Tucson water company crews have been rushing all over the city, repairing water line breaks caused by the hard freeze.
Public Information Officer Fernando Molina said they had received more than 500 calls over the weekend, about 414 of them were calls relating to water line breaks and leaks.
Greg Woznick, a south side resident came home to find his backyard covered with water.
"This exposed pipe, when I came home from shooting range, I found water gushing out of it," said Woznick.
Downtown, in the Barrio Viejo neighborhood Rhonda Walker thought it was raining when she woke up.
It turned out to be a broken pipe up on the roof.
"It burst. As soon as the sun came out and the water started to defrost, the frozen pipe started to thaw and it burst. It scared me to death," said Walker.
At the Tucson Water dispatch center, Molina said they had extra staffing for the weekend.
"Our emergency dispatch center is usually not open on weekends, we don't have a big call load on weekends," said Molina.
90% of the leaks were pipes exposed to the weather on the roof of homes.
"Yesterday we even had one in a customer's garage. Even though inside, it was not insulated and it froze and broke," said Shane Standley, president of Abacus Plumbing.
His crews had responded to about 40-50 broken pipe calls in the last couple days.
"The main mistake we see customers wrap it two years before and think they're still safe with it."
Standley said the insulation could corrode in the hot Arizona sun and should be replaced every two years.
Molina said another typical mistake customers made, was to not drain the water out of the swamp coolers. Those lines were thin and could easily break as well.
For more tips on how to protect your pipes, you can log onto the Tucson Water Department's web site at http://cms3.tucsonaz.gov/water.
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