Plunging temperatures have snapped water pipes across South
County, parching local homes and businesses. The four-day freeze
has left plumbers scrambling to fix split valves and mains, only to
watch mended pipes re-freeze, and break again.
”
Pipes are bursting left and right,
”
said plumber John Lopez, Ernie’s Plumbing and Repair
Service.
”
Even top-of-the-line valves have split!
”
Gilroy – Plunging temperatures have snapped water pipes across South County, parching local homes and businesses. The four-day freeze has left plumbers scrambling to fix split valves and mains, only to watch mended pipes re-freeze, and break again.
“Pipes are bursting left and right,” said plumber John Lopez, Ernie’s Plumbing and Repair Service. “Even top-of-the-line valves have split!”
Monday morning, Lopez studied a PVC pipe, split in five places, running the length of a barn at Tri-County Veterinary Hospital, a rural clinic on Pacheco Pass Highway. Property owner Robert Gilroy did everything right: his pipes are insulated, they’re nearly new, and he’s left faucets dripping, to keep water flowing instead of freezing. Yet his pipes burst, and burst again.
“By the time it thaws,” said Gilroy, “it freezes again.”
It’s the second time Ernie’s Plumbing has stopped by the site; Gilroy said he spent six hours working Sunday, “just fixing the big stuff.” Troughs froze over, and had to be broken and warmed so his horses could drink. Alongside the barn, an icicle hung static from a tap, left dripping overnight.
As the mercury drops, 911 calls have risen. Frustrated emergency dispatchers fielded more than 50 calls reporting broken or frozen pipes, redirecting callers to local plumbers.
“A broken water pipe isn’t a life-threatening emergency,” said Sgt. Kurt Svardal, Gilroy Police. “It’s not what 911 is for. It can be hard to reach them, but calling a plumber is preferred.”
But plumbers’ phones are ringing off the hook: Ernie’s Plumbing received 17 emergency calls over the weekend, and has stopped taking calls, to catch up. Each call can take one to four hours to fix, and the company’s seven plumbers are charging double for emergency work.
Meanwhile, ruptured pipes have set off fire alarms, tying up firefighters. Division Chief Ed Bozzo reported nine false-alarm calls caused by broken pipes this weekend; at least three more sounded Monday morning. Firefighters’ water supplies are intact, protected by hydrants buried deep in the ground. But as other, less protected pipes fail, a crop of false alarms have vexed firefighters.
“It hasn’t been this bad since the freeze in 1990,” said Bozzo. “Each time, we first check that there’s no fire, then find the broken pipe and shut down the system … it can take anywhere from 10 to 45 minutes.”
Gilroy hasn’t gotten this cold for this long since December 1998, said meteorologist Steve Anderson, National Weather Service: The town’s average January low is 39 degrees. Fears of frostbite and hypothermia prompted Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger to declare a statewide emergency Friday, when daily lows dipped below 30 degrees Fahrenheit. Gilroy’s coldest January recorded temperature is 20 degrees, noted in 1949, according to the Weather Channel. That’s only four degrees less than Gilroy temperatures Sunday night.
The chill is expected to ebb slightly, but not by much: the Weather Channel is predicting lows below-freezing all week.
Elsewhere in the state, citrus farmers fear the icy weather has damaged tangerines and lemons, a major blow for the $1 billion industry. But South County farmers say most local crops haven’t been stung by the cold snap, mainly because few crops are still in the ground.
“Hay is the only thing growing at this point – there’s virtually no vegetables to speak of,” said Jenny Derry, executive director of the Santa Clara County Farm Bureau. “I haven’t heard of any adverse effects. If anything, it’s a good thing for stone fruit crops like peaches and cherries, which need a certain number of cold days every year.”
Farmers also reported frozen pipes, but they weren’t needed to water crops.
“I had to take a non-shower this morning,” joked Pete Aiello, co-owner of Uesugi Farms. “All we had was cold water, barely dripping … It was a birdbath, I guess.”
But the frosty weather isn’t a joke for florists such as Ted Uchida, co-owner of Zen Flower Garden. Scores of orchids, palms and ferns have been pushed aside at his Monterey Road shop, casualties of the cold. Heating the plants costs more than losing them entirely, said Uchida: a lesson learned in a previous cold snap, when the Uchida family warmed their plants – and lost them anyhow.
“It’s a Catch-22,” he said. “For us to heat it, it takes a lot of money. So we pay in heat, or we pay in plants.”
Nor can he water the plants that remain: His pipes have frozen.
