MIDLAND, Texas — Robert Lascano and his family have had an eventful few days.
"This is like something we've never seen before in this area," Robert Lascano, father said.
They've been bearing the cold with no power or water like thousands of other West Texans.
"We did see that it was coming, so we prepared. We insulated our pipes and we bought the heating wire, but when the power outage happened around Thursday it caught everyone by surprise and even our sewer pipe froze," Lascano said.
So the family of six hunkered down, tried to fix their pipes and lines, taped their windows, looked for air leaks, covered themselves in blankets.
They used their water well to bring up the water still salvageable.
"We were boiling water in our stove also. That helps a lot," Lascano said.
But eventually they broke.
"We had to think of the kids first," Lascano said.
And decided to take a risk, leaving their house for a hotel in Midland, 22 miles away from Stanton.
They also had to risk leaving their pet chihuahuas behind with hopefully enough blankets, food, and water.
"It was a really dangerous drive. We saw about 5 car crashes and we barely made it. We were coming at 25 miles per hour," Lascano said.
"They told us in this hotel that it was pretty dangerous to drive all the way from Stanton over here, but we figured we had to take the risk because it could get worse," Lascano said.
Now they're warm and safe in Midland, but for the time being. Here forward it's a waiting game as to when they can get back home.
The Lascano family checked on their chihuahuas this afternoon and they are staying as warm as they can under their blankets.
When the family went back to check on them and their house this afternoon, they filled the dogs' food bowls, but their pipes are still frozen and their power still isn't back on.