Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By Olivia Johnson

Due to the freezing temperatures, many households in Troup County spent Christmas dealing with a busted pipe, flooded floors, or the worst-case scenario — a busted pipe with no heat or running water. 

Local plumbing companies in Troup County have been busy for the last few days fixing these problems.

Local resident Ryan Post said one of his pipes burst on Christmas night.

“I was at home relaxing when it busted and started to flood my bathroom floor. Fortunately, it didn’t get on the carpet,” Post said. “My landlord sent guys out here to fix it; however, they were called away due to an emergency. I still don’t have water, and it’s not fixed yet.”

Liberty Heflin, office manager of Hermark, said in the last few days, the business has had an extremely high call volume. 

“As of yesterday, we’ve had roughly 21 calls that came in, and that’s just during business hours,” Heflin said. 

Dale Jackson of Jackson Services said they had well over a hundred heating and air service calls and plumbing service calls just on Saturday and Sunday. 

“Our plumbers had just as busy, if not a busier, weekend than our heating and air techs,” Jackson said. 

Heflin said up to Christmas day, the company only had one worker fixing pipe issues — her husband and owner Thomas Heflin. 

“He only did three calls and fixed busted waterlines,” Heflin said. “He got up from his Christmas dinner and went and caught a call that day.” 

One of the most common problems reported was busted pipes, Heflin said. 

“We’ve been seeing mostly frozen pipes,” Heflin said. “We’ve also had a couple of customers say when the pipes fell out they had flooding and didn’t know how to turn the water off.”

“For some people, it’s that their actual heating and air would fail, causing their house to get cold which then compounded the problem with their plumbing,” Jackson said. “Unfortunately, some people had a heating problem which then turned into a plumbing problem. It’s kind of a double whammy for them.”

Right now, temperatures look to rise back to the 50s. However, should the temperatures reach freezing again, Heflin said to make sure to insulate water pipes. She also said insulation for pipes can be store-brought for those looking to do it themselves.

“Make sure your outside pipes are covered,” she said. “You can always let your pipes drip but make sure to insulate, insulate, insulate — that’s the main thing.”