The Big Thaw: Burst pipes, water damage wreak havoc on Maritime homes
After one of the coldest days in years for most of the Maritimes, temperatures were up significantly Sunday.
Now, after the big chill came the big thaw -- and a flood of calls for local plumbers.
Trevor Wheatley started his work day early. He received 87 texts Saturday night and almost 50 phone calls Sunday morning. With frozen pipes now defrosting, many in the Halifax area and beyond are calling for help.
“I’ve got people from Windsor crying out because they can’t get anybody to service them and they’re willing to pay extra travel time and extra money,” said Wheatley.
It wasn’t just plumbers dealing with broken lines. The city’s water utility had to fix another broken main Sunday, after dealing with a number of them Saturday.
Fire crews were also run off their feet.
“It’s been a large volume of calls, probably four times what we would normally see during this time span,” said Chief Robert Hebb, District 3 Chief of Halifax Firefighters.
A representative of the firefighters union says it’s responded to 173 incidents between midnight and 2:30 a.m. Normally they see about a thousand a month.
Calls Sunday included fishing a vehicle out of the Bedford Basin after it slid down an icy boat launch. No one was hurt.
Hebb says many of the calls were about broken or leaking sprinkler and piping systems, along with some fires associated with heat sources to both residential and commercial properties.
“Today is pretty much a record day. We had well over 100 calls before 6:30 a.m. this morning. Most of those calls have involved sprinkler systems and alarm systems.”
It was also a busy day for power crews trying to reconnect more than 25,000 customers knocked off the grid. By 4:00 p.m. Sunday, the number was down to less than 3,800 across the Maritimes.
Frozen pipes are also an issue in the Moncton area, with water damage forcing two people from their apartments and the closure of Riverview Middle School on Monday and Tuesday.
A similar story in Charlottetown, where burst pipes forced two people out from a townhouse complex on Park Royal Court. The Red Cross also aided them with emergency lodging and meals.
“We’ve assisted more than 40 people over ten different communities. Several of those were house fires. Most of those were burst pipes and the resulting flooding.”
A short cold snap leaving a flood of clean-up work in its wake.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
'I just can't believe that it took so long': Body found in wreckage 3 months after deadly fire
A man accused of arson in a January Old Strathcona apartment fire is expected to be charged with manslaughter after a body was discovered in the burned building late last month.
No proof man lied to brother about number of kittens born in litter, B.C. tribunal rules
A man was denied a $5,000 payout from his brother after a B.C. tribunal dismissed his claim disputing how many kittens were born in a litter.
Quebec police hand out hundreds of tickets to Hells Angels and other bikers before 'first run' meeting
Quebec provincial police handed out hundreds of fines to Hells Angels members and other supporting motorcycle clubs who met for their 'first run' in a small town near Sherbrooke, Que.
Grandparents killed in wrong-way crash on Hwy. 401 identified
A 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman killed in a wrong-way crash on Highway 401 earlier this week have been identified by the Consulate General of India in Toronto.
Auston Matthews skates ahead of Game 7, status unclear with season on the line
Centre Auston Matthews of the Toronto Maple Leafs hasn't been ruled out of tonight's Game 7 against the Boston Bruins.
Snakes almost on a plane: U.S. TSA discovers a bag with small snakes in passenger's pants
According to an X post by the Transportation Security Administration, officers at the Miami International Airport found the small bag of snakes hidden in a passenger's trousers on April 26 at a checkpoint.
A Chinese driver is praised for helping reduce casualties in a highway collapse that killed 48
A Chinese truck driver was praised in local media Saturday for parking his vehicle across a highway and preventing more cars from tumbling down a slope after a section of the road in the country's mountainous south collapsed and killed at least 48 people.
Russia puts Ukrainian President Zelenskyy on its wanted list
Russia has put Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on its wanted list, Russian state media reported Saturday, citing the interior ministry’s database.
Britney Spears 'home and safe' after paramedics responded to an incident at the Chateau Marmont, source tells CNN
A source close to singer Britney Spears tells CNN that the pop star is 'home and safe' after she had a 'major fight' with her boyfriend on Wednesday night at the Chateau Marmont in West Hollywood.