FEBRUARY 20, 2015
For Ruth Baker, frozen pipes are not uncommon.
She recognizes that cold snaps are part of many South Jersey
winters, and plumbing problems are an inevitable result of prolonged cold.
She has lived in the same house in Absecon for 30 years. Her
pipes have frozen, then thawed. But she has never been without a bathroom for
almost a week. No shower. No toilet.
A weeklong deep freeze over South Jersey has led to a wave
of frozen and burst water pipes, and that has plumbers and fire companies
scrambling to keep up with calls.
Baker shivers her way to a neighbor’s home to use the
bathroom, or to the gym to use the shower.
But perhaps the biggest scramble in South Jersey is the
search for a plumber. Those in the trade are more flooded with phone calls the
longer it stays frozen.
Now retired, Baker has nowhere she has to be. She passes the
time reading, or working in her in-house ceramics studio. But while being
without water is hard, the waiting may be even harder.
“I feel like a prisoner in my home waiting for someone to
come,” she said.
Someone already came to help Baker once this week; a plumber
had water flowing at her home Wednesday. But the persistent cold proved too
much, and 24 hours later, her bathroom was again unusable.
Plumbers are battling back against the cold. Some, such as
Ethan Brown, of Nece’s Plumbing and Heating of Rio Grande, have been working
into the early morning hours.
Others, such as Tom Byrd, of Thomas Byrd Plumbing in Egg
Harbor Township, have seen service calls more than quadruple. He realizes
there’s little relief in sight, from both the cold and his workload.
“Just because we’re in the 40s one day (Sunday), we will not
totally thaw,” said Byrd. Several consecutive days above freezing are necessary
to fully thaw and resolve all issues.
But that won’t be the case anytime soon. Another prolonged
stretch of below freezing temperatures will begin Monday.
Matt Calloway, of TLC Mechanical in Ocean View, said pipes
are not the only home furnishings that are susceptible to the extreme
temperatures. One problem this year is related to higher-efficiency heaters
being installed in homes. Unlike older, less efficient models, 90 percent
efficient heaters produce water that needs to be drained to the outside of a
home. The extreme cold freezes the water in the drains, causing heaters to stop
working. Just like frozen pipes, heaters have to be thawed and serviced.
No matter which plumber you talk to, the advice they offer
is the same. While nothing can guarantee pipes remain unfrozen, preventive
measures can help. What they recommend: insulating pipes, letting your faucet
drip and making sure crawl spaces are secure from the wind.
Barrier islands are especially susceptible to gusty winds.
Unsecured crawl spaces and homeowner neglect, especially to second homes, are
part of the reason island fire departments have been inundated with calls all
week.
Chief Chris Breunig, of the Ocean City Fire Department,
estimates his department has had 500 calls this week, so many that they
deferred some to the water department. He classifies 50 of those calls as
“major interior water leaks causing extensive damage to those properties.”
Absecon Island has seen similar issues. Frank Ricciotti,
director of public works in Margate, said his department had shut off water to
well over 100 homes and was anticipating a lot more.
“We are starting to get control of it,” he said. “But there
are still plenty of houses out there leaking.”
Typically in February, Margate uses about 600,000 gallons of
water each day. But that number was substantially higher this week, and
officials believe the higher water use is due to leaking pipes.
On Monday, 1 million gallons were used, and on Tuesday, 1.5
million, Ricciotti said. On Wednesday, water use had reached 1.8 million
gallons.
Fire departments, public works and water companies work
together to stop the water and prevent further damage to the property. They
stress that only a plumber can permanently fix any issue.
But despite an increased workload, “we’re here to help,”
said Margate Fire Chief Anthony Tabasso, “and if we can’t, we’ll steer people
in the right direction.”