After the great Texas freeze comes the great thaw – and the great demand for workers to fix the broken pipes and sagging roofs will reveal the retreating ice and snow.
It could take months for contractors to fix the damage the massive storm wreaked in Texas, said Greg Sizemore, vice president of Associated Builders and Contractors. The scale of the problem could be much larger than Hurricane Harvey, which was mostly confined to the Gulf Coast. Other states are in need of contractors as well, and the industry is facing a shortage of construction workers due to health and supply issues with Covid-19, Sizemore said.
“In the midst of the emergency, in the midst of desperation, people have to dig a little deeper to be patient,” said Sizemore. “Don’t throw good money on a bad solution.”
The Sunday storm cut US oil production by nearly 40%. The fracking stopped and the grain transports came to a standstill. Many of the state’s 29 million residents have to get their own homes up and running before they can tune in to get the economy going again.
As always, water is the first need. Even if the houses are still covered by ice and snow, demand is acute as many plumber’s appointments are postponed into March.
Wait and hope
For 39-year-old Aaron Carpenter, the water pipe he heard bursting in his attic on Sunday evening was the least of his worries. He, his wife and three children had to band together with friends to avoid freezing in their house, which was not back on electricity until Thursday morning. It has now been found that the carpenter’s house in a suburb north of Fort Worth has no running water.
“The fight is just that helpless feeling you have. You just want to take care of your house but you can’t, ”said Carpenter, who works at a bank. “There aren’t a lot of things you can do other than wait and hope that the damage doesn’t get too bad once the pipes are frozen.”
Nonetheless, Carpenter feels happy. He immediately closed the water valve to avoid damage. His landlord could also schedule a plumber to come out before the weekend.
Adjusters Army
Insurance companies are also being flooded with calls and claims adjusters will soon be facing a huge backlog. Brian Haden, founder and president of Haden Claims Services, who works on behalf of policyholders, says the next 72 hours will be crucial when the state begins to thaw.
“We believe that we will make more claims from this storm in the industry than any hurricane in Texas ever,” said Haden.
In a state where it takes 13 hours to drive from Dalhart in the panhandle to Brownsville near the Mexican border, disasters are usually localized, possibly a coastal hurricane or tornadoes sweeping the plains of west Texas. This storm has spared no one, even in the most remote corners of South Texas, where freezing temperatures are rare.
According to Camille Garcia, a spokeswoman for the Insurance Council of Texas, insurers are using US adjusters to help. State Farm Mutual Automobile Insurance Co. has already dispatched employees to handle claims and processed some virtually, said spokesman Chris Pilcic in an email.
Housing problems
Most of the damage will likely be related to residential homes, said Chris Peck, who heads the Dallas office of JE Dunn Construction, a Kansas City, Missouri-based construction company. Peck sent crews to schools, hospitals, government buildings, and other commercial construction projects the company was building to verify water and gas. However, it will take a few days for the extent of the problems to be clear, he said.
“It will certainly put a strain on the contractor community to respond,” Peck said.
Texas requires contractors, including plumbers and electricians, to hold licenses to protect residents from substandard work. This also hinders the ability for plumbers to come from other states to help, Sizemore said. The Texas State Board of Plumbing Examiners must agree to accept a non-state license called a reciprocity.
Even with an army of plumbers, the work will take time, and time can be desperate. Sizemore said residents should beware of unlicensed night fliers.
“You have these land sharks that are going to fall victim to a community,” he said. “Don’t be dictated by emotions or circumstances that you will regret.”
Top Photo: Water flows from a burst water pipe in Austin, Texas, USA on Wednesday February 18, 2021. Texas is restricting the flow of natural gas across state lines in an extraordinary move that some have cited as a violation of the US Constitution’s trade clause.
Copyright 2021 Bloomberg.
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