So this is what I did for our pool, on the filter we hung an old heating blanket on the North side towards the top, then put a old confronter/blanket and a black bag over it, one year our gauge froze so the water inside the top froze, so for any long freezes 2 or more days we do this. I have our pool pump running 24/7 at low speed already year round, it's variable speed pump, only uses 150 watts at low speed, but when power went off at 2:30am I had to suit up
, go out and I opened the pump cover (debris basket) and drain the pump/filter, this emptied all our 2 inch pipes too, then I covered the pump and pipes with another blanket and threw a tarp over it all. Oh so if you were outside at that time you were getting snowed on too which quickly turned to water due to my body heat so I was pretty wet when I went back inside I am hoping the small amount of water left in the pump and or filter did not do any damage because I know it had to freeze at 11 degrees. I too am waiting till tomorrow when we get to 70 degrees to check it. Oh yeah, I did make sure to turn off the breaker to the pump/pool equip. so when the power came back on the pump did not fire up/burn up being frozen. I think the filter casing should be able to handle frozen water, it is very thick plastic, the pump is a different story.Our M.U.D. faired pretty good, we got low on pressure but no water loss. It did scare me when pressure got low the first time, thought our main was trying to freeze up, but it did not happen. We also thought of using pool water to flush in case we lost water service.
With several cell towers down, I did figure out how to get cell service, I jumped on the 3G towers, no one was on those LOL, it was slow but worked.
So here is my assessment to what happened in Texas. We know several power plants went down due to frozen generators/equip./pipes/lines, etc. I am sure there will be an increase in our bills for more winterizing of these plants in the future, glad I am on a 5 year Fix plan (Reliant/NRG) (6 cents kWh), (9 cents total with Centerpoint, which I am assuming will increase their rates after this storm)...Anyway, so the fact that Texas is not winterized and our Grid is more designed for our Summer months I still am glad we do not share or get power from other grids, in my opinion, it keeps our energy prices down, also deregulation. Texas uses much, much less power during Winter months. Our house averages 500 kWh a month during the Winter and as high as 3000 kWh a month during the Summer (1900 sq. ft. house with pool). If Texas were to get power from other states can you imagine how much more we would be paying for electricity. I vote NO!!!, Texas is fine, we have a few adjustments to make but leave it alone. We presently do not pay over $200 a month during the summer with our thermostat set in the mid 70s (no higher than 76).
In my opinion, our idiot (Want-a-be President) is much more destructive to the future of our energy than what this little storm did down here.
For those of us with Natural Gas (furnaces), all you need is power to your blower, this takes very little electricity, a small generator will work, plus add a few lights, even a refrig. The issue is wiring, I have an Electrician family member working out a way we can partially plug into our Electrical Panel, I think he was going to hang an outlet off the breakers we need. OR we could just go buy a portable heater, but what is the fun in that, LOL. Of course summer is a different story, compressors take a lot of starting power, we can't afford a Generac, nor do we lose much power during the summer to justify one for us, even with the Hurricanes/Storms. We have a pool incase we get hot and all we need a generator for is to save a couple hundred dollars of food in our frig.
Sorry all for being
, blame Cruz LOL
, so I guess we are old school, we even pulled in our glass outside table, thinking it could crack with ice on it, yes that is a nativity scene in the background 
