Correction: It took about 6-7 months for someone to point this out but this was due to poor wording. The I35 pileup DID NOT occur on the "bridge" but rather the expressway exclusively. The part of the Expressway that was involved, and a large portion of the crash extended back onto a bridge that is part of I35. The segment of I35 where it occurred, WAS on a bridge that crosses over West Fork Trinity River and over a turnaround road before connecting back to the "Road" part of I35. I do apologize for not being specific about it being only in the expresslane, but the crash DID extend back onto the bridge itself. I've never been to Dallas-Forth Worth, and I went onto Google Maps to check where the crash happened, and it extended PASS the bridge expresslane, but it goes back 1000ft on the southbound lane according to WFAA. I apologize for not being specific enough there, and I apologize for any confusion. Since this video is almost at 500,000 views, I want to address one of the...LOVELY comments that seem to be constant with every spike this video gets. "Why did the interviews suck/Why did you interview the people who weren't hit the hardest?" I want to say that I agree with most of the critiques regarding Hufflepuff's interview as I agree, that was problematic due to her going on one massive tangent responding to everything I sent in the email which was the list of questions I planned on asking. Normally I ask the questions first, and then they respond, but that didn't happen. By the end of the interview I was on the verge of not putting it in the video at all because of how much of a mess it was, but I went with it because I didn't want it to be a waste, and I didn't want to be a dick to her for setting an hour of her time aside to be interviewed. Regarding the interview with Helix, yeah I don't get what people are complaining about there. His interview was much shorter and stuck to the facts without going on a tangent. As to why I didn't interview people hit harder or actual meteorologists...well let me put it this way, at the time the video was being produced, February 2023, my channel had about 17k subscribers and I live in Georgia, having barely any knowledge on the meteorologists who cover local tv stations in Texas. I asked for names and didn't get many in response. My emails or requests that I sent out through Twitter dms were ignored, and so I asked my fans if they had any experiences that they would like to share. I would have loved to interview meteorologists or victims that had more stories to tell than what I had, BUT I'm one person, and when my requests went ignored, I went with the next best thing. I apologize if the interviews dragged, or flat out sucked, they are normally not this divisive regarding their reception. There are more but I will cover those at the end of the year retrospective of all my projects that I do in December.

People who aren't from Texas usually fail to understand our homes are built to dispel heat, not keep it in. When the blackouts started I moved our 8 seater dining table into the center of our living room and completely covered it with as many blankets as I could spare. I took what I had left and made a pallet underneath. We layered up and that's what me and my toddler slept under for 5 nights.

I remember walking out of my house on day one and hearing absolutely nothing. For the first time in my life the highway was quiet, dogs weren’t barking, and not a soul could be heard. It was strikingly peaceful.

i remember this freeze, i barely slept, and i got so sick i tore my throat from coughing. to this day, i still think about this and how genuinely horrible it was. to make matters worse, our thin house has a generator but it literally broke 2 days before the freeze happened, and we relied on this ancient one that could barely power a stove for more than 15 minutes(it did nothing to get rid of the cold unfortunately). we thought we were prepared and at the last possible second, we basically faced the wrath of god that winter. heart goes out to people who had it worse off than my family though, god bless.

As a Texan who actively lived through this entire event, it was terrifying, stressful and cold. Our homes weren't built for the cold, they're meant to keep the heat out. Neither my mom or dad's home had water for days, our pipes had frozen over and I had gotten sick over the course of the freeze. It became harder to function because of how bad it had gotten that month.

I was a firefighter in Austin at the time. I went 4 days without sleep, surviving off of hot pockets in the engine. We had calls constantly waiting for us and we ignored bystanders that were stuck in the snow because they were considered non-emergencies. Our priority was people living on home oxygen and busted water pipes. There were so many people that relied on electricity to survive and the blackouts took out their ability to breathe on their own. We had about 10 calls holding constantly, we would leave one call and go to another that was placed hours ago and waiting. The first call of the snowstorm was an obese hoarder that died in her house with no electricity. That was a really rough week.....

Man this video made me appreciate my dad more. Dude was ready for the storm. We had prepared generators as well as food and water for days as soon as he heard speculation on the news. We also were able to help my grandparents who live down the street as well since we all gassed up ahead of time.

I remember this. I was teaching at the time, and school was cancelled for the week. My apartment kept power throughout this time period, but my parents' area didn't, they were without power for 2 days (they are elderly). Multiple people died during this due to not being able to heat themselves. Meanwhile, one of our two senators was boarding a flight to Cancun. That was really something else.

as someone from the upper midwest, it's hard to fathom how a storm like this could cause so much damage, since i've always lived in a place where things like this are common. This video and the comments of personal reports has really put it into perspective how terrible it was for places that weren't at all prepared for this kind of weather. My heart goes out to all of the people caught in this storm, and the massive amount of damages caused.

Man. Being a Canadian I did NOT understand the severity of what went down in Texas in 2021. This has made it so much clearer. That sounds like a nightmare

The scariest part was that there wasn’t much you could do. My family slept downstairs and we were constantly using the fireplace. We had all of our faucets dripping to avoid our pipes freezing.

I remember being absolutely furious to see the country mocking Texas as hundreds of people froze to death. I tried to explain to them that this was literally a life threatening emergency and it just did not register. They couldn’t imagine not being prepared for a freezing storm and total blackout..in Texas. One of the hottest states in the country with its own independent power grid

As a resident of the valley, this was terrible for us since we lived without electricity for almost 4-5 days. I can't even imagine what the homeless people were going through while this happened

I live in Beaumont Texas and that week was the worst of my life the day after everything froze I lost my dog I searched for 16 straight hours I used all types of movement I knew even my longboard I couldn’t stop he was my best friend and I was forced by my family after severe fatigue and being completely numb but I kept searching.. then on one of the last days my sister went to work at like 6am and heard a jingle and called out his name and he came running wagging his little tail when we checked the ring he had found his way home and sat at the front door for a whole 7 hours shivering the whole time when she dropped that sopping wet dog on my bed and me sleeping all I did was hug him for hours and keep him warm he’ll always be my good boy. My best boy

I'm from North Texas and this was easily one of the worst weeks of my life. Me and my siblings slept in my parent's room and during the night my dad would wake up and make sure we were still breathing. Shout out to my dad's boss, he gave us a generator on day 4 of the storm 😭 We were all freezing, and it was scary.

I'm a Texan born and raised, this storm was beyond awful, my mom and I lost power for a few days and lost water for nearly 10 days, my grandma had to go to her brothers cause her power went out for a week. We have two small dogs that just shut down entirely during the storm, one of em is only 8 lbs, I kept him wrapped up next to me so he could stay warm. The cold was so brutal, it felt like it was seeping deep into your bones. Thank you for talking about this, a lot of people joke about it but the reality is if Texas is frozen, that's a sign of very bad things.

I’m from Texas & lived through this. No power for three days in my area. Luckily our pipes were okay however my friends apartment flooded with freezing water and absolutely ruined her apartment. She had a move. We were absolutely miserable

As someone who lives in Austin, Texas. It was a horrible experience, but what was also horrible to me is how voters were able to ignore the events and still keep the government that failed us in power.

Me and my mom started playing out in the snow when my step dad, who was from Colorado, literally yelled at us to get back inside. I'm glad that he did because our power did not come back one for a couple more days and we would've have already lost a ton of body heat if it wasn't for him.

There is an ancient saying among engineers: "You think safety is expensive? Try pricing an accident."

Dallas area native. My home lost power for 4 days(save literally 3 15 min time periods the power came on, such a tease). One of the days the temperature outside stayed around 0°. It got down to 14° inside my house, with my aquarium and my pet ball python Seamus. By some miracle my aquariums didn't freeze and the 2 fish I had at the time survived (a loach and a pleco I still have, both around 10 years old), and I kept Seamus on my tummy under my shirt for 4 days straight. Keeping that snake alive in those temperatures is basically one of my all time greatest achievements. Lost my gigantic/epic/amazing agave cactus though. Still a bit salty about that one. . & still have some mild residual PTSD symptoms that flair up anytime power flickers while it's cold out. Good thing Greg Abbot has totally fixed the power issue so we don't have to fear it happening all over again (SO much sarcasm. He's done practically nothing. I loathe that man. Constantly cares for little more than lining his pockets and keeping his big donars happy, and certainly not about keeping Texans safe.)

I am 68 now. I damn near froze to death in Houston. Ercot just voted themselves a raise. My Neighbor saved me. I have no words to describe how I feel. 3 people on my street froze to death.

I was in college in central Texas when this storm hit. I was living in cheap student housing that did not stand up to the harsh conditions well. We lost power and cell service for a week, and water for a week and a half. It was freezing with no heat, and none of us had the proper clothes to protect ourselves against it. The pipes in the apartment above us burst the first day and flooded out apartment, which didn’t exactly help our heat situation. We also didn’t stock up on food- we were young and stupid, and there was no precedent for this kind of storm. Almost no one thought it would last more than two days. Stocking up wouldn’t have helped much anyways; we had electric stoves and microwaves to cook with, both of which were completely useless to us until they implemented rolling blackouts about 3 days in. When the lights would come on 3 or 4 times a day we would rush to the stove and microwave to try and heat up anything we could in the 10 minute window. We ended up running out of food completely, luckily only a day before the roads melted and we could make it to a grocery store. Our water was out longer than the power, and even after the storm had passed my apartment complex turned it off again for another two weeks to “fix pipe damage.” They turned out to never actually do this, and we received an email about two weeks after the storm telling us our leases had been terminated due to the extent of the damage and we had until the end of the week to find a new place to live. It feels childish to call the experience traumatic, but it sent my roommates and I into a months-long mental spiral. One of the worst parts I think is when after we regained service, we found out that the people across town living in the expensive apartments on the university’s power grid didn’t experience any of this. One of my classmates said his wifi didn’t even go out. That and Ted Cruz’s flight from the situation as a whole was so demoralizing to hear.

Being from Michigan it just never occurred to me why Texas could struggle so hard from this, this video helped put it into perspective

This was traumatizing. From days without power to pipes bursting and our house flooding…I cannot believe how quickly survival instincts came in

I remember this not because of the struggles it caused, but because it was when my great grandmother died. I was fortunate in having power most of the time in our dorm. We still couldn't take showers or go to the bathroom. It was few days into this freeze that I decided to call my great grandfather to see how they were doing. When he picked up, I could hear his voice failing. The only things I could get out of him besides his situation being okay was that grandmother didn't look good, that she looked terrible. I remember asking my mother about going to drive over to them. She told me that the roads were probably frozen, but it was ultimately up to me. I was always afraid of driving on frozen roads, so I told him I would drive over when the roads got better. The next morning, I got like three missed calls from my mother. When I called back she was annoyed that I didn't pick up sooner. She finally told me that my Nana had passed away. I almost can't describe the feeling I felt. I didn't cry, there was just this low sinking feeling welling up inside me as I found myself on my bed. I had always visited them every monday the prior school year, but as this new school year started, I had hardly visited them at all. The guilt of not visiting one last time began to sink in. If I had known, I would've driven there in a heartbeat through the ice and everything. But that time had passed. I would visit my great grandfather after the freeze. It wasn't the same, but we had some good times as well. Many times he would tell me of the empty feeling he had. I remember walking to his room. He was showing me a hand-knitted blanket on his with all of his family members names on it. He found his wife's name on it: Joyce. He told me how sad he felt waking up without her beside him. In that moment, I broke down and hugged him. I cried every tear I held back and told him I was sorry. I told him how sorry I was for not driving over to see them together one last time. He said he knew and assured me it was okay. They're both gone now. I hope they both know I love them wherever they are. I'm sorry for how far away this is from the topic of the freeze, but this is one of the things I remember from it the most. Thank you for reading this, and please remember to hug your loved ones tight when you see them. You never know when they'll leave you.

I lived in Texas for one year, and this happened during it. I have never been more happy to be a Michigander born and raised, because I was able to give a lot of good advice to coworkers on how to stay warm and safe in this kind of weather. Plus, it helped out my job a lot since I was one of the few people at HEB willing to run groceries out in the cold lol

Thank you for bringing awareness to this. I lived through this and it was genuinely one of the worst experiences of my life. My house was 30 degrees for a good 4 or 5 days. We lost power for maybe a week. One of the worst experiences of my life, we could NOT get warm. I remember being so mad at our governor. I will NEVER forget this.

I was in Austin during this storm. School was out for a week and a half after it ended due to a pipe bursting inside. I was very lucky because my house never lost power or water. I remember the weather being in the single digits. It was one of the crazing things I have ever experienced, and I will never forget it. My heart goes out to all the people that lost their life in this storm

The scariest thing about this storm for me in Houston was the fact that I have reptiles. Cold-blooded animals require a hot side of their enclosure to regulate their temperature. When the power went out, I was terrified that I was going to lose my pets to the cold. I’d spend hours just holding them close to me to try and use my body temperature to warm them up. I’m thankful that they survived this, but it was terrifying

I was traumatized after this years winter storm. I lost my apartment after a pipe burst which led to my entire apartment being covered in ice because we also lost our power/heating. I lost my TV, mattress, sofa, and everything in between and insurance didn’t give me nearly enough for everything I lost. I was living paycheck to paycheck at the time and now I didn’t have a place to live or a place to stay warm. This was the longest week and a half of my life and every year I fear the same thing will happen

I actually live in Texas, around the San Antonio area more specifically, and we were extremely lucky to be in one of her few areas that never lost power. It was still really wild to see something like this happen at all in my state, but I’m glad to see this being documented with this perspective/critical analysis

As a Texan this was such a wild period of my life, I remember my university cancelling everything mid class and then absolutely eating it on the icy sidewalk. We didn’t lose power, but being without water really puts in perspective how important it is.

I will always remember the anger over houston. Because downtown had a hospital the entirety of downtown was considered essential. So while people in the nearby neighborhoods were freezing, the nearby office buildings were lit up like Christmas trees.

The worst part for me was that I have a dog who's legs were paralyzed during all this and she couldn't walk at all, so we had to take her to a vet, who said she might require surgery. So we had to drive all the way down to Fort Worth to an animal hospital to get into contact with a surgeon, and schedule her surgery. So even after the winter storms, I still had to deal with a disabled dog. The good news is she was slowly getting better in the coming weeks, and was eventually able to fully walk and act like her old self again!

Honestly hearing you talk about it makes me want to cry…. It was such an awful time. My mom and I had gone to my sisters house for shelter and she ended up losing power too. When we woke up my nephew was in a full blown anxiety attack. My dad came to pick me and my niece and nephew to take us home because he got our generator working. My sister stayed behind in her house for a bit… as soon as I go home I started making ramen for everyone to eat something warm… even my dad ate and that’s cause he’s not a big fan of pasta…. I got my nephew to finally ground himself and take a nap. We stayed without power for a while but takes to the generator we were warm… With all the freeze going on there was still people messaging my boss to see if they could go in to get their nails done. She even posted that we were closed and people would still message her. We survived it but we were left traumatized. Mr. Ted Cruz, the person people voted into office to make decisions for us, left us. We felt like the little girl in Jurassic park when the adult left her. He just left us to deal with his failure.

My mom’s a nurse and we live out in texas. She was having to work 12 hour shifts while the entire hospital was losing power and water. It was genuinely a nightmare for her, Im incredibly grateful that she was able to get me and my family a hotel in time and make it less of a nightmare for us.

I’m from Fort Worth but was at school in the Midwest when this happened. I remember my friends joking about how Texans think they’re so tough but they can’t even handle a little bit of cold. That’s when I realized that people outside the state really didn’t understand how devastating sub-zero temperatures and inches of snow/ice is for people who have never experienced it before and don’t have the proper infrastructure, resources, knowledge, or government help to get through it. P.S. the 100 car pile-up happened very close to my childhood home. My brother could hear the crashes as they happened. Shit was terrifying

As a midwestern. I definitely understand what everyone was going through. Losing power in the winter is always dangerous. Happened to us again last winter.

There are many Texans in the comments section saying that the rest of America just didn't get how bad things were. Texas is the 9th largest economy in the world. After 2011, there was no excuse for why Texas collapsed the way that it did in 2021. The state was given a decade to get its power grid up to par. Nobody could fathom that an economic behemoth like Texas would be brought to its knees so easily due to mother nature. Meanwhile Louisiana, Arkansas, and Mississippi, collectively some of the poorest states in the nation, fared a lot better than Texas did.

I was there... On day three, I woke up feeling like I was on fire. As I'm taking my clothes off, I realized in was the hypothermia kicking in. Then I noticed the small ice crystals on my arms. I drove nearly three hours to my mom's house (usually a 45 hour drive) figuring I'll either freeze to death in the apartment, die on the road, or make it where there's rolling power and a fireplace. Stayed an hour in a hot tub to make sure I had shaken the cold.

I work at a major Houston hospital affected during the storm and we had SO many carbon monoxide poisoning cases, all during covid too, from people lighting grills indoors or running generators inside with no airflow. Whole families came in bc it made them all sick just trying to stay warm :( I drove in to help at the hospital bc I'm from the midwest and feel ok driving on snow and ice but it was wild. We all slept in the basement and rationed water - thank you for covering this topic

As a Texan, this was extremely crazy. And where I live our power lines are very old. We where certain to lose power. But somehow we didn’t it, begin one of the few lucky people to keep it.

I’m from Dallas, we had it worse than most of the state because of how far north we are. I was lucky enough to not get my heat cut off because we have gas for our heat rather than electric…. But I can’t tell you how many people I watched suffer. How many people were burning their furniture to stay warm. My brother and boyfriend had to come stay with us. My cousin touched down from Egypt and called me saying she had no water or electric. No one expected this. Yet the country laughed at us like this was a joke or something we were supposed to be prepared for. Our state government failed us.

I remember being on the phone with a customer service rep in Texas during this event. I don't remember what company it was or what I was calling about. The man was telling me about how they didn't know what to do with the cold. Everyone around them was losing power and they didn't know what to do. They were worried about the pipes freezing. Being a life long New Englander, I taught him what to do. I remember staying on with him for over an hour, explaining how to stay warm, how to make a fridge outdoors and how to prevent pipes freezing among other information. I like to hope he, his family and Everyone else in his apartment made it through.

I live in Houston, and this storm was terrifying. I was one of the extremely lucky ones who never lost power; I think it's because I live next to a hospital and share their grid. One thing this excellent report didn't mention was the few Texas cities not under ERCOT control. My family lives in El Paso, TX, and they received the same bitter cold storm, but they also never lost power. Their federally regulated electric company had winterized the grid. Ironically, much of the electrical insulation was made in Houston.

This was a traumatic experience. Friends and family outside of Texas didn't understand how bad it really was until I talked to them about it. So many people died who didn't have to. Two years later we're still having to deal with power outages due to cold weather. I don't believe those in charge will fix the situation. Thank you for covering this. People need to know how bad it really was.

Doesn't Texas have universities that study everything about the state? Then government takes that information and uses it to form public policy. This failure in Texas is like if the government of California ignored the threat of earthquakes for the last hundred years.

I remember watching how bad it was in Texas on the news. I felt so bad especially for the elderly who froze to death. May those people R.I.P.

I drove through Texas and Louisiana when this hit. I was a trucker and got stuck in Shreveport for several day, it was wild seeing the swamps iced over and frozen.

For me, we were without power for 4 days and we were without water for 2 weeks! It was crazy, and seeing the loss of life, and the number of people in other states mocking us while our residents were DYING was awful. And seeing our politicians just up and fly somewhere else while the rest of us were stuck here was a blow as well.

I'd like to share a little story that helps people understand how rare winter storms are in Texas! In the winter between 2017-18, I remember waking up in the morning and noticing that the light coming from the window was really bright because when I open the shades I saw the entire ground was covered in snow! Naturally I was excited because I've never lived in a place where it's snowed, so on the way to school I was messing around picking up the snow, but I started my usual day in 8th grade and not even by 10 or 11:00 a.m. the sun had come out and all the snow had melted! I hadn't been in Houston for long but my friends told me that the last time it snowed in Houston was 7 or 8 years before and it's never happened since. Besides the 2021 freeze, in which most of Houston didn't get snow they got ice cold rain that would freeze the ground and create a layer of ice on every window!

It’s nice to see someone covering this. After power went out, the filter and heater in my fishes tank went out. Even though I tried my best to replace water and keep the biome active, my 20-30 fish were tropical and died in the cold. I know I definitely did not get the worst of it because I got power back relatively quick, and no people died, but I’ve still learned not to trust the grid. This was definitely avoidable

As a Texan and just a person I can tell you, be prepared to suevive 3 months without power. This event was nasty, but not even close to as bad as it could get. If it happened that the grid shut down and it wasnt too cold to go outside things would have got wild

I remember the day after the freeze I went to the nearby wafflehouse and it was so surreal seeing half frozen roads, empty roads. When we got our food the waitress started a small talk with us about the freeze, and mentioned that her neighbor had been found dead in her living room because of the lack of an AC. Many friends of mine who lived further away within Texas told me similar stories when they got their internet. It's sickening to think that ERCOT had so long to winterize their shit yet decided never to do so.

THANK YOU for taking time to create more of a longform video. The proliferation of shorts and videos that take just 14 or 15 minutes to cover a topic like this has not swayed my adoration for longform documentaries. Consider me subbed!

that was definitely the worst part of my year then. it was definitely disheartening to see people from other states mocking us when our entire neighborhood were freezing our asses off and having power for like 45 minutes at a time. from a then high schooler’s perspective, we were doing online school and my teachers literally excepted me to have my internet at the ready like they weren’t experiencing the same thing. a pipe busted in my grandpa’s house so both him and my aunt who lives with him had to stay with us and it was super cramped having 7 people in the house and my grandpa trying to choke us with cigarette smoke. my grandpa and aunt lived with us for another month or 2 after because their house was a total wreck and the stress from school and our situation really feels like i got taken a shit on by the universe but thankfully everything and everyone in our family is alright

If I remember right, places like Highland Park and other rich neighborhoods didn't experience nearly the amount of rolling blackouts everyone else had. Interesting to think about.

My family is beyond lucky to be living on the grid of a hospital- or we would’ve been screwed. This messed up everything. And has left texas with some serious winter anxiety- there’s a reason everyone freaks out now

As someone who lives in NY and with both friends and family in Texas, I never truly understood how the odds were truly built against them. I'm so used to cold weather to know what to expect so when I heard about how unprepared texas was, I was shocked. I havent watched the full video yet but I come to this channel to educate myself on situations and natural disasters like this. With that being said, thank you for educating people while still doing what you love

2011 federal government: wintertize your stuff you got hit by a winer storm Texas: no no *Shoots itself in the foot*

Thank you for making a video about this. I am a Texan and I did suffer through the freeze, but I didn’t get the worst of it. I know friends who’s homes were uninhabitable after, their pipes bursting and being forced to live in a motel for two years. Many made fun of us because many don’t like southerners/Texans. Nobody really understood the severity of it.

I remember an online friend of mine in Texas keeping us updated about this, they said their family struggled to power their house for a long while even after the main storms because of how expensive they were with providers hiking their prices in order to make up for losses

Thank you for covering this subject. I’m currently writing an essay for government regarding creating a policy proposal. I immediately thought about the Texas Freeze aftermath and how poorly it was dealt with. I still remember clearly I was very young, and for about a week or so, my siblings stayed holed up at the master bathroom with numerous candles burnt. That is all we had as a heat source. We had no generators, warmers, or electric stove. I remember being extremely hungry as we had finished all of our food that was still consumable. I remember my whole family praying in the night especially with the strong winds as we struggled to sleep. I also had to juggle online school which was torture. I always asked my parents what time and day it was, and they just guessed the best they could. It felt like an eternity of being held by my thin blankets piled facing down in the freezing bed. They ended up cancelling school later on as no one had wifi and nothing to charge our devices with.. On one of the days, my dad brought barbecue warm food. I felt my body go into immense happiness and I literally wanted to cry. We all ate it less than seconds. The unimaginable imprints it had left on families and people will be an unforgettable event.

I remember this! We were luckily saved by our wood furnace, which did insane wonders. Had power too. My condolences to those whose lives were lost during the events of I-35.

Living in San Antonio at the time of this storm, but originally from Washington DC where I spent the first 23 years of my life and experienced 20” snowstorms that were nothing, this storm was horrifying. I can’t put into words how bad things got here and what I witnessed/experienced. I have a picture somewhere my friend took of me walking down interstate 10 north of the city in the middle of the snow covered road, 4pm when it should be rush hour, mild, and sunny. It was apocalyptic.

Me and my family were dealing with covid during all this. Mom and dad had gotten covid before me and my siblings just a bit before the storm hit. When it did my mom had just got out of the hospital but still had to be on oxygen to breathe properly. When the power went out she had no oxygen and trying to get her to walk upstairs where it was warmer almost killed her. I still remember her gasping for air laying on the stairs while we desperately tried to help her out. I myself had been running a high fever and experiencing the worst of covid during all of this. I could barely move or keep myself awake so hearing my dad and brother try to keep her breathing while I felt like I was dying myself and was trying to call 911 was pretty traumatic.

I was a bit behind finding the video, but it's glad to see someone really cover the topic in depth. Was out of power during the storm, but we stocked up on firewood in preparation and it ended up working out for us

I remember this week so vividly. My parents were both sick & in really bad condition. I honestly thought we weren't going to make it through but we did. & i thank god every day for it. I will however remember the storm the rest of my days.

People who aren’t from Texas don’t understand how bad this really was for us. For a week straight my family at least probably had power for about an hour but for an entire week we had no water or power

I am a part owner of a natural gas distribution company that serves the suburbs of Houston. I spent 48 hours outdoors, in near zero temperatures, making sure my customers, who are like family, remained in service. We lost a few (mostly because home generators were kicking on) but got them back in service quickly. I have really never felt that cold before.

I live here is AUSTIN TX, so here's my story. I had lots of fun in the snow, first time ever seeing it, I had fun until one night I was doing homework when I heard an explosion, then another, there was tons of Explosions coming from my garage (now a kitchen) With this lights started to flicker a ton Me and my parents run outside to see a branch fallen on a power line leaving no power in many rooms A few days later we learned a fire started in our power box, we got lucky and it had nowhere to spread and ended, this event made me scared of going in that kitchen even again Afterwards we had some family come over to help us, but they accidentally left a heater on and their home burnt down do to it (idk how but uh, yea) Afterwards we had power go out for 10 mins - 1 hours each We had out wires get fixed and the company we had moved to a nearby house In the end it was crazy, sad, and unpredicted As of 2024, we have fully recovered but the other people (aka the company) have not repaired their old home snd still live in the one they moved to

I live in the North where snow is a yearly thing. It's always funny when people from the south come up here close to or during the winter and get this kind of sentimental shock like I've gotten going to the south and just sweat all the time. I think I may have scared a contractor away when we got hit by a tiny little one. He asked me if this was normal and I responded "one day you'll have to dig your car out and still have to come to work." Haven't seen him since... But you know what's different. We expect this kind of weather in the North and have preparations for it. The south doesn't. Whether it be dedicated trucks to salt and remove snow to our infrastructure being designed and built around knowing we'll have to deal with this and not that. We even have business that excel at collecting salt all year round to end up super busy during the winter. And the thing about the cold is that it practically makes life... stop. Now I'm not gonna lie. When the storm first started I was joking around about it. But as soon as I saw the power started going out I knew it was no longer anything to joke about or poke at. Side note, a lot of homes in Japan don't have heaters. So people get gas portable heaters to heat their homes. The reason they don't get hyperthermia or die from carbon monoxide is that every so often they'll turn it off to and open a door or window to get some fresh air. This of course causes them to get cold again to turn on their portable gas heater again... Also another side note I know somebody who works at a power plant up here in the North that was designed by Texans. Since it was designed by Texans it wasn't exactly winterized. The plant isn't really new and we've been able to keep it online by doing some "crazy" things but it keeps the power going. To include going out into the middle of the nearby lake to reopen the water intakes... I guess another side note since I've taken some winter survival training and forced by the Army to sleep in the woods (plenty of going to bed to wake up covered in snow) during freezing temperatures here's some tips. Layers. Thin layers closer to your body with thicker puffer ones towards the outside. Don't just do a single thin layer and a single puffer layer during really cold scenarios. You'll get very cold. Armpits are warm areas so use them to warm up your hands. Keep your feet dry. If they get wet you'll need to let your feet dry off along with socks and shoes. Insulated sleeping bags are amazing! If your using one you don't want to sleep in it with clothing on. Let your body warm up the inside of the sleeping bag. If laying on the ground find something that doesn't hold any moisture to insulate yourself from the ground. Again from the North I've had a handful of winters where I did not use my heater once in my own place. (I was trying to save up money and not using the heater allowed me to save up even more) I did this with my insulated sleeping bag. Even if inside of my house was close to freezing I was still warm. Outside of getting a little cold to use the bathroom, get food / drinks, ect.

I'm disabled and lived in a group home in Texas (specifically, right outside of Fort Worth) when this storm happened. The place I got housing though had ZERO plans for what to do in case of something like this. It was a stroke of sheer luck that I was able to find a cold weather shelter to go to for three days while power was out. My mom was able to arrange a ride for me... while my phone was at 1% battery, the power was out, it was near freezing in the house, and I had no access to food (basically everything I eat is a "take it out of the can and microwave it" kind of thing, because of said disability). The one night I had to spend alone in a freezing house without power was terrifying.

I'm a Texan. It was so surreal when it happened. I didn't experience the worst power outages, but it was still a rough situation. The grocery stores were empty. People bought out all the bottled water because the power outages meant the water wasn't clean. At one point, I stood in line in front of town hall to get clean water from a truck. I can't imagine how bad it was for people who had no heat whatsoever.

i’m watching this while it’s 4 degrees f in missouri lmao but at least our power grid is equipped to handle that and keep us warm

as a texan who went through this, thank you for covering it!! a lot of people didn’t understand how bad it was.

I still remember seeing piles of ruined drywall at the end of every driveway. Showed me how unprepared this state was, and still is. That's the most frustrating thing about the freeze: nothing changed.

The craziest part about the power outages of snowmageddon was how long some outages typically lasted, like I knew of a neighborhood that didn’t have even a flicker of power for 12 days straight. Those of us that had generators would practically scavenge for gas, and I even saw a few brawls over open pumps. The scariest part of the whole thing wasn’t really covered here, but the massive amounts of ice accumulation absolutely devastated the trees. Here it’s mostly Cedar and Oak, but Cedars have really shallow roots so trees were falling left and right. I knew people who had cedars fall on their cars, as well as someone who had a tree punch a hole into their roof. It was super eerie hearing all the crackling and splintering of falling trees, as the silent and sharp air was constantly pierced by crashes and booms coming from across the neighborhood. This taught me to make sure to trim my trees before winter comes.

No tap water, no heat, and no cell service was insaaane. Everyone would have one but not the other.

Just before my house lost power, I had asked my dad why he was leaving the tap on, he said that due to the blizzard that was about to happen, we had to keep the tap on to help melt ice within our pipes. I was not too interested in weather or really anything from the real world at the time, so I didn't think much of the nightmare that was going to occur. Thankfully our cousin's house had power, so we mainly stayed there, but there wasn't much to do except wait for the power to come back on for a multitude of days.

I remember my father leaving the stove burners on and the fireplace on the night before the power went out. I also filled the bathtub with water in case we ran out of bottled water. Next morning was absolutely fridged, my room being one of the worst rooms to be in for such an event. My room doesn't regulate temperature well in general, I don't get much AC when it's hot outside, i don't get much warmth when its cold outside, but this time it was like waking up in an ice castle (it made me think of the ice palace from Spy kids when I woke up lol). I stayed in my bed most of the day, I had preemptively stacked quilts on top of me the night prior, so i had a small heat pocket, but was still shivering some. If I left my bed, all the built up warmth would escape and I would be left with cold, and I wouldn't be able to generate as much heat as I lost, so I had to stay put. Eventually, being a Texan who has never seen so much snow before, my siblings and I had our fill of snow outside. I experienced snow blindness for the first time (very mildly), and eventually, once we tired ourselves out we went back inside and was met with the cold cold air inside the house; thats when things changed. My father taped the door to try to retain some heat, but it was like we realized just how grim the situation now was. It was like we had to now survive. That night my father had told us older kids that we needed to move into one room and make it as warm as possible, or else there would be a good chance we would not survive the night. I remember researching as much about hypothermia as possible and prepared myself for the idea that I could freeze to death, and tried to plan for ways to survive long enough to see to it that my siblings are taken care of before I am. Since I was preparing to be an EMT at the time, I was taking it upon myself to learn as much as I can about how hypothermia affects death, what happens in the final stages, and how to treat it. That night, we got power. Thats when we realized it was like shifts--daytime we'd have to make it through, and night time we could prepare for the next day. By this time, all the water in the tub had drained out unfortunately, and I had to move out of my room the next day because it was too dangerous to stay in there. That next day, we heard reports of people dying form carbon monoxide, and we began to worry because of our gas burners and gas fire place. We had turned off a burner to try and at least lower the chance of a poisoning, but that DRASTICALLY lowered the temperature of the house-- it was around 49 degrees (9C) inside (our usual was 75, or 23C), then went to 46 or 45 degrees (7C). But I remember later that afternoon, my two siblings and I stayed in the living room in an effort to conserve heat. I began falling asleep slowly, and my brother also began to fall asleep and doze off. I remember taking off my blanket, my mind going back to what I read about hypothermia (people tend to take off their clothes and layers before they die from hypothermia), but didn't care since I was *so* sleepy. My father bursting into the room is what woke us up, just a few seconds after we began dozing off. He said that we will risk taking the 45 min drive to our grandmothers. We got stuck on the road, but a very kind Samaritan helped us and other people get unstuck, since our vehicle wasn't built for icy roads. We made it safe and sound, and the rest of our family was okay (my mother however had a scare. she decided to wash her hands with HOT HOT water after being FREEZING FREEZING cold, she just about collapsed due to shock. she is fine now though). I remember I couldn't even handle AC for a while after that freeze. it brought back too many memories, and it felt FAR too cold for me, even though it was a simple fan. There was something about being prepared to die (I had always said before this how hypothermia would be a preferable way to die since you go to sleep after your body slows down. I retracted my statement during the snowmageddon), even going as far as to make plans to outlive your siblings so you can care for them if they passed, then eventually joining them once they had been tended to. it really messes with you, man.

This was our first winter in Texas. I didn't realize how bad it was because we never lost power or water. To us it was more like a week of snow days and staying home. It was disturbing to hear the news about the massive crash on the freeway though.

As a Texans, that was terrifying a lot of people don’t know or don’t realized that Texas homes are not built for extreme cold and how some people in the north was saying stuffed was disgusting and there tune end up changing after they realized the devastation we went through smdh 😢

We got so lucky that we never lost power. We live on a ranch about 40 min outside Austin. Our winter storm baby just turned 2 😂

As someone who lived through the 2011 and 2021 winter storms, this video explains everything so well that it's almost scary thank you! To give you a perspective for just how historically cold this event was, the lowest temperature in the 2011 event was 9 degrees, while in 2021, it was -1 that's how bad it was

Thank you, Alferia. I nearly watched my dad die 3-4 times over due to stress and poor health during this frozen hell. We lost $500 worth of groceries with our insurance carrier refusing coverage, and just this year's Winter storm reminds me of just how heartless our State's government and execs are when it comes to storms like this. This was cathartic, again, thank you.

Thank you for taking the time to mention the suffering and disproportionate fatality rates among the impoverished and disabled. The same is true of any extreme weather or natural disaster, and those are only becoming more common as the years go by.

As a man who lives in the area that broke his collarbone 3 times, and other bones prior to this event due to combat like activities growing up. This event was painful. Often I was covering up with a blanket using my body heat.

I lived in Houston for 10 years, lived through several hurricanes - including Harvey - but the winter storm of 2021 was too much. Made plans to leave Texas, and I got out the next year. That winter storm was the final straw.

I’m a Texan, south of Houston. luckily I was ready for this. Had my own back up power, food and water, the basics from my hurricane kit. Lost power for 4 days. Most people in my community were not ready for this and it was sad to see some that died. Yes we are in the deep south but prepare for anything. Don’t forget, Houston was just coming back from Hurricane Harvey too. All I can say, people in charge completely dropped the ball on this one.

I'm from Texas and went through the blizzard too. As badly as I feel about how many people suffered, I am grateful that I had put together emergency storage that came in useful. I encourage everyone to work out with God the best way you can put storage together for yourselves. This won't be the last disaster.

I remember taking my dogs out for a walk and seeing snow. At first I was excited, and made some snow angels with my sister. I didn't expect much else but snowfall, and before I knew it, things went south (pun not intended) very quickly and soon enough I was worth about my families safety, especially my dogs. We were gathering blankets, hanging out in our car for heat (barely worked if I recall), going down to our grandparents down the road whenever they had power and AC... It was bad, and I'm thankful we all survived.

I'm from San Antonio. At the time I was working at a very abusive hotel workplace. I was very numb and close to considering dark thoughts. When the snowstorm hit. It snapped me out of my mental funk. However, the snowstorm was worse than people imagined. My then boss was like don't book any rooms or let anyone in and your in charge of the hotel for the night, ALONE cuz I can make it and the 2 housekeepers cant. I knew we were booked but we had running water and warmth and food. Id secretly let people in who needed gallons of water refilled, something warm to drink, or just hang out in the lobby for warmth until the other hotels nearby have rooms. I never told my boss and never got in trouble. I left that place a month after the storm cuz i needed to more paychecks to gtfo. I couldn't reject people for help despite my hotel workplace being fully booked. Happy to announce when my bosses leaders found out of his abusive practices on me and others in our hotel, he got fired and I like to think, charged. Get bent Ernest!

As someone from Michigan I empathize with everyone that went through this storm. It's a common occurrence for me but it requires an entire change of mindset once the snow falls.

I'm a truck driver from Texas. The day before the pile up happened, an overnight dispatcher, not mine, tried to force me on a load that would've put me on that exact expressway just about the exact time it happened in Fort Worth. With the storm approaching I knew I had to get out of there. Luckily the Texas supervisor let me drive home, shout out to Brandon, he may have saved my life! After that, my apartment lost power for 4 days and water for 3. Luckily we had food and even cooked some of it in my truck. Still, it was pretty much a week-long nightmare. Ben, the worm who tried to risk my life, you're a garbage human.

I'm from Monroe Louisiana and we had 10" of snow. The ice was so thick that no one attempted to drive but strangely no (in my area) power outage.Also everyone walked where they needed to go.

Thank you for your coverage on this. I'm from San Antonio. We are "preppers" so we were fine with food and water. So were our pets. I also have a medical condition where anything less than 75 degrees is too cold for me and sets off my Raynauds. I keep a stock of Hot Hands on hand so I was able to regulate my temperature and avoid any long term medical issues. We used melted snow to flush our toilets and were able to grill for hot food. When the local Dollar Store opened, my husband tracked a mile down the road to get his beer LOL.

As someone from Texas (baytown tx), this was devastating. We didn't have power for DAYS, my town looked like a ghost town for DAYS . I remember we went to help a friend and it was scary that it was dark on our way to our friends house. I almost thought something scary was gonna come out. My mom made sure that my dad was warm due to him being disabled. We honestly thought that it was my dad's last days. Thank goodness he's still alive now, but sadly on his last heart nerve (idk how to say it). At any point he could pass away and as I said we thought this storm was going to take him. Overall this was so badly managed, I wish our politicians in texas set aside their problems to help their state.

i was a teen when i went through the freeze. me and my family had to survive off of sandwiches and dry cereal for 5 days straight, no power or water. i nearly went insane from the cold, and most of the time, i had to stay in my mom’s car where we had the heat running and the news. came back to reminisce on that horrid week from 3 years ago because sources say that my city might be going into another freeze TOMORROW (January 16th). i’m 18 years old now and terrified of what might happen, i’m mainly just trying to prepare for the worst. i’ve been hoarding my non-refrigerated meals so me and my parents will have something to eat. praying there won’t be a freeze and we’ll all be ok 👍