From the Advocate’s vantage point high above the neighborhood in the Wells Fargo Building at Gaston and Abrams, the picture here is pretty much like you are seeing on TV — if you aren’t a “rolling blackout” victim.
The streets seem to be in pretty good shape, and cars are moving — cautiously, though. In fact, one our our employees just called to talk with me, and she was talking on her cell phone while driving along Northwest Highway — I’m not endorsing her behavior, just passing along that tidbit.
On my brief drive to the office, the people in front of me were driving so cautiously that they were almost a road hazard on their own. I’m not complaining about how they were driving; I’m just commenting on my own thought process, which is used to people driving and responding a certain way. Since that pattern is broken now, remember to be extra careful not to anticipate what the guy in front of you is going to do.
Another tenant in the office lives close enough to walk to work, which I could tell from her bright red cheeks that she did. No problem on the streets, she said, explaining that she stayed away from the sidewalks because they were completely iced over.
If the rolling blackout ERCOT, the manager of our energy grid, is talking about hits your neighborhood, please let us know. When it’s this cold outside, it won’t take long to start wishing you had a bigger family to huddle with, and it will be good to know where the power is out and when, so the rest of us will know what to expect.
And if you do happen to get caught up in one of the blackouts, which are supposed to last from 15-45 minutes, the TV stations are reporting that the number to call is 888-313-4747. ERCOT is advising customers to limit electricity use as much as possible to reduce demand on the system.
Two things to add here: The TV stations are reporting that outages are lasting well more than an hour at plenty of locations, and calling the number listed above apparently puts you in touch with a nominally attentive voice message — don’t expect to talk with a human. And thank goodness that the Super Bowl will not be impacted, although here’s hoping that Jerry Jones has at least unplugged his electric toothbrush over there so the rest of us will have a little electricity left.
