Someone on Facebook referred to the past week as "Snowmaggedon" and it seemed very appropriate. Texas rarely receives snow or ice or very low temperatures. However, the temperature dropped below freezing last Sunday and didn't go above freezing until Friday afternoon. We received about 6" of snow but dodged the ice storm that came later in the week. It turns out Texas is an island when it comes to energy production. The state that prides itself on its energy dependency had not properly prepared for extremely cold temperatures. They'd prepped their energy systems for extreme heat, but not extreme cold. Natural gas, coal, and wind turbines froze. Most of the state was in rolling blackouts (if they were lucky) or completely without power between Sunday night and Friday. I *think* everyone has power now. We were lucky in that we were in the rolling blackout category. It would go on for about an hour and off for 1-2 hours. We have electric heat, so that meant we were without heat for most of the time. The outside temperature was below 0 at some points and the windchill reached -15. Unheard of for this area. Our water pressure dipped dangerously low on Wednesday and when it came back up that evening we were under a boil water order (which ended yesterday/Saturday).
My parents' shop had two broken pipes in the ceiling. A section of the shop flooded. It wasn't pretty but it could have been much worse. We were able to get professional help vacuuming up most of the standing water (up to 3 inches in places). My parents are doing inventory for the insurance company - some of their electronic inventory is a complete loss as is the shop's refrigerator and coffee maker. The shop is in an old building and there are concerns about mold. Before the shop can reopen we will need to have a professional cleaning company come in to finish the job and rebuild part of the ceiling. On the plus side... We now have power, heat, water we don't have to boil, and insurance to cover losses at the shop. We are still luckier than some and very thankful for what we have.
In the midst of all of that... I worked very diligently on my dissertation and I was able to send in my first complete draft to my chair (all 5 chapters) on Thursday afternoon!