BOZEMAN, Mont. – The sheer cold is causing more problems this week, this time in people’s homes. Pipes are freezing, causing some to burst.
“The alarms started going off,” says Samantha Millington, who lives in Larkspur Commons.
The sound of alarms rang through Samantha’s townhome on Monday, water rushing out of her neighbors’ second-floor windows.
She’s seen it happen twice before, like in a video she captured on New Year’s Day.
“It leaves inches of water on the ground,” Millington says. “It can cause a lot of damage, not just physical but emotional damage.”
Bozeman City Water and Sewer Operations Superintendent John Alston says people like Samantha are not alone.
“We’re starting to get more calls, especially with this dip that we just took in the last few days,” Alston says. “We went to the house the other day that got totally flooded and the thermostat was down to 55 [degrees].”
He adds situations like Samantha’s can leave costly damage.
“We’ve seen several houses that have been damaged severely with water. One, the window was left open,” Alston says. “The other one, the heat was down. I’m thinking we are going to see quite a bit of damage once it starts to warm up.”
Alston says it is extremely important in the case of an impending situation with your water to know how to shut it off and where to shut it off quickly.
It’s near the meter and all it takes is a quarter-turn to make sure you can avoid the worst.
“If you see your own breath in the area of your water meter, you are in imminent danger of freezing your service,” Alston says.
He says being proactive, leaving sink doors open to expose pipes and using tools like hair-dryers — NOT an open flame — can make a difference.
For those like Samantha, it’s a waiting game.
“It’s a ticking time, I feel like, for us until things can get fixed,” Millington says.
We reached out to Larkspur Commons to see how the fix was coming along. They have not yet responded.
For more tips from the City of Bozeman on how to prevent your pipes from freezing or to find help, the Water & Sewer Department posts tips on its Facebook page.
