“It’s been a long week”: Former KVRR employee describes living in Texas

Former KVRR photographer John Hanson now lives near Frisco with his girlfriend

FARGO, N.D. (KVRR) — It’s been a long week for people living in Texas. Some are dealing with constant power outages; others battling frozen or busted pipes.

A former KVRR photographer now lives in Texas and tells how he’s getting by in the winter crisis to our south.

“It’s been a long week. I’ll tell you that.”

After living many years in Fargo-Moorhead, John Hanson moved to an area near Frisco.

He and his girlfriend have been living with power going in and out over the past few days.

“I don’t think it was so much the snow that was the problem. It was the cold cause the cold, everybody uses their power. Everybody’s using the power. That puts a strain on the power grid,” says Hanson.

They lost power three or four dozen times since it all started. Each time, he says it was a rush to use what you could.

Hanson adds, “we’d just charge our phones, charge our laptops, everything, use the internet as fast as possible.”

Thankfully for the pair, the power returned around noon yesterday and has stuck around.

Hanson says their kitchen pipes also froze. Thankfully, they didn’t burst but know neighbors where they did.

He says, “I think one night, a couple nights ago, it was like zero, around there one or zero and the daytime, it’s in the teens. Nothing big for me but people around here are not use to that.”

That’s not the only thing Hanson says Texans aren’t familiar with.

Hanson says, “I’m driving like normal and everybody is driving like 10-20 miles under the speed limit. Even on the highways, I’m flying past them.”

Many stores are closed because of the rolling outages. Walmart is one of the few staying open but that’s not to say the shelves weren’t picked over.

“I’ve never seen anything in my life. Everybody was just like freakishly buying as much as possible before the next snow storm came but like I said, it was a dusting to me,” says Hanson.

Hanson also knows that it wont be long until the Texas warmth returns.

“The weather is getting better. I think they’re finally getting more power so we’re fine, now,” says Hanson.

Hanson says they’re fortunate in their situation, knowing there’s many others who have suffered more during this historic time in the state.