Texas 911 Emergency: Major Power Outage on Idlewild
DAY 1: Monday, February 15, 2021, 2:00 AM — Alert, Alert, Alert!
I was startled awake by the sirens of smoke detectors, the home security system, a space heater, and kitchen appliances. Once the beeping subsided, I quickly drifted back to sleep. Thirty minutes later, it all started again. Make it stop! Suddenly, I realized that the much-anticipated winter storm had made its infamous debut in Texas, galloping about as it flung rolling blackouts at 30-minute intervals from its lasso.
After several hours of intermittent cacophony, I dragged myself out of bed to the window and swiftly separated the royal purple blackout drapes for a glimpse outside. To my surprise, there were only a couple inches of powdery, white snow on the ground; three at best. All I could do was laugh. Was this some kind of joke? All this chaos and commotion for a bit of beautiful, picturesque snowfall?
I had been looking forward to this snow as sort of a relic from my upbringing back East. But this was not a snowfall worthy of rolling blackouts. Soon, I surmised that the blame lied with the bone-chilling winds that took single digit, historically low temperatures to what felt like 20 degrees below zero. Erratic Texas weather had struck again.
