Tucson Arizona's Unusual Freezing Weather

For the first time in the almost thirty years I have been living here in Tucson, Arizona, the temperature hit 17 degrees during the night. The daytime degrees was only 35. I thought the warmer weather here was my reason for moving from the east coast.

This past Thursday, the residents, snowbirds and visitors here thought we just had to deal with the unusual colder degrees. We all raised our heat during the day and at night, to keep warm. Some of us have gas heat and some of us have electric heat. For those of us who have gas heat, we would never imagine that our city would run out of gas. It did. Our company, Southwest Gas had to shut off the gas to approximately 14,000 homes - mostly on the east side of town. Those who were affected panicked. Stores quickly sold out of portable heaters, electric blankets and everything else that can be used to keep people warm. A few shelters opened up on the east side of town and only the one at Morris K. Udall Park accepted people's pets too. Southwest Gas told residents to be patient because it may take up to four days for them to restore everyone's gas service.

During the first day of approximately 14,000 homes not having any heat, I was one of the lucky ones. Since I still had heat, I lowered my thermostat to help conserve the gas. Then on the second day, at 11:00 A.M. my neighbors called to tell me that Southwest Gas had turned off all of our gas valves too. We all wondered why, since we originally still had gas. First we were told it was to revamp their entire system and then we were told that 28 homes had their gas valves turned off by accident and we were three of them. Lucky us...or shall I say, not so lucky us. I was shivering at times and I had a cold, so I was concerned about my health. I knew that if we were without heat for too long, we were going to have to leave our home and most likely go to a hotel. Luckily, our time without gas was short-lived. Within 6 hours, two Southwest Gas employees came to our homes and re-lit our gas appliances. They were in and out of each home in less than five minutes. I was so thrilled that we didn't have to go through a night without having any heat. I felt very bad for those who did.

Being without gas for six hours was an experience. We had to use the hot water we still had very sparingly, so we saved it to use when we washed our hands after using the bathroom. To wash dishes, we boiled water and poured it on the dish cloth as needed. It was cold inside our house, but it didn't get below 64 degrees. I heard other people say that inside their home it had dropped down to 42 degrees. In our home, we drank hot beverages continuously to keep the inside of our bodies warm. We put on warm pants and socks to try and keep warm. It was hard to do our usual household chores because we mainly focused on keeping warm.

By the end of the first day of not having any gas, less than half of the 14,000 homes had their gas service restored. Now the second day has passed and some thousands of homes are still without gas. Unfortunately it still make take two to three more days for Southwest Gas to turn everyone's gas back on.

If you are still without gas and would like to know approximately when your gas service may be restored, go to the website: www.swgas.com and click on "More information in the "A message to our Southern Arizona customers" box. On the next page you'll find a link to click on, to see a map of where Southwest Gas workers are currently relighting and anticipate relighting on specific days. You can also read important additional information there too.

During this unusually cold weather of ours we were also told to keep indoor faucets dripping at night, so our pipes didn't freeze. Again, we were one of the lucky ones. A few of my friends' pipes froze even though they let faucets drip throughout the night. I heard that others had pipes that burst and many had frozen pipes. Some were able to solve the problem of their pipes freezing by using a hair dryer, or heating pad to defrost them. For others it cost plenty of money to have their pipes repaired. Some repairs are not yet completed.

What an unexpected mess - all because it got unusually cold here in Tucson, Arizona.

In situations such as these, it reminds us of what we take for granted, such as always having heat and water. It also reminds us of how lucky we are to be able to have and afford life's basic necessities.

Today it's supposed to be warmer - 65 degrees during the day and 38 degrees during the night. Once again, this is the Tucson, Arizona we know and fell in love with.

Sources:
www.swgas.com (2010 Southwest Gas Corporation)