Dear Omar
The Texas Storms Taught Me to Love My Powerbank
But I’m still awaiting my utility bill 😬
Welcome to Dear Omar, a weekly Debugger column from tech expert Omar L. Gallaga answering all the gadget and technology questions you were afraid to ask.
We knew a blackout was coming, had known for a while, but when it finally hit, my daughters and I still stood silent for a moment, shocked and in the dark.
It was about 7:30 p.m. on Monday, the second day for many of what became an unexpectedly severe “Epic Winter Storm” in much of Texas. We lost electricity after many other families did. We knew rolling blackouts were part of the plan, in addition to many unplanned outages. We were just next.
But wandering there in the dark, edging carefully toward the table we’d prepared with so many candles to light, we entered into a new reality. The quiet of no TV on, no heat running, just our breathing and my kids saying, “Dad! Dad! The candles! Light them!” felt like we were suddenly isolated, disconnected, literally, from everything outside and past the eight-inch-high drifts of snow.
Over the weekend we’d had cold temperatures and some ice, but that Sunday overnight, the full brunt of the storm arrived, eliciting morning glee from kids home with school canceled and little snow experience. And then the headaches arrived. Since my life as a tech writer revolves around gadgets and a connected lifestyle, the sudden loss of electricity, heat, water, and consistent internet access became a bigger challenge than the weather itself. As we’re continuing to recover in Texas, people have been asking what it was like to weather such an unprecedented storm without access to our usual technology.
First there was the storm itself, and “Unprecedented” is perhaps not the right word. We’ve had huge winter storms before, including a 1929 storm that covered parts of the state in 26 inches of snow.
What made this one different was our reliance on the technologies and creature comforts that now help us survive — electricity for our heat…
