How Medieval Reenactment Saved My Life: Surviving the 2021 Winter Storm in Texas [CC]

IN WHICH our intrepid recreatrix outlines what happened during the storms over February 10-21, why it hit Texas harder than most of the rest of the US, and how the skills and things I have because of my medieval reenactment helped get me (and Tornado!) through it all.

Buckle up friends, there's a LOT of information, some ranting, and a whole lot of gratitude. Thank you to everyone who was so patient with the lateness of this video. Closed Captions now up! Thanks for your forbearance.

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Music Credits
Teller of Tales
Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 3.0

[SnappyDragon]

As someone who moved from a Cold Place to a "Warm" Place-- the difference in construction is *such* a thing. I'm adding "basic emergency preparedness" to my mental list of real-life skills that should be taught in high school, as well as basic accounting and home ec/shop classes for students of all genders.

[jenoola]

here's a hack for the windows from someone who grew up in Russia. take some paper (with no ink on at least one side), cut it into strips 1 inch wide, take a bowl of water and a bar soap (the more basic it is, the better). wet the soap, take a piece of paper, soak it in the water really well, run the soap on both sides of the paper (be generous!) and then stick the paper to the window frame to cover every single gap in it. make sure there's no ink on the side of the paper that goes onto the frame, it will transfer. un-sticking the paper afterwards is super easy. works over small and big gaps, leaves no room for any wind

you could also stuff the gaps with papier-mache (newspaper works great for this), or maybe bits of fabric. the OG way is moss. and don't forget to check your doorframe and make sure there's no gap next to the floor, stuff it with something if there is

[YanickaQuilt]

I live in Montreal Canada. 2 years ago, we had a heat wave of 90°F and people died. We have the infrastructure to deal with cold and snow but we are vulnerable to temperatures that are no big deal in Texas. For this reason, I never make jokes about unusual weather. When I saw what was about to happen, I started giving tricks like emptying the water pipes and such.

[aprildriesslein]

Fellow Texan here! The burn community -- i.e. those of us who regularly go out camping in places with zero amenities and bring enough food, water, and shelter to survive and have a heck of a party -- were fine too. We have camping gear, we have generators, we have water containers, we have warm clothes, we have gumption. And, to my great pride, we have the ability to organize and take care of our neighbors. Our state leadership shouldn't have failed us as it did (and does) but I was proud of the people around me.

[leecarlson]

I live in the southmost city in Texas, Brownsville. We had bitter cold, below freezing for four days, and a lot of people died or suffered frostbite and hyperthermia. I live in a retirement community, and our clubhouse kitchen supplied hot food and drinks to many of our residents. I chose to stay in one room, with oil lamps as light and a heat source. I had a propane camp stove, so could make hot food and drinks. Lots of layers of fleece blankets. I would charge my phone by starting my car, and sitting in it, basking in the heat, and charging my phone. I was lucky that I had camping equipment, so could open canned goods (once they thawed). I can tell you, anytime I find lamp oil, I buy a couple of bottles, because that was the only thing I ran out of, on the last day, before power was restored. Oh, I was 77 at that time. Now I have solar power, so would be in better shape if that ever happens again.

[AshLG]

This was such a good breakdown of all the factors involved - as someone not in the USA we just kept hearing news headlines that didn't make any sense without all the extra information. I'm glad you guys came through ok, and god bless IKEA tealights

[theresehoney]

Thank you for telling your story. I think we will always remember what we went through that week and the unbearable tragedy of hundreds of lost lives.

[Starvoice]

Slight note for about the 5 minute mark, part of the reason our lines aren't buried very deep is because the top soil here is very thin with massive limestone bedrock underneath. Not only can we not really dig into it because of the massive expense, but (at least where I live) we get a lot our water from the aquifer within that limestone bedrock.
(K thx)

[Bluebelle]

I don't know why this showed up in my recommendations today, but it did, and you earned a new subscriber.
As someone who has survived earthquakes, (1989 Loma Prieta, 7.2) Hurricanes, (Katrina, and the entire 2004 season) Firestorms (1991 Oakland fire, 2003 Leonard fire, 1992 Old Gulch fire, and the 2015 Butte fire) and Tornadoes, (Apr 27, 2011, Tuscaloosa EF-5) You can never be "too prepared" for long term power or water outages. In each of these events, I was without power for days to weeks, and because most of the places I was living in at the time had wells, no power = no water.
I've called myself "an accidental prepper" for decades. Also, I'm fascinated with history, making my own garb and using tools from a pre electric era, just to feel what it was like has stood me in good stead when these awful events happened.
I'm so pleased that you have made this video.

[lenabreijer]

Congratulations on your survival. You did well.
A note on keeping food warm that I learned from my grandmother. Take a big box, line it with straw or newspaper, make sure your soup or stew has gotten to a good boil and put it into the box and cover it. This acts like a slow cooker. It is good for about 12 hours. To be completely safe, bring your serving to a boil again.
My favourite camp stove is a swedish army camp stove. It burns alcohol. And is safe to use anywhere.

[mendyviola]

I’m so glad I have a gas water heater, gas stovetop, and a gas fireplace (normally a feature that is aesthetic only). It saved us. We stored our food either on the patio (for frozen food) or garage (for chilled food). All our windows and doors were covered with quilts, blankets, and anything else we could dig up. We “house camped” in our living room by the fireplace in a tent.

[camib]

That was a very polite and succinct way of explaining Texas' situation. My family in TX said that apparently the wind farms were holding their own for a while and had they been properly winterized they would have really done well. My grandson had a bad asthma attack (he's 6 so he is not completely good with an inhaler yet) and his nebulizer needs electricity... Nana was … out of my mind 850 miles away. My sons are preppers of sorts (not the psycho sort, they do their cosplay in actual anime or SCA) but I have been after them for years to put in solar panels and get bigger generators... they are starting on that finally. The youngest bought a house with a couple acres so a windmill is in the works as well for both, and a well. I remember 2011 very well. I hold out no hope that the politicians or the power companies will do the right thing, they had 10 years... next time they might have 1 year or less... People may scoff at the SCA but you learn a lot camping in all weathers and being prepared is good sense. I am very glad you are well and your content, as always is spot on.

[foxlass]

I'm delighted that your historical reenactment allowed you and tornado to stay safe, warm and fed during that set of storms. I completely understand being grateful to medieval reenactment, i have been in situations where those skills have helped me too (though not to the extreme you needed them!) your video is incredibly informative, and while i have been keeping up with the situation, i found your intro to be the most concise, clear, easy to understand and non judgemental explanation. Thank you, i will be using this video to explain to my fellow northerners exactly why it went so bad. Im so glad you were able share your knowledge this way, but family safety and security allways comes before youtube postings, so take whatever time you need to get re settled.

[turtlellama]

I relate to this so hard. My husband and I had our apartment destroyed in Hurricane Michael. The roof was ripped off and flooded the apartment above us. We managed 10 days without power or water and only left because the mold set in and I am extremely allergic. We survived because of camping experience and my insistence on having at least 2 months worth of food in the house at all times. We had water, a camping stove, and were dry. We had plenty of power-free ways to stay entertained and a stash of charged up powerpacks if we needed power anyway.

[TheExalaber]

The cold weather also disabled a huge amount of the natural gas infrastructure. A fact that conservatives are conveniently ignoring. The loss of gas pressure due to improperly insulated pipes allowing condensation caused the majority of the loss of generation capacity in Texas, and also caused huge power outages all over Mexico as their gas imports stopped flowing

[TheGlassHunter]

I'm Canadian. Originally from Montreal. I remember hearing about the winter disaster in Texas. Of course I took the radios depiction of what was going on as a possible overstatement, however, I was concerned and wanted to help.

Montreal is one of the coldest cities in Canada and the most prepared because of it. The radio segment was basically asking Canadians to help with tips of how to stay warm in freezing weather fir those that needed to rely on staying warm and cooking without electricity. We are well equipped for this and when I was a child my parents taught me simple things like layering your clothes to stay warm. Which clothing materials were best for generating heat. This helps when going outside with wind, snow, and ice. How to stay warm and dry. What to do when you go inside and what not to do when reheating your body. Montreal, by the way, is powered by hydro power all year around. It also sells the excess power the water fall terbines produce to the USA to power cities like... NYC...

Wool and cotton are good materials to layer (putting on a small shirt first then a slightly bigger short on top and so on). Layering will trap air between the fabric and your body heat will heat the air trapped inside the clothes keeping you warm for a long time. If you get too hot take off a layer or two and switch back and forth.

[lilalicat]

My love of camping and SCA involvement helped me immensely during a week long power outage here in Georgia. I've never been so happy about having spent that money. So glad you had that experience to fall back on.

[mandylavida]

Remember that the space under beds is great for storing food.

[lakelili]

Really interesting to listen to your power grid issues and to the impact of constuction styles.

[cosmicpolitan]

Similarly, growing up poor taught me habits that got me through a lot of tough situations. Like you, I face a lot of emergencies knowing I will survive.