Over the past few days, my social media feeds is mainly of….SNOW. Mostly because, the amount of snow we’ve seen in Texas this week is breaking records by the hour. But I’ve also seen photos from people in northern states comparing their large amounts of snow to our seemingly lesser amounts.

Here’s the deal.

You’ve definitely got us beat in inches.

By a long shot.

You win.

We’re actually not even trying to enter the competition.

The difference is, northern states are expecting these type of winter storms.

They are ready for it.

Their wardrobes, homes, the power and water supplies are prepared for it.

Texans are simply…NOT.

We’re simply not prepared for this kind of weather, and certainly not for longer than a few hours.

I’ve lived in Texas my entire life and I have never. I repeat NEVER. Seen this amount of snow here. The few times in my life I’ve witnessed this amount of snow, I’ve had to fly a few states away to see it, so when I say we’re not prepared, I mean, we don’t even have adequate socks and shoes for it, much less coats and snow pants to handle these temps.

And forget about snow tires and snow plows. I’ve honestly never seen a snow shovel in any hardware store near me.

It’s just never been needed.

And so, when this extremely rare event occurs, it’s a domino effect.

Without snow plows and salt trucks, supply trucks are unable to get to grocery stores, and employees are unable to get to work.

Meaning we are then unable to restock their kitchen with the necessary goods to make it through these storms.

Our stores don’t carry snow clothes, because, again, they’ve never needed to.

And forget about Amazon trucks getting to us with any snow gear in time.

So to say supply was low, demand was HIGH would be an understatement.

Power plants have never before needed to be winterized to handle below freezing temps for extended periods. Therefore, our electrical grids for the entire state fail. Our natural energy producers like solar panels and wind turbines are completely frozen and not functioning.

And our pipes? They’ve never before seen these temps either, so they…freeze.

They bust.

Water treatment plants are unable to clean our water because, again, everything is frozen, and has stopped working.

So water is shut off to entire communities.

For days.

What may seem like a regular storm for northern states, is just unheard of here in Texas. Days with a heat index over 100? Now that we can handle. That we’re used to. That we’re prepared for, and so are our homes.

But rarely do you hear about northern states being without power, water and gas during their typical winter storms.

Rarely do you hear about people needing to fill bath tubs to save water or melting snow just so they can flush their toilets.

This is not a normal winter, folks. Not for us, anyway.

So this is not a question of who is stronger, or who can handle the cold better.

You win north.

You win by a landslide.

But that doesn’t make southerns weak.

The opposite really.

We are stronger than ever because we’re bounding together like never before. We are over here bartering butter for firewood, milk for eggs, but not this storm, not covid, not anything can take away the grit of a Texan.

Feel free to have a chuckle at our expense about how ridiculous we look using surfboards and cookie sheets for sleds. Have a laugh about our clever use of trash bags around our tennis shoes. I agree, that part is pretty comical. But after that, please pray for Texas.

Please pray for our homes and the people in them.

#PrayforTexas