Well the fire department just came out to turn off the water at the street… so now it’s wait until the next plumber, which will be on Friday… thank you everyone for your suggestions and kind thoughts. I hope no one else out there going through this bad weather is having similar issues!
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I love quick answers to prayer!
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Our area is expected to be above zero after tonight. We also have some frozen pipes in our kitchen, but thankfully our bathroom toilet is OK for now. We lost power 4 times last night, so it did get frigid in our house. Good news! A gradual warmer trend starts in a couple more days.
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I’m sorry to hear that and my prayerful good wishes your pipes are restored soon and that your heat will be ok… I’ve been looking into those pipe heaters and I’m going to talk to the plumber when/if he comes about installing them on the pipes.
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I can sympathize … last Feb. during the big freezing ice storm our apartments were without electric and water for 4 days! The neighborhood across the street brought us food and water and the grocery store next door brought in a big gas generator for their needs and opened the cafe so we could come in to charge our phones, laptops, and batteries. It was a nightmare. Heavy ice had brought power lines down onto trees and in the streets. It was challenging to say the least, but on the positive side, it brought people together to help and share. Prayers that you and nidster and others get relief soon!
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I remember that… it always leaves you drained and frustrated. The firemen I talked to tonight said that with the slight warming spell, pipes all over town were bursting and they were having to go turn water off.
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Although our area usually never gets to -20F to -40F for more than a few days the frigid conditions we are experiencing now will most likely set a historical record this time around. This one sort of ‘solidifies’ the hypothesis that something is ‘controlling our weather’. We are very far South of the Dakotas and our prayers go out for you, and everyone else to be able to recover.
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FYI, We are in Minnesota and used to subzero temperatures. Normally our water pipes work just fine during even the coldest weather but this time All our pipes froze for several days. The “new” water system dates back to 1995, the previous one to the 1950’s and before that to the early 1900’s. In 1977 it was 42 below actual temperature and still the water pipes functioned. Interestingly, our sporadically thawing pipes didn’t appear to be related to the outside temperatures. Many friends and neighbors are also dealing with frozen pipes. Sending prayer and sympathy your way and to all water-afflicted Gizars.
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My wife and I were just today remembering the 1993 ‘Spring Storm of the Century’ that lasted about 36 hours or more. Our lowland areas received 27" of snow, and the mountains 36+". Then the really cold, frigid artic air moved in. Temps were into the -20’s to -40 range. We still remember hearing some of our trees around us being frozen down to the heartwood, and then ‘cracking’ from the pressure of the frozen sap. When they ‘cracked’ it sounded exactly like high caliber rifle shots being fired. Awesome!!! Strange as the storm was for our area at any time of the year, the weather on the day it moved in was about 80 - 85 degrees with perfectly clear skies. Weather forecasts were predicting more clear, warm weather before the storm began. Since it was going to be such fine, clear weather 1,000’s of folks headed-out for a week of camping in the mountains. Many folks had to lifted out by helicopter in an operation that lasted for several days.
As ‘kaytower’ has written, even well planned and long tested systems where winters can be long, and brutal are now failing this winter season, and we have not even gotten to the end of January. Strange weather patterns may continue.
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I have been snowed in for about a week now due to the steep hill below my house. The power went out for a few hours at the beginning due to high winds but then my gas furnace quit, right on the coldest day of the year. I have a small space heater for the bedroom and am using the gas stove to heat the house. Even so the pipes froze one morning. Next time I will be prepared with firewood, an extra ignitor for the furnace and a larger electric space heater. Luckily, I have a nicer natural gas generator that kicks in automatically, as this happens every year, but they were saying that this is the coldest Portland, OR has seen since the 90’s. I am now thinking about that mandatory census form where they ask if you have a gas stove. You can’t just skip that question and I feel I answered it under duress, since AOC was talking about abolishing gas stoves in NY City, if not the whole country due to “climate change.” Problem, reaction, solution, “you loose.”
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Having just returned to the website after an extended holiday break, I was saddened to hear you’ve had to deal with this. I can imagine the frustration . . . I hope the plumber actually showed up and was able to do some good!
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In Blanco, TX, last week the sound of rushing water bubbling up through the streets was bad enough but it was just going dark and crews had to dig up the streets to get at the aged water lines that had burst in our freeze. It got to 13F two nights in a row and never got out of freezing during the day.
Here on the ranch, I let someone else turn on the heat in my UNINSULATED well house and I was suddenly without water as the pipe at the wall splintered and cracked. Fortunately, we are used to this stuff so I turned off the well and ran to the hardware and got new PVC glue and a few fittings and after an hour, got everything back up and running. The heater is now on HIGH for those periods and in the corner where the well water comes into the pressure tank!
It has definitely been one of those years.
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And unfortunately it’s only January…
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