It was a challenging week for many North Americans, with record cold temperatures across the country, and in some areas – Texas, in particular – power was out to millions of homes for days.
For some of those people, just surviving was a battle against time and nature.
How about you? Were you affected by the frigid temperatures and/or power outages? If you are a full-timer, were you able to keep your RV warm and your water flowing? If you were in a traditional home, did your RV prove a sanctuary with its generator for power, and propane for heat?
Please leave a comment and share your experiences.
And if you are still in a difficult situation, we wish you good luck!
I live in the Low Country of South Carolina. Temps were below average with lots of rain…what I call fireplace weather. Biggest concern was that my tiny house on wheels might become a houseboat.
We have had warm to hot weather here in South Florida with many beautiful mornings in the Mid 60’s to low 70’s. We have been hearing from relatives with no power, deep snow and extreme cold, and snow drifts to 12 to 18 feet. Kind of reminds me of why I settled in South Florida. Cool this morning at 62 degrees.
Connecticut here, it’s winter, there is snow, ice and cold temps, but it’s not totally abnormal. I have colleagues who are hurting in Texas, they’re just not equipped to deal with it like we are and it sounds just awful.
We were in Mississippi then moved to Demopolis Alabama when the trouble started. We left the Alabama campground early and moved east. Still some cold but not like Texas and Louisiana. If you have wheels, move!
I am in the Corpus Christie, Texas area. I lost power at 2 a.m. Monday. Thank God for a full tank of gas and an on-board generator. It ran steadily for 63 hours before the power came back on. I had filled my fresh water tank about 3/4 full, turned off the water and wrapped the tap to keep it from freezing. That worked just fine. After the power came back on, the water pressure was very low. Water was shut off, what there was of it, by the water company to repair broken water mains. As of this morning, we have water again, but because of the low pressure we are under a boil water advisory which is expected to last until at least Tuesday. While it was not the best week of my life, it certainly wasn’t the worst. All in all, I came through pretty unscathed. Now, I just need a shower!
We are in deep south Texas and experienced the same electrical issue, but a little longer. We have a portable generator we couldn’t get running so had to use the truck to keep battery charged for heat and lights. Repair shop took pity on us, fixed generator same day, just dirty carburetor, and used it to run our 5th wheel. We had water in our tank already because of repair work prior to the storm. I think we were much luckier than most in the valley.
I’m in Hill Country, TX living in my 5th wheel in an RV Park. This week has been very difficult. Many in our park ran out of propane, the electric went out completely 1 night, followed by rolling blackouts for a few days. The water pump on our water supply broke and many pipes burst, so we were out of water for days. I melted snow for toilet water. The black water tank was filling fast and the valve was frozen so it couldn’t be pulled to dump. We were unable to drive out being we are on top of a frozen hill. Everything had iced over. On top of the ice we got about 10 inches of snow. We were running out of fresh food, dog food and drinking water. I wore a beanie, scarf, and a big blanket inside my RV to keep warm. It was a very scary time, we were in survival mode. Thank God that’s over and Thank God that we didn’t sell our stick and bricks in beautiful Lake Havasu! It was definitely an experience and a new story in our arsenal but we’re going home and selling the RV. Bye-bye full time
The Texas Hill country is so beautiful it’s such a shame that the weather spoiled your stay.
We live in Kansas and had plans to go to Austin in January for a couple of months to be warmer this winter. Health reasons kept us from going but as it turned out, it was worse in Texas than here, or at least would have been if we were in our MotorHome. We are happy to be in our house after all and feel terrible for those who have had such a cold time of it.
Here in central AL, lows were around 20, so we’ve disconnected from the water and using our water tank supply. This means more conservative use for dishes and Navy or sponge showers. Otherwise, no big problem. We escaped the snow and ice of north AL.
Like many, we are “full-time” RVers although we have not been doing much traveling since Covid 19 hit our country. We come from the Northwest but decided to stay in place with our son in Oklahoma. We have seen temperatures dip to a low of -13 degrees and went for over two weeks with the daily high temperatures well below freezing. I believe that I can safely say that no RV is built for those kinds of temperatures, especially for any length of time. We did alright but our water did freeze and after two days of frozen water, we decided to spend some time in a local hotel. I know that many others may have had a rougher time than us and I can truly sympathize with them. I am not a fan of this kind of weather while living in an RV. Will this have a lasting impact on us as we begin to move back into warmer weather…probably so.
We are on our way to AZ for 6 weeks of sunshine and warmth. We wanted to visit Laurel, MS where HGTV’s show Home Town is filmed. We were staying 2 nights, that is until Storm Uri. A week later, today, we are finally continuing our trip west. Unlike others we had no snow and just a bit of freezing rain but temperatures were below freezing and for days we had to trickle water. We were fortunate not to have our pipes freeze unlike others in the park. As TexasDrive, the Texas DOT, told me the roads near Dallas are still iffy so we’re headed west via the longer I-10 route via Houston. Wish us well as we head out hoping for clear roads and gas.
We would like to share our video about our experience: (67) Quartzsite or Texas. We will survive!! – YouTube
Such a great attitude! Thanks for sharing. Feeling guilty. We are in Florida…Thursday it was 86, yesterday 63 and thunderstorms, today sun with clouds but high of 60. Starts to warm back up tomorrow with only one day of possible thunderstorms in the next 10 days. Left California about a month ago. Grateful we missed the terrible weather in Texas.
As we live in Wyoming, we are accustomed to very extreme temperatures. Our temperatures were in excess of -15 for 3 – 4 days. Unlike the south, our homes and infrastructure are built for this. We have relatives and friends in Kansas, Texas and Oklahoma that we’re impacted by the storms. We hope everyone is safe now that weather is improving.
Although we consider ourselves full-time RV’ers (4+ years now), when Covid hit last March we decided to come “home” to our daughters home in Ohio. We are living in the bunkhouse above the garage while the kids are in the house. We are both very comfy even though the temps have been as low as 2 degrees and the snow on the ground is 12+ inches, we are fortunate to have power and water. We heat with a propane gas space heater that we brought in from the coach and hooked to the gas supply line coming to the bunkhouse/garage – it needs no electric so we can stay warm even if the power does go out
We left our home on the West side of Puget Sound for a preplanned long weekend in Port Townsend in our Coach. The forecast was freezing temps and snow, but it was coming from the South, and we were headed North, so no problem. To make a long story short – we ended up getting 2 inches or so where we were in the coach, while almost a foot fell on our house just 50 miles away. But this is the PACNW – by the time we arrived home on Tuesday our 11″ had been melted and rained on and was just 3″ on the ground. We got really lucky!
We live in Dallas and were at home for the winter. We never lost power or water but knew many who lost one or both. We saw many horror stories about flooded homes from broken pipes without power, all at below freezing temperatures. Everyone who had something to conserve conserved it. The frozen pipes were a natural result of the untypical intensity of the winter storm, an all-time record in many places. The power outages were mainly the result of the hundreds of wind turbines erected in recent years in an effort to go green. They were not designed for these temperatures and froze to the point they could not produce. This left a very large population dependent on the older, hydrocarbon or nuclear driven, power generation plants that simply could not keep up. Power was imported from adjacent grids where it could be found, but the end result was rolling blackouts for many. It’s estimated about 50 people may have died as a result of this storm.
Actually the power from wind turbines exceeded what was expected even with some shut down due to icing. The main problem was fossil fuel power plants not equipped for the extreme cold due to deregulation and for profit companies. Texas is also the only state not able to draw from the interconnect with other states. They chose this to avoid the costs associated with proper safeguards to protect from this type of situation. Typical cost cutting to maximize profit! Look it up.
Sorry to be blunt here, but I’m really tired of hearing the lies about green energy being promoted by Texas leaders who should know better. The fact of the matter is that MOST of the interrupted power came from other power driven plants that Texas CHOSE not to winterize because they didn’t want government regulation. Also, Texas CHOSE not to be connected to other grids because of foolish, immature fear of “regulation”.
Unfortunately, ya’lls state is going to be paying for its shortsighted anti-regulation stance for a long while. It’s really sad.
Kam.. correct. More lies about green by leaders trying to point fingers at anyone but themselves for this disaster. Yes, they froze up, but were hardly the only failure of power.
Be careful about spreading this lie about wind turbines not designed for freezing weather, there are perfectly running turbines in the northern US that work just fine during the winter. The problem in Texas is that the government does not believe in climate change or its effect on “the great state of Texas” Hence no winter protocols to protect the Texas owned power grid against failure. This is across the board for wind, gas, coal and nuclear. Wind and solar make up less than 25% of the power grid in Texas, so rolling blackouts would have worked if everything else did not freeze up, too. The problem is that a lot of people, not all and not all or only politicians, are too arrogant in this state to think that this could happen here. We are not better than everywhere else and certainly not better than CA, Mr. Cruz. There is that saying about throwing stones……
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You are correct. I live on the prairies north of the 49th in Manitoba and we have many wind turbines in the country and the last three weeks have been -20 Fahrenheit -50 Celsius with windchill and they keep on working.
What a bunch of political BS.
I live in Dallas county, Texas. I was blessed, my little section of the suburbs had electricity to keep houses warm and the pipes did not freeze and burst as they have in the past. I have friends and family all around, but no one was going to drive here and spend a few days. Today, the sun is out and the temperature is going above freezing. Life returns to Texas.
We live in the suburbs of Denver. It stayed below freezing for about a week, some days not getting out of the single digits. Fortunately we are prepared for it and, being retired, just stayed home out of the frigid temperatures. It was not the week to try and start the motorhome and its generator, though, since we did not need them. I feel for those that are not use to these horrible temperatures on at least an annual basis.
We live in MI and the temperature recorded one night near Flint was -18. Not wind chill, but measured by NOAH at the airport. Any night NOT below zero, we do our happy dance!
We are in a park just outside Branson MO, and for more than a week our temperatures have been in the teens, and often lower. One night we got down to -9 degrees! The park lost power for about 4 hours, so we pulled the trigger and bought the generator we’d been talking for months about getting now that we’re full-timing. Happy to report our Grand Design Solitude performed brilliantly! We kept the tank heaters on and the water dripping in the shower. The most painful thing about the whole thing (other than walking the dog!) was watching propane prices go from $21 for a 40 pound tank to $35 for the same amount. But we were blessed to at least get it and stay warm and fed! Thanks Grand Design for making such a solid RV!
Which model of Grand Design?
Solitude
Fulltime near Georgetown, TX. Thawing out today. 4 days of random electricity outage, propane tanks froze, water lines froze, heated water line was frozen at the faucet and finally burst. Had 6 gallons of water for 4 days. The freezing rain coated the park with ice. Impossible to drive or walk. Dog would only leave the RV once a day. I never let her run free but had to let her out since I could not walk outside on the ice. She ran to her poop spot, did her business and ran back in the RV.
The lowest temp I read was -0.1 F.
A neighbor said he was ripped off with big increases in propane prices near Killeen, TX (near Ft Hood), then again it is supply and demand.
Big lines at the food stores nearby.
Anywhere from -30 to zero most mornings last week. Pretty normal for this time of year in northern MN. Ha ha ha!
We are camp hosts at Larrabee State Park in Bellingham WA. We got about a foot of snow and it took 2-3 days for it to melt off with temps in the 20’s! No power or water problems. Now in the 40’s.
It was a horrible week. Had to swap out shorts for Levi’s for a couple days. Ahh, Arizona life in the winter.
We were caught up in the MISO rotating outages for about 45 minutes Tuesday. Other than losing community water service and stumbling around in the dark until we could locate the flashlights, it didn’t last long enough to let the sticks & bricks to noticeably start cooling down.
This will seem strange, but living south of Tucson, we were scheduled for our second shot for the Covid-19 virus. Pima County was unable to get the Moderna vaccine so we have had to reschedule our second shot for the third time. Currently our schedule is for Wednesday February 24 when it was first scheduled for Feb. 19, rescheduled for Monday February 22, and now February 24th. The “excuse” has been the weather in Texas and East of Arizona.
Down here in Puerto Penasco, MX enjoying the beautiful weather! Wish you all were here!
Wish I was in Rocky Point with y’all too! I essentially “grew up” there having been raised in Tucson in the 60s and headed off to Rocky Pt to sail my Hobie Cat 16 at least 20 weekends per year and every single spring break while at the U of A. That was before all the urban sprawl went up on the formerly pristine beach west of town. Bought shrimp right off the boats for $1.25 per pound or if I sailed out to a boat offshore, a fair trade of 3-4 pds for a 6 pack of Coors. Those were the days! Absolutely lovely place back then!
I wasn’t but I have family and friends who were. Fortunately for them they came through pretty well. I don’t wish that kind of situation on anyone.
I’m in Rockport Tx, it hit 17 degF. i have 7 large Queen Palms, they don’t look very good right now. My 25 Plumeria plants look like a mush plants. Power was on through most of it, water is on 6 hours a day. Others had it a lot worse than me.
Don’t give up on your Queen Palms. A few years ago, we thought we lost one of ours and cut it down. It laid in the yard for a few weeks and when we were preparing it for the yard trash we noticed a tiny bit of green growth at the top. We were so disappointed! Wait until about the end of April before you cut it down. It may come back. It will look absolutely dead though. Ours did.
Northern Michigan here, just a normal winter. I feel sorry for those people who don’t know how to survive when the weather goes out of the normal range for their area.
Apparently neither does the power utility.
In the Phoenix area, we weren’t impacted by the bad weather much, but our mail coming from Rapid City, SD, didn’t fare as well. Completely lost in transit. Missing license tags, most of our tax forms, and even a rebate check from our electric service provider. USPS? “Not our fault”.
no power issues here (NE IL) but we can relate. in November 2019 we experienced 60-hr power faiure due to ice. our small group of homes are always among the last restored to power. fortunately we had installed a whole-house standby generator several years earlier so we were fine. we provided each of the neighbors on either side with a 20-amp circuit. preparation.
My sister was home last weekend from Dallas, Texas. Monday morning of this week she flew out of Green Bay wi to Minneapolis mn. She’s been stranded in Minneapolis all this week. Sister was supposed to fly out of Minneapolis this morning.
No, life was pretty much normal here in Tucson, AZ. It’s why we’ve been wintering here for decades.
Planned on taking RV to Texas in February. Never left our home in Michigan.
We live in Austin, TX and experienced a lot of the storm. We were without power for several days, some of which saw the temps dip into the single digits. The RV was our lifeboat during these days with propane heat and a stove (since our home is entirely electric). Our biggest issue became how to keep a charge in our battery. Thankfully a relative had power close to us, so I was able to charge the battery there during the day. I learned a lot about what my truck can (and cannot) provide and I’m already planning for the next emergency boondocking event. I have never slept in the rig in such cold temps, and I’m grateful I decided not to use the water system since we’re not insulated well.
We are in Mission Texas for the month of February. The furnace in our 2000 Winnebago Journey had been squealing for awhile but we figured that we wouldn’t need it much once we got to Texas. We’re from Indiana. Well everything was great for the first couple weeks then “winter storm Uri “ hit. 😒🤨 Ok, no problem we’ll just put up with the bearing noise for a couple nights and hope it doesn’t keep the neighbors up. 😀 That worked for a couple days then it quit altogether.
Fortunately for us our park never lost power and we’ve been getting by with a little 1500 watt electric heater. I ordered a new furnace but it wasn’t going to get here in time so I’m having it sent to Arizona where our next stop will be. It’s always an adventure when we hit the road. 😄
Same thing happened to me, twice. Had mobile RV repair replace the motor. Don’t think I could have put up with the noise very long!
No problems here! Our trailer is “winterized” and we are @ our Daughters house!
I know that’s cheating but you got to do what you got to do!
We were lucky. We would have been right in the middle of it just north of Austin. We were visiting our newest grandchild there. We decided to leave and see if we could get vaccinated in FL so we did about a
Week before it all hit our family is that fully safe and did not lose power but do have to boil water. Nice to be mobile!!
We live in Florida, we got down to the low 50s which is why we live here.
In Mission,TX area and it was a miserable experience.
We live in Kingsland TX. Our power was off for over 100 hours, in a all electric house. Most stores in town were closed at least two days if not longer. Glad we have good neighbors each helping others out. No coffee and no warm food for five days is no fun!
The reason things were normal is- I dragged the generator out of the shed ,set it up for safe operation, had plenty of fuel and did this all before the 4 count them 4 snow/ice events. Don’t dare to put it away before end of March. We live in Pa.
we lost power for 6 days in subfreezing weather in Corpus Christi. We ran our house lights and fridge and freezers off a portable generator tied into the panel but we had no heat. We put our Winnebago View in the driveway and lived in that for 6 days. Warm and toasty with a propane furnace and a diesel generator. it’s all over now though. Back to normal but lost most of our tropical landscaping. We had it easy compared to others.
We were at Goose Island State Park near Rockport Texas for most of last week. We were in our motorcoach which came through for us. It was down to 18 degrees, but our hydronic heat and heated floors kept us comfy. We never lost power, but with a generator that powers the whole coach, we really weren’t concerned. We did lose water for a couple of days. But, again, we had 100 gallon fresh water tank so were just fine.
It seems as though living in the RV was a lot safer than a house last week!
No change, we live in Alaska
We are in our S&B just NE of Ft Worth. Lost power Monday morn and pipe to outside water softener froze and burst. Thankfully our Motorhome was parked in the driveway winterized. I used the generator to run a hair dryer to thaw the pipes so I could fix them. Spent the next 2 subfreezing days fixing it. Also used the RV genny run the house gas furnace and the fridge. House temp bounced between 48 and 63 with genny. Power came back on Tuesday evening and stayed on. Now I’m just waiting to see if anything drips out of the motorhome engine/radiator or any of the water lines. Fingers crossed. It was 55 today! We are coming out of this quickly.
I had to go to hotel. Water froze and run out of propane. Propane could not be delivered due to heavy snow.. Home on Sat. but water remains frozen.
Our first trip as Fulltimers to Texas has been interesting, to say the least. We are on North Padre Island just outside Corpus Christi. While Sunday night and Monday were pretty intense, we count ourselves lucky, We had Propane issues that had me outside in the dark early morning hours, 25-35mph winds for days, temps in the teens, wind chills around zero, and water issue in the area that resulted in a water boil advisory for most of the week, By mid-week we were above freezing for most of the day and looking forward to the 60’s predicted for the weekend. While cold weather isn’t our norm, we learned a few things and thanks to previous boondocking experience we were able to adapt and conserve the resources we had. Overall we feel blessed and feel for those further inland in the frigid tundra. Safe travels to all our fellow RV’ers and sunny days ahead.
2019 Verona VRB
We had rolling blackouts for days , but never totally without power thanks to our generator. We maintained good heat with two ceramic heaters, and using about 40% of our on board propane from furnace.
We disconnected city water as soon as freezes announced. Sometime last Sunday our inside water pump ceased functioning. Then flushing and water usage limited to jug of water. Today everything has thawed. Water pump working again, don’t know about that either. We can only assume had a interior freeze? We checked inside, outside, and underneath and have found no visible water leaks, on either water pump or city water.
There is no dairy, meat, or bottled water available anywhere in this area, likely the whole state is without.
Trying to get in a store today was far worse than the initial Covid days.
I am in the DFW area of Texas . We have had snow since last Sunday. We have had record breaking temperatures, one day a -2°. Yesterday we ended a 139 hour stretch of below freezing temperatures. I am in my total electric sticks and brick and fortunately I didn’t lose power or water. A lot of my friends did. We were lucky but also prepared with a generator and alternative methods of cooking. If all else failed we could have cranked up the RV and “camped in the back yard “.
We were staying in an rv park south of Galveston, Tx. We lost power,water and sewer for 3 days. We ran out of propane day 2. Fortunately the two days it was 19 we had heat but day 3 and 4. we were only able to keep the trailer temperature at 42 degrees. We moved on Friday and are in New Orleans, 55 feels like a heat wave.
We are in south TX (Corpus Christi area). We were lucky in that we didn’t lose power in the RV park, but parts of the town were out, including the pumps that supplied the city with water. We were without water from Monday until Thursday. I will say that we weren’t too smart in that we didn’t have our fresh water tank filled. So while we were able to keep warm, we had no water. We (2 adults and 2 dogs) subsisted on 1 gallon of water we had in a jug for over 3 days. We used the water we had in the outside pails for the dogs to flush the toilet (it got flushed once a day–yuck!!) Meanwhile, the dishes piled up. Almost used every one. So happy when I was able to get a shower on Thursday! Even happy to be able to wash dishes (and I hate washing dishes-lol). As of today, things are so much improved, but we are still under a boil water advisory. I can live with that. At least we have water.
This disastrous storm covering much of the country has made us realize even more than usual how fortunate we are to live in south central Florida where, while so many were freezing, our uniform of the day was shorts and a T-shirt! Prayers for the many who are adversely affected!
We were in Coastal Texas. No power or water for 2 days and when we had water, it was frozen. A fitting cracked up behind the sink, requiring sink removal to fix. Lucky we had propane and could keep the furnace running by recharging our battery from our truck. We were warm! Now it’s 70º
Why can’t the Polls function on cellular data, why only WiFi?
Forecast weather for our home last week precluded working outside — too much precipitation — so we went to a Tennessee state park about 2 hours away. I failed to check the weather forecast ahead of our arrival and we were greeted by ice and heavy fog our first morning and snow our second morning. Temperatures were as high as 34 F and as low as 12 F. Thankfully on departure day the temperatures reached 36 and it was sunny. All the snow and much of the ice melted, so we were able to get home. That night a winter storm rolled through that area, but we were safe at home. 🙂
We were in Houston for almost eight months for medical reasons, camped in a really nice RV Park. We left about three weeks ago. Talk about “just in time!” However, we always keep our onboard water filled when staying anywhere. Nevertheless, this would have been a ‘trying time’ even though we think we’re prepared for stuff like this, but not this long . . .
Glad to hear you got outta town just in time, Tommy! Whew! That was a close one. Onward and upward, eh? Take care. 😀 —Diane at RVtravel.com
We have been in south Florida for 6 of the last 10 years full time on RV( north and high each summer from Western to eastern North America every year) and 4 of the previous 5 years on a boat full time after selling house in STL county 15 years ago and that works well for us. Sincerely sorry for those who suffer the terrible weather any year. The great thing about a boat or RV is mobility and we always continue to find if you plan 6- 12 months ahead reservations are no problem- if you do not good luck.
Hey, this just in, this freeze is due to “climate change”. I have to hand to em, they got this one covered by applying it both ways.
Here’s the best part, the mandated rolling blackouts in TX, to insure the power grid integrity, caused blackouts at the Nat. Gas generation stations in the Permian basin area of West Texas, that were trying to supply the Texas grid because the bird choppers were frozen. That in turn, caused loss of residual heat as a byproduct of generation, causing the valves to freeze, thus shutting down, and making it worse.
So, the moral here is; don’t do that again. The gas didn’t freeze, it was system operator error. But will the truth be told. I suspect not in any other place but TEXAS.
Plus Biden throttled back all the coal power plants. The Chinese now control our power grid thanks to Hidin Biden
In Baton Rouge, LA. Temperatures in the teens but in our sticks and bricks we have a whole home generator, however we never lost power! We were nice and toasty.
We arrived in our 5ver in Rockport TX last Saturday. Sunday afternoon the town killed all water and later that evening we lost all power. We didn’t see either again until late Wednesday. With lows in the teens, each day was spent trying to find propane and standing in line to get it. Also driving town to town looking for working electricity that would allow gas stations to operate and fill our gas can so our generator could keep us going. It was dicey, but we made it.
Don’t know yet because we just heard that Tucson’s gas bill was exponentially affected by the freeze in Texas. It could possibly be passed on to us peons.
Last Tuesday was Mardi Gras down here in SE Louisiana. It has allways been said that they wouldn’t cancel Mardi Gras until hell froze over. Well, CoVid caused the cancellation and New Orleans froze over … it was 22 deg. F and the coldest Mardi Gras on record. So much for global warming … now they want to call it climate change! Welcome to the Grand Solar Minimum! I sure hope it isn’t a sign of a new “Ice Age”! If it is, we may be clamoring for more carbon dioxide to save whatever heat we can get from the sun.
Global Warming is about taxation , fees -carbon credits what a joke – more freedom robbing legislation. Now because they look like the Globalists they are, they have changed the scam to climate change. Yes it is Grand Solar Minimum = coming mini ice age, unless the poles do waver more
We’re in NH – been frozen in since last fall… TX is not prepared for that kind of cold!