Hiawatha – Some people living in a mobile home park in eastern Iowa went without water for about two days after a pipe burst in the frigid temperatures.
Sunset Village residents tell Iowa's News Now they suddenly had their water cut off due to a water break on Tuesday.
On Wednesday, the maintenance department made a trip to fix the problem, but some people said they still had no water in their homes. Now, more than 48 hours later, residents say the water is finally flowing again.
Residents told Iowa's News Now about the large leak at the mobile home park entrance Tuesday, which caused a road-long layer of ice that made it difficult to get around.
This is something local plumbers are seeing a lot these days.
“We still get a few general service calls, water heaters break, the occasional toilet repair, but most of them are frozen and burst pipes,” said Richard “Dick” Moomey, apprentice plumber with Master Plumber.
The next day, maintenance crews could be seen working on the seemingly broken pipeline, but not everyone saw their water supply immediately return.
One resident said they had to find water elsewhere and another said they had to melt the snow to keep their pets hydrated.
Now that supplies have been restored, experts say people need to keep their homes and pipes warm so the water can keep flowing.
“I recommend everywhere, you know, about 50 to 60 degrees. We had a lot of people trying to save money on gas. I know these are difficult times, but we live in Iowa, it's cold out here,” Moomey said.
However, depending on your living space, it may be more difficult to prevent frozen pipes in your home.
“With RVs and travel trailers, the most important thing is going to be to do the annual heater check, obviously keep the heat back on and then just make sure everything stays warm all the way to the plumbing system,” Moomey said.
Experts say that when pipes are frozen, the best thing to do is to expose the pipes to air and heat them up. You can run a space heater on it, but don't leave it unattended.
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