I’m lucky. I never lost power or water. But it seems like everyone else has.
Some of my friends haven’t had electricity since Sunday and they text me from under blankets. I ask if I can help, but it’s too cold to drive anywhere and none of us have any experience driving on ice, anyway.
“Rolling” blackouts that never rolled now feel permanent.
My therapist had to cancel because her power is out, too. My neighbor’s pipe burst in his garage, leaving water streaming down the driveway and into the street.
I tried to help him shut it off, but I couldn’t find the cutoff. For the millionth time during this snowstorm, I felt like a kid pretending to be a grownup.
This whole thing has left me feeling vulnerable, a bundle of frayed nerves who now spends 90% of the day thinking about freezing pipes.
The whole state has been exposed. If you live in Texas, you’re constantly told that you live in the best state in the country -- a mecca of low taxes and prosperity that draws in refugees from everywhere else who are trying to escape oppressive governments.
Look, we got Joe Rogan! Elon Musk lives here! Apple is expanding in Texas! See, we must be doing something right (never mind all those tax breaks that we thirstily throw at anyone and everyone)!
They call it the “Texas miracle,” meaning that we were miraculously the one Republican-run state that was doing well. We let businesses have whatever they want, cut all the regulations they hated, and it worked!
It was never true, but we faked it for as long as we could. We were comfortable in our mild weather and natural advantages, like sitting on top of a giant patch of oil and natural gas that has always let Texas paper over the cracks in our low-tax, low-service state.
Then this week happened. One big snowfall and the whole state feels like it’s collapsing. We deregulated the electricity market and this is what we got.
Nothing works and nobody in charge has any interest in being in charge. While millions of Texans froze, rumors swirled that Ted Cruz and his family fled to Cancun. (Update: it wasn’t just a rumor, he totally did.)
Our governor went on TV and blamed everything on renewable energy. Other politicians assured us that, if we didn’t have fossil fuels, things would be much worse.
It’s a lie, but our whole self-image of being rugged, hearty cowboys was always nonsense.
The reality is we’re a heavily urbanized state that’s been hollowed out by decades of neglect and tax cuts, all to appease property-owning Baby Boomers and political contributors.
And when you do that, year after year, it only takes one good snow to come along and paralyze the entire state.
A few days ago, my daughter and I trekked to the convenience store to buy milk. We waved to neighbors and chatted about the weather. One was worried about his 98-year-old relative who didn’t have power. He was trying to move her to his house.
There have been moments of levity. People skiing in downtown Austin. Kids playing in snow covered streets. We made a snowman.
But mostly, it’s been unsettling. It feels like a prelude of things to come: a climate-changed world where the rich flee to safety and the rest of us fend for ourselves.
Here in Austin, there’s still enough power to light up downtown, while East Austin remains dark.
Yesterday, the few remaining city services seemed to fall away. A boil water notice. Gas supplies are low. Hospitals evacuated.
The rest of us are left with impotent rage. We dig up tweets of our leaders making fun of California. They seem like fools now, but pointing out hypocrisy in politicians is like shooting fish in a barrel.
We’re mad at the regulators — who, it turns out, don’t actually live here.
Everyone is vowing political revenge, promising that we’ll vote them out this time.
Maybe. But the Texan in me suspects that, soon enough, our leaders will get back to that time-honored tradition of distracting us. They’ll bash AOC, or Nancy Pelosi, or Seth Rogen, or immigrants, or windmills, or homeless people, or socialism and nothing will change.
I know the rest of the country is laughing at us. I would be, too.
And to a degree, we deserve it. For decades, we’ve elected cynical politicians who had no interest in being leaders, if it didn’t involve rewarding buddies or trolling Democrats or whining about Hollywood.
This is what happens when owning the libs becomes state policy.
So I get it, it’s funny to watch us get our comeuppance.
But also, fuck you, we’re cold.
I’m an Illinois Democrat. I feel rage at the Texas Republicans who constantly voted for these people, but I’m not laughing. My heart breaks for the people of Texas, though my empathy is prioritized for the people who DID NOT VOTE FOR THIS.
I feel for yall and have said almost every word in this article outloud while watching all this unfold. Stay safe and warm out there Texas.