Update: As of Wednesday afternoon, water service was restored to the homes on Overlook Terrace. Service stopped late Monday, Feb. 16th.
Nearly unrelenting below average temperatures are wrecking havoc on streets, cars and underground pipes throughout the Northeast this winter. A frozen and busted pipe has caused a handful of people in North Adams to resort to melting snow to flush toilets and wash dishes after being without running water for more than a week.
Grabbing a metal pot and plastic pail and stepping onto her back deck has become a daily task for Katherine Haig.
“There’s not a whole lot of clean snow,” said Haig.
Avoiding lint from the dryer vent and bird seed from the feeder, she’s been scraping snow off of a table, grill and the deck itself.
“And it’s getting more frozen so it’s harder to dig,” she said.
It takes about two trips to fill up the larger pots on Haig’s kitchen stove.
“That looks like a lot of snow,” Haig said looking at a full pot on her stove. “It’s really only about a half inch of water”
Most of the time Haig lets the snow melt at room temperature unless she needs it right away.
“It’s exhausting but it needs to be done,” said Haig.
She’ll use the snow melt to flush toilets, conserving bottled water from the city for drinking. Keeping warm has called for additional attention as well. About halfway through the week, the home’s water boiler was running low, an essential supply since steam heats the house.
The city of North Adams gave her a plastic water tank that refills the boiler using a car battery for power.
The whole process only takes a minute or so, but needs to be done about three times a day.
“The last time is usually late at night,” Haig said. “I’ve been staying up till one or two in the morning.”
Laundry and cooking have all taken a backseat at Haig’s household over the past week. Like the sound of drilling that makes its way into the house, it’s a reminder that hers is one of five homes on Overlook Terrace where water stopped flowing after a nearly 100-year-old galvanized steel pipe froze solid more than a week ago.
“It’s just stressful for everyone,” Haig said. “We’re all getting to the point where we’re physically exhausted and mentally tired.”
About eight city workers have been on site from 7 a.m. to midnight every day since the pipe froze. The cold working conditions are evident in the creaking of machinery digging into frozen ground.
“I’ve been in the water business 25 years and I’ve never seen the frost this deep,” said North Adams Public Service Commissioner Tim Lescarbeau. “We’re over five feet deep here. The pipe’s at four feet, the frost is down five foot. It can’t help but freeze.”
North Adams Public Services Commissioner Tim Lescarbeau says workers tried three times to send water through the pipe, only to bust further down line each time. So a plastic pipe will serve as a temporary fix until spring. With cold temperatures refreezing drilled holes and two gas mains running near the water pipe, Lescarbeau says digging rates range from two to five feet an hour. He’s brought in three different sizes of machine hammers. Employees have logged a few hundred hours on this project alone during which water line issues elsewhere in the city have popped up.
“Everybody’s tired,” Lescarbeau said. “Nobody wants to be here. Nobody cares about the overtime. They want to get it done and get out of here. We’re tired and we’re cold.”
The city plowed out a drive so those on the cul-de-sac can get out while work is ongoing. Workers were filling in the trench overnight in case of emergency. Between the workers and the Holiday Inn offering showers, Mayor Richard Alcombright says North Adams is doing everything it can.
“We’re throwing everything we’ve got at this problem right now,” Alcombright said. “And we’re bringing in additional resources from the outside.”
When temperatures get below zero, Lescarbeau says people should leave faucets trickling to prevent pipes from freezing and the city can average out the cost with a homeowner’s typical rate.
