February’s winter storm began on Valentine’s Day weekend with power and water outages lasting into the the next week. Around 78% of students lost power and about 84% lost water.

“It looked beautiful outside, my brother and I wandered around a lot and took many pictures,” senior Clara Connor said. “We also threw snowballs and I made a snowman. Inside, we all huddled around the fire and played some card and board games, so it was fun to get to spend some time with my family. Even though there were some downsides to the winter storm, my family was lucky to have been well prepared so we ended up having more fun than stress during this event. I know some families struggled a lot more with water, heat, and electricity so I am very grateful that my family had good circumstances so that we could just enjoy the snow.”

“The electricity was out for a long time so our house got down to around 40 inside,” senior Lexi Vacek said. “It was very cold.”

“My family and I had to stay warm by wearing a ton of clothing because our house was colder than outside. That meant my cat and dog had to be covered with a blanket because they were shivering,” junior Lauren Lozano said. “Luckily, we had gas to eat warm food, but we had to put our groceries from the fridge to a cooler outside to keep cold. I also wasn’t able to shower for the first 48 hours because if you did, the water would be extremely hot; you would come out of the shower extremely cold. I had no internet to do my homework until midday Wednesday. Most of our doctor’s appointments were cancelled due to the roads covered in ice and seeing cars stuck in the snow.”

“Me, my mom, my dad, and my little brother were stranded in Dallas away from everyone else at home,” freshman Ava Brittingham said. “We were coming back from Disney World, but all flights were canceled, so we stayed in a hotel. It had no power for 18 hours at a time and the water only came on every so often. It was cold and dark. Then they started only taking cash for food and drinks, and we ran out. We finally gave up and rented a car to get home. It was awful. I couldn’t have done it alone, so I’m glad at least some of my family was there with me.”

“I was able to play in the snow which was super awesome because I haven’t lived in the snow for around 10 years,” freshman Taylor Allen said. “I was also lucky enough to stay with my grandparents who never lost power.”

“When the power went out around midnight Tuesday,” senior Isabelle Odewale said. “My family went 12 hours without power and struggled to sleep from the house being freezing cold. To add on, some of the moments when we got power only lasted for about two minutes so we couldn’t really cook, eat anything, or drive anywhere from too much snow on the roads.”

“I’m not sure actually. From what I have heard of others, my experience doesn’t seem so bad,” senior Caitlyn Hermesch said. “But I guess the worst thing would be in the evening when the sun goes down. Without electricity, there isn’t much to do. It’s not like you can read a book or put together a puzzle. That and it gets cold quick, so you’re bored and cold which is not a great combo.”

“Since it is near to impossible for it to snow in my area at all, I took advantage of the snowy days and had fun,” senior Kurt Bueno said. “My sloped backyard was a perfect place for me to sled on. It was fun going down and running back up to do it all over again. The hard part was stopping just in time for me not to hit the fence very hard. I also had a lot of fun making a little snowman. I never really made one before so it was kinda hard forming the snow into big circular lumps but I managed with what I could do.” 

“My whole neighborhood lost water, and we were running low on groceries,” junior Leila Louise Carpenter said. Also my dad got stuck at the Methodist Baptist Hospital, because of the road conditions. My dad is an ICU charge nurse there at the hospital. However, the last couple days of the storm, my mom and I went around the neighborhood shoveling the snow from the sidewalks and peoples driveways, because not only was it dangerous for the people to drive on, but it was fun to work together and help others.”