47°
Baton Rouge, Louisiana
7 Day Forecast
Follow our weather team on social media

Baton Rouge Water trying to address lingering problems from winter storm

3 years 1 month 1 week ago Friday, February 19 2021 Feb 19, 2021 February 19, 2021 6:59 PM February 19, 2021 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - Clean-up from the winter storm continues in the neighborhood along Kimbo Drive. They're still without power, and some are without sufficient water.

"My wife called me and told me we had a busted pipe. Panic then ensued and we rushed to fix it yesterday evening, but now our water heater is a total loss," Matt Copeland said.

Frozen and bursting pipes are keeping crews at Central Plumbing busy.

"The effect is detrimental, and it's very disheartening. Some people don't have the means necessary to have unexpected issues like this occur, and we're doing everything we can to keep the cost down," plumber Joshua Bell said.

With the cold not quite gone, Baton Rouge Water says we likely haven't seen the end of these problems. Just this week, they've experienced about a 15 to 20-percent increase in calls.

The calls are mainly requests to turn water off to repair broken pipes. Baton Rouge Water Vice President Adrienne Mire says crews are working around the clock to address water-related emergencies.

"Come tonight, we're going to see another hard freeze. So we've got customer service taking calls and people out in the field working to turn that water off if need be. We'll be working through Saturday doing that," Mire said.

Copeland hopes his neighborhood will soon overcome these winter weather troubles.

"Little did we know what the storm would be like," Copeland said. "All throughout the neighborhood, it's been pretty bad."

With cold nights still ahead, plumbers say the best preventive method is to insulate pipes and run faucets with both hot and cold water to avoid freezing.

More News

Desktop News

Click to open Continuous News in a sidebar that updates in real-time.
Radar
7 Days