15 ms·

Man, what are people with children, elderly, or pets doing.

lurquer 6y ago
Are you people for real? What did people with children, elderly, and pets do 150 years ago? If your house is 25f, put on a couple sweaters and a coat and have a beer. It’s not the end of the world. As far as the kids go, they’re outside building snowforts. In short, you make do. It astounds me that the typical HN poster can whip up a C++ compiler, pontificate about solutions to every social-ill, purport to speak intelligently about mRNA, economics, epidemiology, and race relations, yet can’t figure out how to survive for a few days without power in freezing temperatures.
- ulisesrmzroche 6y ago
  We’re not ready for this kind of weather here in Texas. I’d you’re so smart you should know people 150 years ago lived differently and built their houses differently Are you without power? I don’t think so. Real easy to talk shit when you’re warm and comfortable. It’s not like you built any infrastructure or built your house, so don’t take credit for keeping it warm What’s more is that it’s not only hackers and engineers in this situation. There’s a lot of elderly people, sickly people, families with babies, small animals, and so on, that are far more at risk. I made it the two days but I know some of my neighbors didn’t The real question is why are so many people rubbing their nuts till they pop with schadenfreude, it’s not just you
  - lordgroff 6y ago
    Yeah, living here in Canada, when I read the temperatures I had to rub my eyes in disbelief. Temperatures of -30,-40C are by no means unheard of here but we know it will come every winter. I can't imagine a prolonged, unprepared for infrastructure failure, with houses getting down to minus territory indoors. Sounds terrible.
    - stephenhuey 6y ago
      Exactly. Several of us here in Houston are taking refuge at a friend’s house and one person in the group is from Minnesota. She says that even though it’s not so terribly cold outside she still wouldn’t want to repeat this, that it’s much easier in Minnesota because the power doesn’t go out or if it does it’s something that can get fixed quickly rather than be prolonged over several days.
      - theshrike79 6y ago
        I Finland the electric network companies have spent years and billions of € digging our electric grid underground after we had a few high-profile cases of electricity being cut off during winter because of snow-logged trees crashing on remote power lines.
        ulisesrmzroche 6y ago
        That happened a lot here, plus tons of burst water pipes and carbon monoxide poisonings. Seriously, nothing here is built for the kind of cold you guys live with. The first day without power is doable, but that second day is just killer.
- com2kid 6y ago
  > If your house is 25f, put on a couple sweaters and a coat and have a beer. It’s not the end of the world. Houses were designed very differently 150 years ago. Lower roofs, fewer windows, huge thick drapes or tapestries on the walls, animal skins or carpets on the floors. 9 ft windows (double pane or not) on all walls is going to leak out a lot of heat. Most importantly, fireplaces. Houses had fireplaces, and rooms were designed around a central fireplace to keep everyone warm.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
  - Gwypaas 6y ago
    Nope, simply bad housing standards leading to no isolation. Passive houses work in the Scandinavia. This is coming from a Swede who lived for a while in Texan suburbia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_house https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_house
    - falcolas 6y ago
      You can definitely get a passive house in the US; but it's fairly expensive and takes quite a bit of time to pay off. It also requires somewhat specialized (read: niche and expensive) heating and cooling equipment, since there is so little air movement into and out of the house, and requires so little energy. Oh, and ironically, when the power's out in a passive house, you need to open a window to ensure you don't over-humidify the house with your breath.
    - bjoli 6y ago
      Just better building standards will get you a long way. I live in a house with rather poor energy rating by Swedish standards (E on an A to F scale), yet with 4 people and some sunshine we keep 75m2 (half the house) heated to 20c with -5c outside.
  - lurquer 6y ago
    You clearly haven't been in many 150 year old West Texas houses. Good lord... The spread of AC in the 1930s resulted in everything in Texas being insulated out the wazoo. Your typical suburban home in Texas -- with no electricity -- is perfectly habitable without power. Its an inconvenience, to be sure. But, all this handwringing over a freak -- and fun -- event is laughable. Want to fret? Fret about floods, tornadoes, hurricanes... those events leave people without housing altogether. But, an ice storm and some snow? Gimme a break. If you were stranded in the wilderness in 3f temperatures and stumbled upon a typical suburban home without power but well-stocked with blankets, clothes, frozen food, comfy mattresses, bags of charcoal, a grill, flashlights, candles, and a new package of Oreo cookies, you would shout for joy. "We're saved!! Shelter! Thank God!"
- sjg007 6y ago
  They burned wood.
- texasbigdata 6y ago
  Hate to be an insensitive jerk because people are suffering, but kinda agree. There was a 3 hour long line at trader Joe's in downtown Austin today. Uber eats has been down maybe 24 hours. Like....the human body can absorb a 3 to 5 day water only fast reasonably well in most cases and its even becoming trendy in certain longevity circles. On one hand it points to society getting soft. On the other hand who knows maybe in this pandemic some people really got hit at bad time. As long as no one dies it will all be fine.
  - byecomputer 6y ago
    > As long as no one dies it will all be fine. the latest is 10 deaths in the Houston area from some combination of the storm, the cold, and the loss of electricity
- lghh 6y ago
  They died, you fucking ghoul. People rely on things now to live that people would have just died without 150 years ago. They had warmer clothes 150 years ago. They had houses with fireplaces and blankets and coats. We can't deal with this because we are not set up to function when this happens any more. People didn't have the same pets 150 years ago we have now. Reptiles or birds? Dead. I just can't imaging the callousness of this comment. People are literally dying and you're telling them to toughen up. Fucking fool.
  - listless 6y ago
    More people need to watch “Naked and Afraid” to learn what the human body is capable of withstanding.
    - lghh 6y ago
      Nah bud, I'm not stoked on grandma on oxygen without power being naked or afraid.
    - ineedasername 6y ago
      A "reality" TV show that selects for people capable of handling the show through rigorous medical examinations is not going to provide an accurate picture on what the average person can handle.
- tjr225 6y ago
  I dug through this dudes post history out of pure morbid curiosity and 9 months ago he claimed that COVID-19 was blown out of proportion because, and I quote, “there haven’t been millions of deaths.” 9 months later and there have been millions of deaths. So, take that how you will.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
brundolf 6y ago
Exactly.
JamesBarney 6y ago
My pets are cold and miserable like us but I don't think they're in any danger of injury. They have thick coats and blankets which go pretty far inside.
fulafel 6y ago
The most ugrent concern is probably for homeless people.
- theshrike79 6y ago
  Not for long. Temperatures like the ones you're having will "solve" the homeless problem in days, unless they've got proper winter gear, winter-rated sleeping bags and the skills to keep a fire burning... Morbid, yes, but you guys should really get into housing-first for taking care of homelessness.

Are you people for real? What did people with children, elderly, and pets do 150 years ago? If your house is 25f, put on a couple sweaters and a coat and have a beer. It’s not the end of the world. As far as the kids go, they’re outside building snowforts. In short, you make do. It astounds me that the typical HN poster can whip up a C++ compiler, pontificate about solutions to every social-ill, purport to speak intelligently about mRNA, economics, epidemiology, and race relations, yet can’t figure out how to survive for a few days without power in freezing temperatures.

ulisesrmzroche 6y ago
We’re not ready for this kind of weather here in Texas. I’d you’re so smart you should know people 150 years ago lived differently and built their houses differently Are you without power? I don’t think so. Real easy to talk shit when you’re warm and comfortable. It’s not like you built any infrastructure or built your house, so don’t take credit for keeping it warm What’s more is that it’s not only hackers and engineers in this situation. There’s a lot of elderly people, sickly people, families with babies, small animals, and so on, that are far more at risk. I made it the two days but I know some of my neighbors didn’t The real question is why are so many people rubbing their nuts till they pop with schadenfreude, it’s not just you
- lordgroff 6y ago
  Yeah, living here in Canada, when I read the temperatures I had to rub my eyes in disbelief. Temperatures of -30,-40C are by no means unheard of here but we know it will come every winter. I can't imagine a prolonged, unprepared for infrastructure failure, with houses getting down to minus territory indoors. Sounds terrible.
  - stephenhuey 6y ago
    Exactly. Several of us here in Houston are taking refuge at a friend’s house and one person in the group is from Minnesota. She says that even though it’s not so terribly cold outside she still wouldn’t want to repeat this, that it’s much easier in Minnesota because the power doesn’t go out or if it does it’s something that can get fixed quickly rather than be prolonged over several days.
    - theshrike79 6y ago
      I Finland the electric network companies have spent years and billions of € digging our electric grid underground after we had a few high-profile cases of electricity being cut off during winter because of snow-logged trees crashing on remote power lines.
      - ulisesrmzroche 6y ago
        That happened a lot here, plus tons of burst water pipes and carbon monoxide poisonings. Seriously, nothing here is built for the kind of cold you guys live with. The first day without power is doable, but that second day is just killer.
com2kid 6y ago
> If your house is 25f, put on a couple sweaters and a coat and have a beer. It’s not the end of the world. Houses were designed very differently 150 years ago. Lower roofs, fewer windows, huge thick drapes or tapestries on the walls, animal skins or carpets on the floors. 9 ft windows (double pane or not) on all walls is going to leak out a lot of heat. Most importantly, fireplaces. Houses had fireplaces, and rooms were designed around a central fireplace to keep everyone warm.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
- Gwypaas 6y ago
  Nope, simply bad housing standards leading to no isolation. Passive houses work in the Scandinavia. This is coming from a Swede who lived for a while in Texan suburbia. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_house https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Passive_house
  - falcolas 6y ago
    You can definitely get a passive house in the US; but it's fairly expensive and takes quite a bit of time to pay off. It also requires somewhat specialized (read: niche and expensive) heating and cooling equipment, since there is so little air movement into and out of the house, and requires so little energy. Oh, and ironically, when the power's out in a passive house, you need to open a window to ensure you don't over-humidify the house with your breath.
  - bjoli 6y ago
    Just better building standards will get you a long way. I live in a house with rather poor energy rating by Swedish standards (E on an A to F scale), yet with 4 people and some sunshine we keep 75m2 (half the house) heated to 20c with -5c outside.
- lurquer 6y ago
  You clearly haven't been in many 150 year old West Texas houses. Good lord... The spread of AC in the 1930s resulted in everything in Texas being insulated out the wazoo. Your typical suburban home in Texas -- with no electricity -- is perfectly habitable without power. Its an inconvenience, to be sure. But, all this handwringing over a freak -- and fun -- event is laughable. Want to fret? Fret about floods, tornadoes, hurricanes... those events leave people without housing altogether. But, an ice storm and some snow? Gimme a break. If you were stranded in the wilderness in 3f temperatures and stumbled upon a typical suburban home without power but well-stocked with blankets, clothes, frozen food, comfy mattresses, bags of charcoal, a grill, flashlights, candles, and a new package of Oreo cookies, you would shout for joy. "We're saved!! Shelter! Thank God!"
sjg007 6y ago
They burned wood.
texasbigdata 6y ago
Hate to be an insensitive jerk because people are suffering, but kinda agree. There was a 3 hour long line at trader Joe's in downtown Austin today. Uber eats has been down maybe 24 hours. Like....the human body can absorb a 3 to 5 day water only fast reasonably well in most cases and its even becoming trendy in certain longevity circles. On one hand it points to society getting soft. On the other hand who knows maybe in this pandemic some people really got hit at bad time. As long as no one dies it will all be fine.
- byecomputer 6y ago
  > As long as no one dies it will all be fine. the latest is 10 deaths in the Houston area from some combination of the storm, the cold, and the loss of electricity
lghh 6y ago
They died, you fucking ghoul. People rely on things now to live that people would have just died without 150 years ago. They had warmer clothes 150 years ago. They had houses with fireplaces and blankets and coats. We can't deal with this because we are not set up to function when this happens any more. People didn't have the same pets 150 years ago we have now. Reptiles or birds? Dead. I just can't imaging the callousness of this comment. People are literally dying and you're telling them to toughen up. Fucking fool.
- listless 6y ago
  More people need to watch “Naked and Afraid” to learn what the human body is capable of withstanding.
  - lghh 6y ago
    Nah bud, I'm not stoked on grandma on oxygen without power being naked or afraid.
  - ineedasername 6y ago
    A "reality" TV show that selects for people capable of handling the show through rigorous medical examinations is not going to provide an accurate picture on what the average person can handle.
tjr225 6y ago
I dug through this dudes post history out of pure morbid curiosity and 9 months ago he claimed that COVID-19 was blown out of proportion because, and I quote, “there haven’t been millions of deaths.” 9 months later and there have been millions of deaths. So, take that how you will.
- deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]

brundolf 6y ago

Exactly.

JamesBarney 6y ago

My pets are cold and miserable like us but I don't think they're in any danger of injury. They have thick coats and blankets which go pretty far inside.

fulafel 6y ago

The most ugrent concern is probably for homeless people.

theshrike79 6y ago
Not for long. Temperatures like the ones you're having will "solve" the homeless problem in days, unless they've got proper winter gear, winter-rated sleeping bags and the skills to keep a fire burning... Morbid, yes, but you guys should really get into housing-first for taking care of homelessness.