Pike County and southwest Mississippi residents are slowly beginning to thaw out after a week of extremely cold weather.
The frigid weather dropped temperatures into the teens over the weekend, threatening water pipes and causing many of them to burst, and forcing residents to call plumbers and local building supply stores seeking help.
“I’ve been busy — too busy,” said Dan Hatch, owner of Doo More Drains in Summit.
“I started getting calls (about pipes) on Saturday,” he said Monday. “Most of the calls have been for outside water spigots, and unprotected, uninsulated pipes and plastic pipes.”
Hatch said his calls have come from across the county. “Business has picked up,” he said.
That also applies to the companies that supply pipes and fixtures to plumbers and do-it-yourselfers.
“All day, it’s been very steady,” said Barry Smith of Southern Pipe & Supply in McComb. “We’re closed on the weekend, so we began when we opened up this morning.”
He said the biggest call was for hot water pipe.
Chris Whittington, sales manager for Lowe’s Building Materials, said people have been coming in to the store wanting help with repairing leaks and replacing pipes.
He said the biggest call was for 1/2-inch and 3/4-inch PVC pipe and and hot water PVC pipe.
He said business was about the same Sunday and Monday, adding that he expects more business after the temperatures warm up “and more pipes become defrosted and go again.”
Chase Holmes, manager of West Builder’s Supply, said people have been buying PVC pipe, fittings and glue.
“We started getting calls for pipe on Friday,” he said Monday. “It was worse today with the temperatures getting as cold as they did and just now starting to thaw where the people are seeing those leaks.”
Officials with Pike County’s four municipalities said they have received numerous calls from homeowners asking public works or utilities workers to come cut off their water because of leaks.
McComb Public Works Director Ronnie Lindsey said Monday that four mains in the city — on Caston Avenue, Park Street, Seventh Street and on Highway 24 — and several service lines were reported broken.
He said the city was able to keep water flowing despite the problems. Lindsey said he expected the repairs to the water mains to be completed by Monday, with the other repairs to follow as soon as possible.
John Taylor, Magnolia city superintendent, said the city had a 2-inch line break when someone drove a stake through it.
“Other than that, we didn’t have any problems with our lines,” he said.
Tim Baylor, Summit town superintendent, said the city had a small service line break from the cold, but other municipal lines appeared to have made it through the weather.
Osyka Mayor Jamie Harrell also said his city’s lines and water tanks survived the cold, “but we have a few people in the city who are having problems with their water pipes.”
Rusty Marsalis, owner of Marsalis Mechanical Contractors, which specializes in commercial plumbing work, said his company has received calls about fire protection systems and sprinkler systems and other plumbing problems at businesses.
“Another interesting thing we’ve found is that there were some power fluctuations (over the weekend) that threw off the controls of boiler systems at schools and businesses,” Marsalis said. “It’s been a mess.”
Marsalis said Monday that more broken pipes could be discovered once the temperatures begin warming, but he added, “I think we’ve taken care of the worst of it today.”
Despite the predictions of warmer weather, Marsalis said people still need to be concerned about their pipes.
Although the temperatures will be warmer during the day, he said, they will still get below freezing at night and can still affect pipes.
“They need to be vigilant,” he said. “I hope people will take what they learned from this weather and keep it. This kind of weather could come back.”
