on the feeder of 45. Power on. Water was dripping when we got home but stopped right after. Probably going back to RR tonight.

78748 - water stopped about 2:00 pm as well.

No power since Monday, just lost water at noon. South Austin near Regents school

Kyle tx. No power. No water.

SMTX. No power currently. Been cycling since about 4am on for an hour or two and then off for an hour. Water has been fine all week until right now. No pressure and I fear we will have no water soon.

For those of you with no water, I hope you were able to get your tubs filled. We did that and went snow shoveling for the ice chests. Here's hoping water is restored soon.

Got the tub filled and a dozen or so gallons of drinking water in the garage saved over time. I'm hopeful that'll be enough to get through the next couple of days and the utility/water companies are able to get back online soon

78746 Water pressure dropped this morning and then completely shut off around 2:30 pm. Have had pool pumps running constantly but just discovered busted pipe after noticing that water level was suddenly dropping. Cut off pipe upstream of crack and stuffed towel in to slow outflow. Fingers crossed that there are no other broken pipes discovered as temps warm up.

Just lost water NW Austin. What's the advice? Cut off at the street or leave that open and wait / hope water service returns.

Where in NW Austin?

In Pflugerville. Still no power. 65 hours ish. No blips at all. Water has been in and out but we got enough today to take one lukewarm shower. We're doing okay on food but it's chilling on our porch. We have a gas stove and is the only thing keeping us going. Tires are completely frozen up the wheel well.

This is the first time I've had enough data to load Texags so I've got that going for me.

chet98 said:

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Just lost water NW Austin. What's the advice? Cut off at the street or leave that open and wait / hope water service returns.

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That's what I'm hearing, cut off at street. Though I'm not sure how you'd know it was back on.

What's the reasoning for shutting off at the street if you lose water?

Dumpster Fire said:

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What's the reasoning for shutting off at the street if you lose water?

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I think it assumes if there's a possibility of a pipe burst, you can control it better once it thaws...water not going everywhere, you running around like 3 Stooges trying to get the situation under control.

Round Rock may be one of the few water providers not worried about losing water service. They posted that they have plenty of fuel for generator backups should they lose power, and needed to tap into the backups yet. I don't know how much of that to believe, but I'll take it for now.

Water pressure starting to get low in West Austin by Muni. All other good on our street. Drove to Central Market earlier via Lamar and Whole Foods - No power at Whole Foods.

Thanks.

Yeah I'm getting low pressure now too. *****

Forecast is showing noon on Friday to get above 40 deg. Then everyone is going to go crazy at grocery stores for water, hiney wipe and quick ready foods. It'll be like Stay Home order but with people cooped up and no utilities for four days.

MaroonStain said:

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Forecast is showing noon on Friday to get above 40 deg. Then everyone is going to go crazy at grocery stores for water, hiney wipe and quick ready foods. It'll be like Stay Home order but with people cooped up and no utilities for four days.

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Sure but the restaurants and fast food places will be open. I don't need to stock up on frozen pizza when I can go to home slice or dominos. Don't need a bunch of bread and sandwich meat if thundercloud is open. I'm good on butt stuff too, thx.

Whataburger car line was probably 100 cars long just now.

Cutting off water at the street is to prevent your pipes bursting and flooding your home. It is two step process.

1. Cut off at the meter in your yard. Usually located near the edge of your property. If you have a water softener you could potentially cut off there.

2. Next you drain BOTH hot and cold faucets in every room you have a sink. This drains your home system.

No water, no freezing, no busted pipes. As for checking for return of the system you will have to manually turn on and go turn on one faucet. If its back you will know. If not repeat 1&2. Pain in the ass but better then spending six weeks rehabing your home from water damage. I have been there and its is painful

Oh and KXAN is forecasting 25 tonight so if you don't have bust pipes already you probably won't tonight. Tomorrow down to 19 which is worrisome

Jester

I seem to get the short end of the stick in these supposed rotations. 40 mins of power since Monday 2ish am.

See I'm thinking I have no busted pipes right now, never lost power (knock on wood) so should be in good shape so thinking of opening all faucets but leaving street open too. I feel like I read somewhere this would allow any ice to travel down the length of the pipe and not try to push out the side of the pipe rupturing it. Have read so much this week, much of which conflicts, so I'm not 100% sure this is accurate though.

78753 no power since Monday 2am, lost water around 2pm today...

PEC says they're now working on a schedule of 90 minutes off followed by 3 hours on, and our recent outage in CP was right at 90.

I had power and lost hot water for 2 days so not perfect. But yes if you have water and drip both hot and cold faucets you should be ok, unless water is cut off. Then if it does not flow and remains in the pipes it has potential to freeze and expand. That is when the pipes bust. No perfect solution except what I posted. It's drastic but I seriously considered it and wife said she wanted to drip.

So I dripped cold not hot and hot froze. And that was with power and the house at 66. I was kicking myself for two days not doing what I posted worrying went hot melted I'd have busted pipes. Thankfully hot unfroze and no busts.

With the current water supply issues, having power and temps at 25 rather than 5, dripping is probably not a good idea.