Texans, please, explain something to me.
 

I see many News videos of Texas homes being flooded from burst frozen water pipes. If I lost power that way, I would turn off the water valve before the water meter, disconnect the pipe in front of the meter and open all of the faucets to let the water drain out of the pipes. Why don't Texas homeowners do that?

Re: Texans, please, explain something to me.
 

I don't live in Texas but I do live in south Louisiana and since we normally don't get this crazy cold weather people have never had to do anything about this. I wrapped my pipes and ran the water but that's cause I had to do that before. None of this is thought in schools so how are people suppose to know how to do something that they have never had to do before. I wrapped/covered most of my plants cause I read on here how Northern growers do it but if I was not on here how would I have known.....hope I am clear. That is also my opinion

I need to buy a generator so I can be prepared for next time but saying and doing are 2 different things.

Re: Texans, please, explain something to me.
 

Well, I've never had a prolonged power outage but I know that there is a shut off valve before the meter because I've used it before. They could look up the following using their smart phones:

https://www.ahs.com/home-matters/lif...me-for-winter/

Even, after the pipes burst, why don't they turn off the water?

I was thinking, maybe, in Texas, water meters are located outside and are inaccessible to homeowners. In the Chicago area, water meters are typically located in basements.

Re: Texans, please, explain something to me.
 

Yes the water meters are located outside and to be honest this is the 1st time we have ever seen weather like this so I believe it's a lack of knowledge. For me it has just extended power outages. I grew up in Illinois so I have experienced cold. I also feel I have some common sense and I took some simple measures. When all this is behind us I will do some things differently. 1st and foremost I am buying a home generator. Going to bit the bullet. Weather here is usually over exaggerated so I would be willing to be bet people didn't think it was going to get this bad.
Learning experience for Texas that is for sure.

Happy growing all!
Darla

Re: Texans, please, explain something to me.
 

Yep - interesting conversation - I noticed that Steve is in Zone: 6a (10 miles east of 5b) and has reasonable questions. Other folks live in zones 9. I'm in south Mississippi zone 9. Water meters are outside in-ground in the front yard, very few houses have basements because of the water table. A snow event might happen every 10-15 years, and hard freeze in to the low 20s F maybe every 10 yrs. Simply put our building codes don't require the freeze protections. Now, if you want to know about dealing with hurricanes Gulf coast residents probably have an answer...:nanadrink:

Re: Texans, please, explain something to me.
 

The biggest reason pipes burst these days is because they're made out of plastic. My pipes have frozen a few times over the years when I forgot to drip the faucets, but they never burst because this house was built in 1953 and has copper pipes. Not soft copper like they make today either; it's much harder.