Snovid 2021

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Frigid temperatures meet power and water outages, leaving customers in the cold

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The historic winter storm Uri that hit Texas last week left Northeast Texans dealing with new experiences. Some were positive, and some weren't. Many residents lost power and water, some for an extended amount of time, in single digit weather conditions.

Many Texans coined aftermath of the winter weather as "Snovid."

Some News-Telegram readers recounted their experiences.

"Our adventure started the night of Feb. 14 with the so-called 'rolling blackouts'. Around 2 in the morning the first power outage occurred," said Sharon Alexander. "No problem. We just went back to sleep and waited for it to come back on. It did then off again a couple of hours later. We were willing to do our turn and help the rest of Texas. Of course snow and ice were everywhere, so we couldn’t get out to go to work. The outages got longer and longer with less and less time when we got power. It got colder and colder. We started considering a hotel. But...no openings anywhere and we had a puppy we had to take with us. We closed off the extra rooms trying to hold in heat as we had no fireplace or gas anything. We moved a mattress to the living and piled on the blankets. We were continuously calling Oncor to report the outage. Never got any updates. No one ever answered."

"We finally got a room at Clarion Pointe around 11:30. We were so happy to be warm. We’d ridden around just to get warm in the truck. Then to get a hot shower! Heaven. The staff was wonderful. That night we decided to step over to the lounge (a few steps outside our door) and get a drink leaving the dog in the room. When we went back we couldn’t get the door open. The key didn’t work not for us, not for the staff, not with a change of batteries, not for the manager! All the time the puppy is yelping. Then all the Strike force nurses and respiratory therapists came and visited with us while we waited on the maintenance man," said Alexander.

Alexander returned home Thursday with power and heat, and later learned of a water boil notice, as well as a notice that the water was going to temporarily be shut off.

"We made it through the storm and met some wonderful people in the process," Alexander said.

Leslie Jordan told the News-Telegram in a Facebook comment, "As a mom of 7, with only 3 young ladies left at home (15,19,21) who are always coming and going between church, their community Bible study in town, and 2 part time jobs each and one is getting married soon, so, I was really excited to get some extra time with them," Jordan said. "They made the best of it, making memories, learning that it's not very feasible to make a snow angel in a foot or more of snow, LOL! It was fun watching them though! They also tried cookie sheet sledding and that worked! The snow and the beauty of it all was just a GREAT reminder of how beautifully talented our Creator is. Everything God creates is 'very good'!"