After painful past power outage, North Texas man prepares for winter storm ahead

As North Texans prepare for the winter weather, concerns are growing about possible power outages. 

For Princeton resident Roque Garcia, the forecast brings back memories of a winter storm in 2022. It left him without power and in the dark for three days. 

"All we had was this fireplace going and every time we kept on calling Oncor, they're like, 'You're out, you'll probably be out for a couple days,' and we were like, 'Oh no,'" he said. 

Garcia said that experience pushed him to prepare differently this time.

"We started preparing as soon as we heard snow was coming in," he said. 

He stocked up on firewood, lanterns, flashlights, candles, and blankets. He has enough food to last him for days, has covered his outdoor faucets and even replaced his HVAC unit on Thursday. 

"Baker Brothers came out on Wednesday and inspected everything and gave it a final tuneup and everything," he said. "This time I'm hoping we'll be better because Oncor is saying that the electric grid is stable."

He's hoping he doesn't have to leave his home. Oncor said crews are monitoring conditions and have additional resources ready to respond if outages occur.

"We're hoping to stay warm and we're hoping the power stays on," he said.