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Go to slate.com slash survey. How's it going? Last week, our producer, Davis, headed

out from his neighborhood in Houston to meet up with a guy named Andrew. How are y'all?

What's going on? Oh, we're just planning out the weekend trying to get things going

and trying to find plumbers for reasonable prices to do work. Which, you know, it's a plumbers

market right now. Andrew Barley helps lead an organization called West Street Recovery.

He's helping people repair their homes after a winter storm knocked out power for so many

Texans. When Andrew and Davis met up, it was nearly 80 degrees out. A huge change from

a couple weeks back. When many Texans were shivering under coats and blankets, waiting

out a deep freeze and a utility shutdown. But after the cold let up, what was left behind

was a mess of plumbing, burst pipes, walls sagging, full of leaking water. Andrew says,

there simply aren't enough hands to do the work. But additionally, we're at the mercy of

the market when it comes to supplies right now. We've had to go all the way as far as Louisiana

to get some parts. But we're also not the only people from Texas with the idea of going

...