Into the Vault: Preparing for and Protecting Against Freezing Temperatures

This past weekend was a chilling reminder that winters in Texas can get quite frigid. While last year’s holiday season included temperatures in the eighties, this December couldn’t be any more different. After a weekend in the tens, and more low temperatures on the horizon, it’s important to protect your home, your community and yourself from this extreme winter weather.

Today, we’re going into the WaterWays Vault to review a previous blog post that explained how to protect your home and your community from freezing temperatures.

PROTECTING YOUR HOME

There are several ways you can protect your home or business against the effects of freezing temperatures. For example, you can decrease the likelihood of your pipes bursting by leaving your faucets dripping. You can also purchase inexpensive Styrofoam caps from your local hardware store to protect exterior faucets. For additional tips on protecting yourself, your car and your property from ice, you can read this article from WFAA.

PROTECTING VALLEY RANCH

When it comes to the greater community of Valley Ranch, freezing temperatures can pose a few problems. Things that may seem innocent, such as a layer of ice across your lawn or local park, can change the ability of the ground to absorb water. This causes the water to run off onto parking lots, driveways and sidewalks, causing a higher amount of water to end up at storm sewer inlets along city streets.

Ice can also pose a problem when it ends up on streets. Normally, storm sewer inlets are sufficiently large to accept nearly any level of storm water encountered in Valley Ranch. However, if trash and leaves build up in front of these inlets, water flow into storm sewers can be restricted or even halted, resulting in water pooling in streets and potentially flowing onto surrounding land that may not be able to absorb all the water. Keeping the curbs free of these sources of blockage allows the water to flow into our system as designed, keeping it where it needs to be.

PROTECTING IFCD 3 FACILITIES AND STAFF

IFCD 3’s biggest concerns when icy conditions arise are the safety of our team and the functionality of our facilities. As part of a larger group of essential workers, District support personnel routinely travel throughout our service area, checking facilities and equipment and responding to any reported concerns involving our operations. Safety on the streets protects them, as well as important assets, such as fences, gates and the actual lifeblood of the system – our waterways.

For more information about severe weather and its effects on Valley Ranch, visit IFCD3.org, or follow our Facebook and Twitter pages.

We also encourage you to tune into the local news to stay current on weather forecasts and severe winter storm warnings.