Arctic blast wreaks havoc as pipes burst
Montana endured a record-breaking cold snap during the second week of January. Mineral County residents felt the brutal plunge in mercury for roughly a five-day stretch, before thermometers slowly crept back above 32 degrees.
And although the arctic air has given way to unusually spring like temperatures for the past several days. Homeowners, businesses, and local plumbers are just now wading their way through an astounding number of frozen pipes and flooded crawl spaces.
Rocky Covey, of St. Regis, has been in the plumbing trade for most of his life. His father was a plumber up in Alaska, a place where frozen pipes and pipefitting go hand in hand.
But Covey who’s been attempting to ease his way into retirement from the plumbing field, remarked, “That cold we just had, that was not normal. That was cold! I saw things froze that never freeze.”
“I’m used to seeing PVC pipes crack, but this time there was nothing left they just shattered,” explained Covey.
His routine plumbing work involves keeping numerous rentals homes, and trailer houses up to spec, and winterized each year for property owners. But when the deep freeze hit the weekend of Jan. 13, Covey knew he was going to be getting phone calls. In the days following he was inundated with dozens of voicemails from homeowners and local businesses needing pipes thawed, or worse, they were experiencing flooding.
“I was so busy with all the calls coming in I couldn’t answer because I was down in a crawl space full of water and didn’t want to pick up the phone,” laughed Covey.
In Superior, Covey helped repair a burst pipe at an office building. The crawlspace had filled with 18 inches of water and started to flood the businesses space before the leak was discovered. He spent all of last week going from house to house, trailer after trailer, thawing out frozen pipes, and re-piping entire residences.
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