We also have no cell or internet signal out where we are. I drove into town today and am sitting somewhere that's up and running just to use my damn cell phone.
It's got to be an ultimate low point for Centerpoint that it took the Whataburger App outshining them in order to get serious about their own outage map. What they put out is still terrible, it's inaccurate and convoluted. I don't know how things got to this point but this is just a terrible look for Centerpoint and the City. I also miss Ed Emmett dearly.
That's what I'm doing right now. I'm in a parking lot a few miles from my house just to get a signal enough to get some work done and through the conference call I was scheduled to lead this morning. I missed the entire storm. Wife and I were on a long weekend in Colorado. Was originally scheduled to fly home Monday morning. Pushed that up to Sunday...only to have that canceled. Then the flights for Monday all got canceled on United into IAH. Luckily Hobby had opened so we moved it to Southwest and finally got back to Houston around 3:30 am Tuesday morning...and with the Uber back to Spring walked in the door at 4:30 am. The drive through the city was eerie with so much of the area in the dark. Power is out at my house but luckily my in-laws live close and have a whole home generator. So we have power and water...but the at&t wifi is out and no cell service from Verizon in the area. Spent yesterday working from my friend's bar and might end up doing so today as well. At least I'll be able to be connected to the world for a little while and watch the England/Netherlands game.
We lazy and it's too hot. Seems like Center Point is doing what airlines do when a flight is delayed. Airlines know a flight is delayed an hour, but they'll tell us in 15 minute increments. We really can't handle the truth anyway.
Power came back 2 days ago for ~1 hour. Power came back again last night. Xfinity internet came back today. Never lost cell service (T-Mobile).
For those needing internet -- Xfinity opens up their hotspots to all residents. Type in your zip code here to find local Wifi hotspots: https://www.xfinity.com/mobile/network/map @justtxyank @leroy
I put this in the generator thread, but thought I'd drop it here too: Friendly reminder for those with standby generators that have been chugging on for 48 hours: many call for an oil check every 24-48 hours of continuous usage. There should be very specific instructions for your model if its required.
I waited in line for generator fuel. This storm shows the best of friends, I had one friend that was willing to drive 30 miles from Houston to deliver fuel (denied his kind gesture) and another high school friend (neighbor) dropped off 3 days of fuel because his generator went bad. We got power up north, Spring around 3:30 AM this morning as well as everyone around us. One of our large tree fell luckily away from the house and a few guys in trucks were willing to haul and cut the tree, paid and cleaned. The humanity is so great. Fort Bend places that has no power- Telfair (off and on), Oilfield Rd, Riverstone, Hwy 6/Dulles, around Clements HS. The places around Sam Houston Horse Track- no power.
You make it sounds like the Supply-side is actually the same as it would be under panic-buying before a storm. You do realize there are a lot of gas stations closed due to no power, right. Could also be a lot of pumps not getting resupplied on schedule due to difficulties delivering. And just to add, as demonstrated in Hustle & Flow , and by three posters in this thread, ppl are using their cars for an AC respite. Probably everyone is doing that. Probably an hour a day, at least.
More than an hour a day here! I've driven around and parked at stores like Target and Lowes that have cell service and just hung out in their parking lot to work, etc. I also go and just sit in my car for stretches to get easy ac. I've driven more in the last few days than I do on average just to get out of the house.
Yeah.... why just use your car for AC respite when you can drive around and burn more gas too !! Many people aren't working due to business closures -- that mean less driving/commute to burn gas in the first place. Most of the "gas goers" are people who live life with a constant 1/4 tank -- which is especially dumb when you've been warmed of an impending hurricane 3 days in advance.
