Fort Worth Crash

As I have been told by my Texas friends, earlier on today there was a massive crash due to icy road conditions, Fort Worth Texas.

It’s very sad and an unnecessary loss of life but they expect more of this will happen again because they’re experiencing unusually icy weather. People are now being told to only travel if necessary in light of this crash.

https://www.google.co.uk/amp/s/metro.co.uk/2021/02/11/horrific-moment-huge-truck-crashes-during-100-vehicle-pile-up-that-killed-at-least-3-14066324/amp/

Viewer discretion is advised.

Reply 1

jackmarshal757

OP

19

https://edition.cnn.com/videos/weather/2021/02/11/texas-pile-up-fort-worth-interstate-crash-orig-mg.cnn

Apparently many people were trapped in their cars overnight

Reply 2

Napp

22

Unfortunate for the people involved but, to be honest, the only particularly unique aspect of this is Texas getting snowed in. The fact their gas supplies failed being a rather damning example of piss poor American infrastructure spending with horrific results (plus their oxygen stealing meat sack of a senator fled to Mexico of all places you literally cannot make up this ****, the irony is so thick you can take a bite out of it) :rofl:

Reply 3

jackmarshal757

OP

19

Original post by Napp

Unfortunate for the people involved but, to be honest, the only particularly unique aspect of this is Texas getting snowed in. The fact their gas supplies failed being a rather damning example of piss poor American infrastructure spending with horrific results (plus their oxygen stealing meat sack of a senator fled to Mexico of all places you literally cannot make up this ****, the irony is so thick you can take a bite out of it) :rofl:

They were relying on wind turbines to generate their electricity and they froze to a halt. Wind turbines don’t work well in extreme weather, especially when it’s a once in one hundred years cold snap

Reply 4

Drewski

19

Original post by jackmarshal757

They were relying on wind turbines to generate their electricity and they froze to a halt. Wind turbines don’t work well in extreme weather, especially when it’s a once in one hundred years cold snap

Only because they got the wrong ones*. Texas believed their own hype about being special, isolated their power grid, and didn't listen to advice. Their politicians are squarely and solely to blame.

*It's colder in Canada and theirs are still working

Reply 5

Napp

22

Original post by jackmarshal757

They were relying on wind turbines to generate their electricity and they froze to a halt. Wind turbines don’t work well in extreme weather, especially when it’s a once in one hundred years cold snap

They weren't relying on turbines? They were mainly relying on NG to power their homes and power stations - the network failed dismally. This isnt a question of renewables being unreliable in such instances its a question of America not having effective infrastructure. And possibly one of people making disingenuous claims that windfarms dont work.

Reply 6

jackmarshal757

OP

19

Original post by Napp

They weren't relying on turbines? They were mainly relying on NG to power their homes and power stations - the network failed dismally. This isnt a question of renewables being unreliable in such instances its a question of America not having effective infrastructure. And possibly one of people making disingenuous claims that windfarms dont work.

No, it’s a question as to why Texas officials ignored the advice of their energy board to winterise all of their infrastructure.

Reply 7

Tempest II

16

As some others have pointed out, the attempt to blame the power shortage on wind turbines is both incorrect and a political stunt. Wind turbines can operate in colder climates than TX, such as Northern Europe (Norway for example).

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.newsweek.com/texas-wind-turbines-frozen-power-why-arctic-1570173%3famp=1

Unfortunately, an awful lot of drivers in states like TX aren't used to driving in winter conditions.

Reply 8

jackmarshal757

OP

19

Original post by Tempest II

As some others have pointed out, the attempt to blame the power shortage on wind turbines is both incorrect and a political stunt. Wind turbines can operate in colder climates than TX, such as Northern Europe (Norway for example).

https://www.google.com/amp/s/www.newsweek.com/texas-wind-turbines-frozen-power-why-arctic-1570173%3famp=1

Unfortunately, an awful lot of drivers in states like TX aren't used to driving in winter conditions.

Yeah, this is about the crash rather than the current situation but what’s happening is awful. I’m aware it’s because they didn’t winterise their infrastructure line officials had been advising they do for quite some time.

Also, this is a freak weather event, so either way it would have been bad

Reply 9

Napp

22

Original post by jackmarshal757

No, it’s a question as to why Texas officials ignored the advice of their energy board to winterise all of their infrastructure.

Because the American goverment is staffed by political cretins, their local government is even worse. America is known as a thoroughly corrupt (even if its a legal form of it) country for many reasons, this is but another example of vested interests benefitting at the expense of everyone else. If nothing else, it makes an interesting change from hearing about the usual examples in NYC and Florida.

Reply 10

QE2

20

Original post by jackmarshal757

They were relying on wind turbines to generate their electricity and they froze to a halt. Wind turbines don’t work well in extreme weather, especially when it’s a once in one hundred years cold snap

Usual politically partisan, reactionary conservative nonsense from the Republicans and their Fox News lapdog.
About 20% of Texas' electricity comes from wind. The majority is from thermal (gas, coal and nuclear).
Thermal sources lost about 30GW while wind lost 15GW, about half its capacity (although the remaining turbines generated more than expected because of the unusually high winds for Feb, so helped make up the shortfall).
So we can see that conventional sources were responsible for the bulk of the shortage, not renewables.

Edit: On further reading it seems Texas only expects to produce about 7% of demand from wind during extreme winter weather events, so it actually outperformed expectation!