Broken pipe floods extension office
by PERRY BACKUS - Ravalli Republic
Earlier this week, Ravalli County Extension Agent Katelyn Anderson was busy passing information out to the public on the best way to avoid frozen pipes.
Thursday morning, she was nearly washed away by one.
“I was talking on the phone with a lady when I heard this sound like someone splashing water,” Anderson said.
And then she saw water starting to run out of the ceiling.
“I got to go. I got to go,” Anderson yelled into the telephone as she grabbed her laptop and ran.
“The water was literally gushing out,” she said. “All of a sudden it just came down with a loud whoosh. It was horrible.”
Water from the broken pipe for the building’s fire sprinkler system poured out into the basement rooms of the extension office in the county administration building.
“I tried to go back in my office and save some of my books, but it was a lost cause,” Anderson said. “Everything was soaked.”
The water ran for almost 30 minutes before someone was able to shut it off.
“The water was all the way down the hall,” she said. “In some places it was two to three inches deep.”
By late afternoon, most of the water had been swept out the door or vacuumed up and workers were beginning the tedious job of tearing out carpet and cleaning up the mess.
The county extension offices will remain closed until mid-January, but Anderson said the office will find a way to hold upcoming classes. Carianna Newton will staff a temporary office located on the county administration building’s third floor.
With temperatures expected to reach near record cold this weekend, Ravalli County residents need to take precautions to ensure they don’t experience an unexpected flood.
Lauri Jolley of Purity Cleaning Services in Victor said people often don’t discover a broken pipe until it’s too late.
“If it stays cold, people won’t always know that they have a broken pipe until the temperature warms up,” Jolley said. “A lot of times we get calls a month or two after the big cold spells.”
There are quite a few snowbirds living in Ravalli County and sometimes those folks won’t find out about a broken pipe until they return in the spring.
“We’ve gone into places where mushrooms are growing on the beds,” she said. “With this cold weather that we’ve been having, we’re gearing up for a busy time.”
When it gets cold, it’s important to keep your house and pipes warm, said Mike Vogel, a MSU extension specialist from Bozeman.
Vogel said there are five things people can do to help prevent freezing pipes. They include:
• Open all sink cabinet doors to expose warm house air to the water supply and drains. If the washing machine is in a closet, open these doors as well. Increase the warm air flow by removing under-sink products. A small fan can also be used to circulate warm air.
• Let a cold water faucet drip. Slow moving water through the pipes will generally keep the water from freezing the supply pipes from the water main or pump.
• Disconnect the outside hoses. If possible, shut off the water supply to the outside faucet.
• Keep the house temperature at a steady temperature. Do not set the temperature back as you may normally do to save energy. The additional cost in energy will be less than paying for a burst water pipe and the clean-up.
• Pipe in unheated areas should be given special care. Garages should be insulated so cold drafts are not able to reach the pipes. Make sure the vents are closed in crawl spaces.
When temperatures are below zero, keep a vigil on your pipes. Periodically open the faucet to flush water through them. In the event of a frozen pipe, have an electric heater on hand to immediately thaw the blockage, which will prevent the entire pipe from freezing and bursting the pipe.
For more information on home energy topics, contact the MSU/Ravalli Extension office, 375-6611; or visit the MSU Extension Web page at: http://www.msuextension.org/energy/homes.html.
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Editor Perry Backus can be reached at 363-3300 or editor@ravallirepublic.com.
Reader's Comments >>
Carianna Newton wrote on Dec 22, 2008 4:33 PM: