If you were in the US, you remember February 12 – 18, 2021. That was when the Texas Snow Storm hit not once, but twice. And I happened to be there visiting as a tourist. Here’s my story.
Pat and I were debated…should we take a mid-winter break to Florida or to Austin? Everyone flies to Florida, so we decided to do something different and visit Austin known for it’s sunny, 70F weather, bubbly people, and laidback atmosphere. As our flight date of Friday, Feb 12th, 2021 approached the weather began to shift a bit. It went from 50F (which was considered fairly cold in Texas for February) to 30F-40F with potentials for a little snow flurry on Sunday night. We would just pack our winter jackets and clothes and things would be ok. Over the course of 24-48 hours, our trip changed drastically and went from a quick 4-day weekend getaway to a 8-day lockdown in a hotel room. My name is Sveva Marcangeli and I visited Austin during the Texas Snow Storm Uri. Here’s what happened:
Friday, February 12th, 2021: Before the Texas Snow Storm
When we landed Friday night, the weather already began to turn. It went from just cold weather and a potential for flurries to a complete freeze with 1 day of snow on Sunday night. Again, not what we had hoped for…but we’ve been in worst.
Saturday, February 13th, 2021:
Patrick and I were staying at The Wayback Austin in Texas Hill Country. The coldness and humidity had frozen and coated all the trees and leaves around us in ice. You could hear the frozen icy leaves clink against one another as the wind blew. But the streets were still fine. It was supposed to start raining and freezing later on in the evening, so we decided to take advantage of the afternoon and head out to a winery or two. That night we drove into Austin city and grabbed a drink on Sixth Street at a bar with live music followed by dinner at Red Ash. Little did I know, that would be the first and last warm and whole hearted dinner we would get for a while. That night, everything iced over–especially the roads– due to the freezing temperatures, rain, and humidity.
Sunday, February 14th, 2021: The First Wave of the Texas Snow Storm Hits
It’s Valentine’s Day! We weren’t too rush to get on the road due to the conditions. When we grabbed breakfast at the Wayback cafe, a few people had still made it in for brunch. Conditions couldn’t be that bad if they had made it in, right? Patrick and I decided it was safer to move now and get into Austin city where we’d be spending the remainder of our trip. Conditions were only supposed to get worst, no point in waiting it out.
The drive into Austin was terrifying. The roads were as slick as an ice skating rink. Pat and I saw one too many accidents happen. Mainly because many people in Texas either 1) did not have cars with four wheel drive (why would they need it, it never snows here) and 2) they’d never experienced a Texas snow storm before so didn’t realize how slick the roads were.
We were going 10 mph. Cars were slipping in front of us, sliding across the road horizontally, crashing into guard rails right next to us (I’m not kidding). It was so scary. The worst were the hills and water overpasses where cars would get stuck or start sliding back down. It took us an hour vs 20 minutes to get into Austin, but we got in safely. And thank God we did or we would’ve been stuck in Texas Hill Country for over 5 days with no food, water, or power. Also, thank the Lord for National Rental Car. Pat is an Emerald Card Member so we got our pick of luxury vehicles and chose the Audi quattro with four wheel drive. Otherwise we were beyond screwed.
When we got into our hotel in Center city Austin, we relaxed and took a moment to unwind. The driving experience was stressful beyond belief. Being the travelers we are, we didn’t want to let the Texas snow storm stop us from seeing Austin. We only had 2 more days left here, we had to make the most out of it, even if everything was closed. Pat and I walked downtown. The pavement was a sheet of ice and we did not have the proper shoes. The walk took forever. Luckily, we found the one Saloon open for live music so had a beer and listened to some music before heading back to the hotel. On our way back it started snowing. It was very cool at first. We took pics in front of Texas capitol and it was beautiful. I mean, this was a rare occurrence!
The beauty of the Texas snow storm quickly deteriorated when we realized every single place in Austin was closed for dinner, including our hotel restaurant. Luckily, Pat and I were located next to the UT campus (University of Texas). There was this one thai place open called UTea Pho that saved us for the night. We had to wait 3 hours for our food, but at least it was food. We had pho that night in hotel room.
That night Austin got 6 inches of snow.
Monday, February 15th, 2021:
I will say that Pat and I were extremely lucky. The hotel we were staying at shut down the restaurant all day. But would open up in the AM to make food for all hotel guests. It was the only meal of the day they served, but at least we got one hot meal in. We ordered room service for breakfast because everything was closed in the morning for the snow. I had a waffle for breakfast.
It had snowed 6 inches so the ice was tucked beneath the snow. The sun was shining brightly. It was a beautiful day and a rare occurrence to see a Texas snow storm. Pat and I went for a walk around Clarksville in the snow. The roads weren’t plowed at all since Texas didn’t have the infrastructure in place for this sort of weather. When walking, we couldn’t tell when the road and sidewalk started and ended. It was hard for Pat and I to fathom that not one single person had a snow shovel, salt, or plow to move anything. But also, there was A LOT of snow. Pat even took a picture of how deep his leg was going into the snow. It was like halfway up my shin. It was a lot of snow in a short amount of time.
The city was deserted and all supermarkets were closed. The only people out and about were college kids enjoying the weather. They were not equipped for snow because they didn’t own any clothing for the cold. They were wearing leggings, light puffer jacket, and sneakers or light boots in 20F. People were using like cardboard as sleighs or grates of some sort or the back ends of skateboards without the wheels. It was the first time some of these people had ever seen snow. Some who had ski gear actually skied down places like 6th St or snowboarded down hills in Clarksville. The college kids next to us were a hoot…drinking and dancing in the snow. Some tied themselves to cars and would have themselves pulled around like they were on a sleigh ride.
Pat and I took a lot of cool pics. We skipped lunch because there was nothing open and we had a big breakfast. Stores and restaurants weren’t open because there was too much snow for them to get into Austin city. We had to be super careful when walking. I slipped a few times and tweaked my left ankle, but could still walk.
Originally the news said on Thursday before we left that Sunday and Monday would be in the 20Fs and there was a slight chance of flurries of 1 inch from Sunday into Monday night. Then it would be 60F on Tuesday. Instead? It was 6 inches of snow and there was a second Texas snow storm coming…Our American Airline flight was moved to Wednesday. Patrick and I knew how unrealistic departure on a Wednesday would be given this second storm, so proactively moved it to Sunday. Good call on our part because flights didn’t end up taking off from Austin until Saturday.
At night, I realized how dire the situation was. People were out looking for food since they lost power. Patrick and I had pre-emptively looked at doordash at 4PM to see if anything was open. It said a Mediterranean place was open about a 15 minute walk north. We placed our order for pickup at 7PM and they confirmed it. They said it was ready for pick up and everything. When we showed up at 7, the place hadn’t been open all day. Because we started looking for food so late at night, nothing was left because nothing was open and people had already placed orders at 1PM for dinner knowing the food was limited. We were beyond pissed and hangry.
Trucks couldn’t bring in food and employees couldn’t drive in to serve food so we ended up having to eat insomnia cookies, peanuts, and pistachios because nothing was open. I would say this was the lowest point of our trip.
That night, the temperature dropped and everything froze over.
Tuesday, February 16th, 2021: The Second Wave of the Texas Snow Storm Hits
That night everything iced over, so people started to lose power in the thousands and pipes started to burst. The situation turned very serious and it wasn’t fun anymore (even the night before students started losing power). It was impossible to drive anywhere let alone walk. The next morning we refused to be skipping lunches and living off of only hotel breakfasts for 24 hours until our next meal. That morning, we ordered a $125 breakfast. I mean, we ordered like everything on the menu that was hot. We were starved: Eggs, steak, bacon, sausage, toast. Give it all to us. We got in line at Target for 2 hours and CVS because we had zero food and refused to go through what happened last night again.
We had booked an Airbnb from Wednesday to Sunday so we could cook our own food that we stocked up on (or what food was left which was none). When I was at CVS I got the last pastas and oatmeal. A young guy in his early 20s in front of me at CVS was visiting and had only brought crocs with no socks and was walking on ice…True story. That’s how’s bad it was. Some people were walking around with shorts and flip-flops flips at 20F–it made no sense. That was our day in a nut shell.
That night we got UTea Pho for dinner. We ordered our pad thai at 4pm because we knew they would run out of food by 7PM. It was a good call, it was ready at 8PM, but at least we got food, others didn’t. When we got back to the hotel, we saw a few locals trying to sleep at the hotel since they lost power. But it was fully booked. The hotel let them sit in the lobby for warmth. It was heart-breaking.
That night it rained and freezed over. The sprinkler system went off at 4AM because it froze and broke. Luckily we still had heat, power, and water. The pool pipe burst too, but that was the extent of it. We were one of the lucky few who still had power due to our location next to hospitals and UT’s campus.
Wednesday, February 17th, 2021:
Wednesday, things were very bad. The ice was terrifying. We didn’t leave the house all day. We ordered breakfast and Pat worked remotely. I got ready for work, set up my blog, and did a virtual barre class. Lunch was cereal for me and left over toast and jam from breakfast. We left after work and found that USA Halal was open for dinner. Thank God! We waited 2 hours in the cold and had chicken over rice. Chicken over rice was warm and hearty but small. We were ok with that. It was warm food, that’s all we needed.
It was ironic because Texas is known for there Texas sized meals. The first night, before the storm happened, we had so much food, we didn’t know what to do with it because the portions were huge. The waitress had asked Pat if he wanted his ossobucco and risotto wrapped to go. Not knowing what was to come we thought, “When would we eat it?? No need.” Bad idea. Now that there was a food shortage in the city, these ‘Texas sized meals’ became very rationed.
That night, the Airbnb told us a pipe had burst in his place so we had to cancel our reservation. We were so lucky our hotel had water, wifi, and heat the whole time.
Thursday, February 18th, 2021:
I was supposed to start a new job today (remotely of course). So had to start it from a hotel in Austin. Not ideal, but at least I had wifi and power. I called to order coffee and the hotel was on a boiler water notice now. Great, so no coffee on my first day of work at my new job, my eyes were shutting down. Breakfast was cereal. Lunch was a can of tuna and a bagel. It snowed during the day, but it would melt a bit at night.
We were able to “secure the bag”–a saying Patrick and I have become very accustomed with ever since this experience, it’s etched in our brains. We were able to get a warm meal that night because some snow and ice had melted from how warm it was in the afternoon. Moody’s was one of the only places open, so we got falafel with rice and veggies and some beers and margaritas.
Friday, February 19th, 2021: The Aftermath of the Texas Snow Storm
The ice had melted a bit over night and we were able to finally eat something not from the hotel for breakfast. We couldn’t have eggs anymore. We walked to lab coffee and got a blueberry muffin and drip coffee. They could make the coffee warm thank god. The snow melted during the day because of the heat. By lunch we could walk on the sidewalks! It was insane how fast everything melted. We had lunch at Kesos Tacos, hurray! A real lunch meal! We worked till 7PM then walked around because we finally could stretch out our legs without waddling like a penguin on ice.
That night we got food from Look and Noodles: ramen with chicken and tonkatsu. Friday was the first day things started to look up. We had real meals and power started to be restored for people. The water boil notice was still in place.
Saturday, February 20th, 2021:
We woke up and it was like nothing had happened. Like the Texas snow storm was a bad dream. The snow was gone and it was 50-60F. Finally, we get our one day as tourists! We woke up and got a hot coffee and blueberry and banana muffin from Idlewild coffee. From 12-8PM we walked 15 miles. I kid you not, 15. We saw all of central austin, downtown, east, and south. We made up for all the time lost and had so much energy. Water boil notice was still in place. The weather was so different, Pat got a neck sunburn–no joke.
Sunday , February 21st, 2021:
We made it out of Austin. We were able to drive on the highway, get to the airport and catch our flight home. What an experience…we were beyond lucky when it came to our location, food situation, hotel, and more. I was beyond stressed and it was obvious from my face. Thankfully, my Chase Sapphire Reserve Card eased my situation a bit. They reimbursed me my extra expenses since it was a Natural Disaster related travel accident.
I’ll have to go back to re-experience the real Austin sometime…but it’ll be a while. For now, I’ll keep these very vivid and tough memories of what it’s like living through the historical Texas snow storm weather disaster when traveling.
>> Next: One Day in Texas Hill Country: Wineries & BBQ
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