Texas' Power Grid Ready for Winter Storm, Says Greg Abbott

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It's about to get really cold throughout Texas. A winter storm is on its way and much of the state could see freezing temperatures for at least 48 hours. While that may sound like a long time, last year's winter storm that led to outages across the state pushed temperatures below freezing for 139 hours in Dallas-Fort Worth.

While much has been written about, questioned, and even campaigned on when it comes to the reliability of the Texas power grid, citizens want to see results and they want to feel as though the grid will hold up. According to Texas Governor Greg Abbott and leaders with ERCOT, the grid is ready to handle this winter storm.

This doesn't mean you won't lose power, though. Several things could lead to outages that is not under ERCOT's control -- think fallen tree branches, cars sliding into electrical poles, and ice on power lines which could all lead to local power issues.

According to the Dallas Morning News, the power grid manager has been looking into its units and generators to make sure they are ready to handle the storm:

Brad Jones, interim ERCOT president and CEO, said the power grid manager has been inspecting its units and generators over the last year to ensure they are prepared.
“We feel very comfortable with their level of readiness,” Jones said. “We are ready for this storm. We’ll be prepared for this.”
About 4,000 personnel with the Texas Department of Transportation were deployed to help pretreat the roads, which are expected to be icy and treacherous, Abbott said. He asked that anyone who travels in the next few days do so with caution.

In Lubbock, officials with Lubbock Power and Light say they're ready as well for the storm and that with smart meters, they will know quickly if power does go out in any portion of the city.

Can You Guess These Towns From Their Satellite Photos?

I'm always down for a good brain challenge. This one however got the best of me.

It's always a fun time looking up address or cities and seeing them from a satellite point of view. You start pointing out landmarks and things you recognize.

One thing you don't account for however is something looking bigger or smaller than you seemed to think it was. So we started grabbing a bunch of these satellite pictures of cities and towns around Amarillo.

As we looked at them, we thought to ourselves, "how fun would this be to actually have to GUESS what these places are?". So away we went.

Go ahead and try to see how many you can guess correctly!

Visit These 16 Texas Cities And Towns At Least Once As A Texan

It's a fact that Texas is a huge state and because of its size, there are also a lot of things to see, visit and experience in The Lone Star State. Both Texas visitors and Texans alike should visit our awesome cities and attractions. By no means are these all the activities in these wonderful cities. They're just a few examples of things to do.