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WILKES-BARRE — February brought a frigid helping of colder-than-normal temperatures and winter weather to the Wyoming Valley.
Those frigid temperatures also resulted in a lot of frozen water lines, leaving customers without water.
Residents of Simpson Street in Duryea were without water from early Friday morning until Monday afternoon, leaving residents scrambling for bottled water, space heaters and peace of mind.
Susan Turcmanovich, Pennsylvania American Water representative, said that a frozen water main is to blame for the outages. She added that only two customers were affected, and that crews had consistently worked to restore water.
The situation in Duryea is not the first that Pennsylvania American Water has responded to in Northeastern Pennsylvania. Turmanovich said that between Feb. 20 and Feb. 22, there were about 20 incidents of water main breaks due to the frigid weather.
“In recent recollection, it has been pretty bad,” Turcmanovich said.
Northeastern Pennsylvania is not the only region to see that effect — Turcmanovich said the company is reporting similar activity across its coverage area.
Pennsylvania American Water serves approximately 400 communities and 36 counties, according to the company’s website. That coverage area includes 650,000 water customers.
To meet the demand on that frigid weekend with so many water main breaks, Turcmanovich said that the company’s dispatch center in Scranton doubled its number of employees. That dispatch center also serves five other states.
Turcmanovich said when temperatures plummet resulting in frozen pipes, crews are dispatched as needed to restore water in a timely way.
Denise McCracken, deputy press secretary for the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission, said the agency has received about 10 phone calls from customers across the state with complains of frozen pipes or having no water.
A valve on a 20-inch water main started to affect customers in parts of Hughestown and Pittston on Feb 22. The repairs were pushed back, but underway by Wednesday evening. No customers were without water as a result of the break, but the repair work resulted in about 75 customers losing their water service.
Turcmanovich reported in an email Thursday morning that the work was finished and service was fully restored to customers.
A frozen community
The frigid weather resulted in more than just a handful of customers without water in Freeland last week.
Nights of sub-zero temperatures resulted in at least 65 homes going without water due to frozen water laterals from the borough’s water main.
“It’s the worst as far as we can tell in Freeland history,” said Mayor Ed Appleman.
Appleman explained that a similar incident happened in the borough in the 1970s, but said it wasn’t as bad as the recent deep freeze.
The borough declared a state of emergency on Monday, and officials from the borough’s water authority sought outside contractors to help thaw the lines.
Officials gradually restored service to customers, and lifted the state of emergency at 4 p.m. on Friday.
Appleman said that community services, such as the YMCA and fire department, opened their doors to those in need of water supplies and showers to help ease the lack of service.
He also said the borough will thaw the water laterals into residences free of charge for the first time. Water authority officials told the Times Leader last week that additional visits carry a $200 fee.
Looking back at the situation, Appleman called the ordeal a learning experience.
“We learned a lot about unthawing the pipes and how we have to go about doing it,” he said.