SNOWMAGEDDON Updates & Information

Updates & Information: Table of Contents

• Life-Threatening Situations: CALL 911
• Latest Updates
• The Current Status
• Conservation Measures
• Road and Traffic Conditions
• Warming Stations
• Current Community Needs
• How to Stay Warm in a Power Outage
• Protecting Our Pets
• Protecting Your Pipes
• Emergency Pool Care
• Showers for Those Without Water

Life-Threatening Situations: CALL 911

Latest Updates

• If you suspect price gouging (including by electric providers), you can file a complaint here
• Water Update! We can now not only shower (briefly), but do full loads of laundry and dishes! See more detailed update here
• Updated information on showers available for residents at specific Recreation Centers

• Plano Opens Recreation Center Showers for Residents Without Water

• We are distributing bottled water to residents who have no running water at the following two locations: until noon today at Grace Church Plano at 3301 Preston Rd., Plano, TX 75093, and from noon to 6:00 PM today and tomorrow (Sunday) at Plano Event Center at 2000 E Spring Creek Pkwy, Plano, TX 75074
• We are still under an urgent water conservation effort until further notice. This is because uncontrolled flooding across the service area due to broken pipes has dramatically depleted the usual supply
• Be careful on the roads! A lot of snow and ice melted yesterday, but temperatures went back below freezing overnight, which means re-freezing ice on the roads. We’re going back up above freezing now, so most of it will melt away soon, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be slick spots here and there, especially in the shade
• Power has been restored to most, but not all homes. If you still don’t have power, but your neighbors do, the issue might be with your circuit breaker. See this FAQ on what to check for
• Temperatures are anticipated to be above freezing all weekend, but to dip back down below freezing for a period on Monday. This doesn’t come with the threat of a blizzard or 0 degree temps, so the biggest risk will be the re-freezing of any snow/ice remaining on the roads

• New Water Conservation guidelines have been published
• We are distributing bottled water to residents whose water has had to be shut off due to broken pipes until 7:00 PM today (or until supplies run out) at Grace Church Plano at 3301 Preston Rd., Plano, TX 75093. I’m taking the next shift and closing.
• Starting at noon tomorrow, Saturday, February 20, Bottled Water will be made available to residents at Plano Event Center

• The City of Plano is making bottled water available for residents whose water had to be shut off due to broken pipes. The distribution will take place at Grace Church Plano, at 3301 Preston Road, from 3 p.m. to 8 p.m. or until supplies are gone. Up to 12 bottles of water per household are available.

• The City of Plano has issued an Urgent Water Conservation Notice (NOT a Boil Water Notice and the City is NOT shutting off water)

• The outage is down to approximately 3,000 homes in Plano, from 14,000 yesterday
• The Grace Church Plano warming center is scheduled to run until 10:00 PM tonight (Thursday, February 18) with the increasing restoration of power across the area
• See new tips from Ed Acklin below in Protecting Your Pipes and Emergency Pool Care

The Current Status (as of 1:55 PM, Saturday, February 20)

Electric

Water

Gas

Conservation Measures

• Dial thermostats down to 68 degrees if you’re fortunate enough to still have electricity (I’ve set mine at 65, not that it’s a competition)
• Keep appliance and light use to a minimum. If you do have the lights on, turn them off when you leave the room (really, you should do that anyway if you were raised under the threat of paying your father’s electric bill as I was)

• Dial thermostats down to 68 degrees, just as with electric
• Heaters are the #1 thing using gas right now. That’s kind of critical, so don’t shut it off to an area inhabited by people or animals
• Don’t use any appliances that use gas if they’re not urgent

• You can stop dripping faucets.
• If you have frozen pipes, keep an eye as they thaw and shut off any water leaks or burst pipes as quickly as possible.
• Showers? YES! (Short)
• Laundry? YES! (Full loads)
• Dishes? YES! (Full loads)

Road and Traffic Conditions

Warming Centers

Current Community Needs

• Buildings not in use should shut off their electricity and gas to the greatest extent possible–this includes signage. If you own or manage a building that nobody is in, turn off everything except what’s needed to preserve food, pipes, etc.
• Conserve what you can: electric, gas, and water. Better that those who still have it do with less than all of us do without
• Please check with the warming centers listed in the previous section to see what they need. The biggest need seems to be for blankets
• Check with your family and friends to see if they need anything. Don’t assume that people in need will let you know.

How to Stay Warm in a Power Outage

• Make sure your Fur family has plenty of water Let’s make sure our food sources are managed correctly
• Shelter is imperative. Remember if it’s too cold for you outside it’s too cold for your fur family

1. Turn on ALL of your faucets to a steady drip or a slow trickle. It’s much more difficult for even slowly running water to freeze than standing water.
2. Turn on both cold AND hot water. They run through different, but parallel pipes, and either can freeze. I’ve had both. If you have a steady trickle of hot water somewhere, this will also ensure new water is drawn into your hot water tank, making it more difficult for that pipe to freeze.
3. Set singe-lever faucets in the middle, when possible. If you have a kitchen or bathtub faucet with only a single lever that you move around to adjust temperature and pressure, set it in the middle, as this draws on both the hot and cold water. If it’s a one-way lever that doesn’t allow you to adjust temperature separately from pressure, then just set it to trickle code water.
4. Even if your pipe is already frozen, open the faucet halfway. This will help relieve pressure on the pipe, so that if it does thaw it will help prevent damage.
5. The water pipes that serve Toilets that back up to an outside wall will frequently is freeze if you don’t let them drip. The easy way to cause a drip is to put a tooth pick under the flapper valve in the water tank. You can adjust it where it just barely runs and it will cycle about 1-2 minutes. That will not waste a lot of water and will save broken pipes. (Hat tip Ed Acklin)

Emergency Pool Care

Showers

There have been failures from top to bottom which contributed to this catastrophe. Some of the lessons to be learned have yet to be discovered, but we must all do what we can to make sure we learn all of them, and that our people are never again at risk from something like this.