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Broken Water Pipes Keeping Crews Busy

With temperatures this low for this long, water crews have been quite busy battling broken pipes. Officials at Pennsylvania American Water say these temperature...

With temperatures this low for this long, water crews have been quite busy battling broken pipes.

Officials at Pennsylvania American Water say these temperatures have kept crews working around the clock as more and more broken pipes pop up.

The scene on East Grove Street in Taylor is a common one for people in our area, crews working to fix burst pipes that froze in these cold temperatures.

Luz Salazar woke up to dirty water after the pipe outside her home froze.

"I come outside and see water is everywhere," said Luz Salazar of Taylor.

"Just brutal. I'm ready for winter to be over. I just want spring to come. I need this weather to break," said Nino Cimino of Taylor.

The trend is growing across the area. The Price Chopper on Wilkes-Barre Township Boulevard was closed Friday and for several hours Saturday while crews worked to repair a broken pipe.

Shoppers say they're not surprised seeing more and more businesses dealing with this growing problem this winter.

"It's been one rough winter we've had," said Dave Gutkowski of Bear Creek Township .

The store was able to reopen at 10 a.m. Saturday.

Two Lackawanna County theaters had to close on Monday as well for frozen pipes.

Inside the dispatch headquarters of Pennsylvania American Water, additional staff members are on hand this weekend, dealing with burst pipes in Pennsylvania and five other states.

"The record temperatures are just creating havoc, not only in people's homes where they're reporting a lot of frozen pipes, but also out in the field where we're having a lot of frozen mains. A lot of things our crews are dealing with," said Susan Turcmanovich with Pennsylvania American Water.

In just the Scranton and Wilkes-Barre area, there have been nearly a dozen cases of water main breaks and that's not including those dealing with frozen pipes inside their homes.

"Our crews are working around the clock, not just here, but all across the state, dealing with all these issues, trying to get service back. Not only that, but they're working in extreme cold and I can't think of anything worse than working in cold weather with water."

Officials want to remind everyone to keep a close eye on their pipes and the temperature outside. If it looks like a pipe in your home could freeze, keep a small drip of water going. If they do freeze, absolutely avoid using a blow-torch or other open flame to unfreeze a pipe.

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