As the cold retreats, pipes bursting; utilities ask folks to conserve water

When Arkansas began thawing on Friday, water pipes also appeared, causing explosions and ultimately overloading the water infrastructure and, in some cases, leaving households out of water.

The stress on the water system came after two winter storms pushed temperatures below zero and dumped up to 20 inches of snow in some parts of the state.

Little Rock had its highest official snowfall at 20.2 inches, said meteorologist Joe Goudsward of the National Weather Service in North Little Rock. Other surveillance locations across the state recorded 18.6 “in North Little Rock, 15.1” in Pine Bluff, and 9.8 “in Harrison.

The highest unofficial total was 21 inches at Little Rock, Goudsward said.

Little Rock is expected to get temperatures in its 40s today.

“We’ll be warming up in the next few days and probably next week as well,” said Goudsward. “There will probably be a few rain showers on Sunday.”

[LIST: School closings » arkansasonline.com/closings/]

Utilities across the state asked customers Friday to conserve water while they worked to find leaks that weighed on systems. In some areas cook orders were in place, in others the water was being refilled as the tanks were being refilled.

Mayflower updated residents via Facebook after the water system was turned off on Friday morning. A post said the city hopes to have enough water in its tanks by the end of the day to turn some parts of the water system back on.

Kayla Gillion, 26, of Lawrence Landing near Mayflower, said her water was turned off without warning around 7 p.m. Thursday.

She said it was difficult to take care of five children aged 7 months to 7 years. The road to her house remains icy, making it difficult to leave.

“Fortunately, I bathed all of my children last night, except the youngest,” said Gillion. “I boiled snow and threw it on the back of the toilet to flush it, but now it’s clogged.”

The family has some bottled water and grape and orange juice to drink, Gillion said.

“The kids drink juice, but I only drink water because I’m breastfeeding,” said Gillion. “I need to stay hydrated.”

Your already busy days have grown tougher as everything from preparing a meal to washing up is a struggle.

“They said it would turn on again this morning and we wouldn’t,” said Gillion. “I feel like I’m left here in the dark.”

Calls and emails from the Arkansas Democrat Gazette to the city went unanswered on Friday.

[GALLERY: Submit your shots of wintry weather around Arkansas, and see what others have submitted » arkansasonline.com/2021snowphotos/]

Calico Rock posted on its website this morning that part of the city of Izard County had suffered water leakage from Red Lane to downtown. In a previous post it was stated that the water loss was caused by leaks in residential areas.

Stephen Hicks, the city’s water manager, said about 200 customers, or a third of the system, were under a cooking order as of Friday. He said it was difficult for the crews to get to some places due to the road conditions.

“Right now we are holding our own and we hope that we can solve the problem in the next few days when the weather warms up,” said Hicks. “Most people understand and realize what is going on.”

Hot Spring County Water’s office manager Susan Parish said the system, which serves 1,350 customers, went down Friday afternoon. She said she wasn’t sure how many were running out of water.

“We have a lot of water problems,” said Parish. “We have some leaks that we can’t find and we have some customers who have run out of water because of it. It was really kind of a fight.”

Doug Shackelford, spokesman for Central Arkansas Water, said Friday that the utility has water in its system, but customers have been asked to conserve water.

“We’re trying to identify leaks,” Shackelford said. “We have several team members in the community who fix and identify.”

In a press release, the utility said treating water to keep pace with demand puts a heavy load on the system as it thaws frozen pipes.

“This morning we found a store in downtown North Little Rock with leaks all over the place,” Shackelford said. “The fire extinguishing system was frozen and broken, so a lot of water leaked out. Those are the types of leaks we find.”

He said it was likely that there were many similar leaks in businesses and churches across the ward. If temperatures rise and the pipes thaw, the pressure could cause more leaks in the next few days, Shackelford said.

[Gallery not loading above? Click here for more photos » arkansasonline.com/220snow/]

The hope is that customers can help balance demand through conservation.

“It really takes a few things and we’re seeing a change in how the system works,” Shackelford said. “That really is the whole reason we decided to put the notice out to move forward so we can work at the highest level.”

In a Friday morning Facebook post, Benton Utilities asked customers to boil water before consuming it. It was said that water should be boiled for a minute and customers could use that water for showering.

The cooking recommendation started around midnight on Thursday and will persist when the water system is refilled. The company said its system was exposed to stress Thursday, including two fire hydrants hit by vehicles and a cracked water pipe.

Hot Springs also urged customers to conserve water on Friday, according to a press release. According to a press release, the supply had reached a critical point where about 26 percent of the storage capacity was left.

No cooking orders were issued on Friday afternoon, the press release said, but the service could be suspended if conservation efforts are unsuccessful. The press release said that around 3,000 houses and businesses in the city had burst pipes due to the cold temperatures.

The Washington Water Authority in northwest Arkansas was still under an application for water protection south of Fayetteville and Farmington. Customers were asked to turn off the dripping taps when the temperature rises.

Josh Moore, general manager of the water board, said water use more than doubled from 67 percent to 150 percent.

“Anything customers can do to save water for the next few days will help keep them and their neighbors safe,” said Moore.

Moore said there was no cooking order or downtime for the water authority on Friday morning, but that could change if water usage is not reduced, especially for homes in higher elevations.

In warmer weather, water companies could fix problems faster with more roads clear across the state.

Dave Parker, spokesman for the Arkansas Department of Transportation, said sunshine helped clear the streets on Friday.

Parker said the freeways and major freeways were free except for the shoulders, and that the crews in Little Rock on Friday concentrated on back roads like Stagecoach, Colonel Glenn and Broadway.

While much of the roads may be clear to this day, the runoff of piled-up snow will likely freeze again in the evening and cause black ice for a few more days, Parker said.

Electricity systems across the state also returned to normal as consumption decreased as the temperature increased.

“It looks like we’re having problems with power capacity and demand from the forest,” said Rob Roedel, a spokesman for the Arkansas Electric Cooperative.

About 15,000 to 17,000 cooperative members were without power at the height of the storm, he said.

David Lewis, spokesman for Arkansas Entergy, said there had been about 20,000 outages on Tuesday for a period of about 45 minutes during the rolling outages ordered by independent system operator Midcontinent.

Lewis said the system had fewer than 10,000 outages at any given time prior to mandatory outages.

There were 411 failures on Friday, Lewis said.

Harold Scratch II, a Central Arkansas Water foreman, works repairing damaged pipes near the Trinity Episcopal Cathedral in Little Rock on Friday. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette / Staci Vandagriff)

You might also like

Comments are closed.