We had a house in Texas. A mass builder, and oh, let’s say we learned how not to do it. Did you know that a house could have brick, then foamboard, then drywall? No plywood. Yes. And most of the McMansions in Texas, the newly built resource dragging unsustainable “boom” so often talked about, are what we call crackerboxes.
If we ever build a house again, it will not be through a developer. It will be custom. One of the big problems with these houses, hundreds of thousands of them, is the plumbing. The pipes run through exterior walls. Why? Cheaper, and it doesn’t get cold there often. But if it does get cold, here is what HGTV says to do:
If the water pipes are freezing inside the exterior wall, cut an opening in the wall to expose the pipes to the home's warm air. Place fiberglass insulation behind the pipes, between the pipes and the home's exterior wall. The hole in the wall can be covered later with a hinged door or a panel that can be removed during cold spells.
Fantastic. So just keep my house at 70 or so, and it should be no problem, because the walls will stay warm.
Good to know.
Perfect.
So as long as the electric stays on-
But if doesn’t, Houston, and Texas, has a problem.
So the electric is off. The gas heat our former home had needs electric to start. This is sort of like a faucet with a lock on it, and no key. Which we also had to have, because the geniuses who built these houses keep the outdoor faucets in front of the fence, and neighbors would steal water.
So, I checked. Our old subdivision is completely unpowered. On and off, but lately, almost all off. The exterior pipes are frozen, water is not going to run, because, the pipes are frozen. The pipes will likely burst. What we have here is a perfect storm:
Cheaply built, overpriced housing.
Cheaply run, overpriced electric.
No winterization on anything, houses, the grid, nada.
Inefficient clearance of roads.
Lack of supplies.
Angry, angry Texans.
But not us. We left. We sold after I realized just how poorly that house was built. It looked nice. It wasn’t going to last.
And almost all homes in Texas have no underground pipes, except for perhaps the Panhandle.
So to review: 15 million without power.
The death toll, is previously unimaginable. It could run into the tens of thousands I fear.
Is that hyperbole? I hope so. I hope it is wildly inaccurate speculation, but if half the state has no power, and north Texas is below freezing until Friday, hotels are overbooked, and roads are shut down, uh..you do the math.
Shortages will persist. And as the state thaws, tens of thousands of homes are likely going to be flooded from burst pipes, which by the way, might not be an insured peril. Why? Because insurance companies require homes to be kept at a minimum temperature to cover burst pipes.
Clearly these homes have not been heated to a minimum temperature. Also clearly, this is not at all the fault of homeowners. But let me ask you this, in a nightmarish scenario, where insurers realize they cannot cover 2 million claims, they ask you a simple question:
Does your policy say “Your home must be kept to a minimum temperature or your home must be kept to a minimum temperature except when circumstances beyond your control prevent it?
It says the former, or most likely, “all reasonable efforts to maintain temp.” Define reasonable efforts. And before you scoff, I just want to say, I have seen insurers, both good and bad, and I have to think if this ends up in anybody’s lap, it will be ERCOT’s, but nevertheless, get your claims in early, because sooner or later, when reality hits, loopholes will be searched out.
Believe that.
But you know, it doesn’t really get cold in Texas.
Except when it does.
And yearly, without fail, Texas is treating us to blockbuster Hollywood scripts, be it Harvey, excessive heat, droughts, ice, all related to climate change and all continuously ignored by people too stupid to tie their shoes but somehow able to navigate a voting booth.
And if a state has been treated like a petty cash account for thirty years by its dominant political leadership, there is only one question left to ask:
Who plays the lead in the movie?
Some might say Gerard Butler however I think Richard Madden has a lot of appeal.
Or maybe Ryan Reynolds.
Or Emma Stone, and I have to think Alexa Vega would be great as Lina Hidalgo, and..
-ROC