Plumbing supplies arrive in North Texas as residents still living without water

“They just can’t find the supplies and they work 16 hour days,” said Craig Berendzen. “These plumbers work as hard as they can.”

MESQUITE, Texas – Hundreds of thousands of dollars in sanitary ware arrived in Mesquite Thursday.

The United Association (UA) bought $ 350,000 worth of supplies and donated them to the Southwest Pipe Trades Association and all of its local unions.

UA represents approximately 355,000 plumbers, pipe installers, sprinkler installers, service technicians and welders in local unions across North America, according to its website.

Craig Berendzen is the executive director of the UA Local 100 Union in Dallas. He said they represent 1,200 plumbers and pipe fitters.

“They just can’t find the supplies and they work 16-hour days,” said Berendzen. “These plumbers work as hard as they can.”

RELATED: “I Don’t Get Much Sleep”: Plumbers work long hours helping repair burst pipes after the Texas winter storm

Last week’s historic winter storm left many pipes frozen and burst and houses flooded. That happened to the resident of Las Colinas, Jesus Lopez. As a result, he said the condominium complex turned off the water to check for any leaks.

“We haven’t had water in nine days,” said Lopez. “And we probably won’t have water for at least a week.”

Lopez tried to fix the broken pipe in his apartment himself.

“We drove around town looking for parts and the parts are just so hard to come by,” Lopez said.

He said the stores were sold out and would tell him they “won’t get any new parts until next week”.

When the WFAA called Lopez ‘condominium complex they said they have as many plumbers on-site as possible and that it is a situation that everyone has hands on to fix the problem.

Berendzen said the much-needed supplies, delivered Thursday, came from Kansas City.

“We pray for this situation,” said Berendzen. “And we want to fix it. And the plumbers from Texas will fix it. “

These supplies go to crews in the D-FW area as well as Houston, San Antonio, Waco and Lubbock.

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