BALTIMORE — The bitter cold weather and Baltimore's older infrastructure just don't mix.
In the last week, the city's Department of Public Works has responded to more than 130 water main breaks due to the cold and counting.
Mayor Brandon Scott said the city prepped for this and built up contracting crews to be at the ready.
Currently, there are 32 crews working 16-hour days.
"The pipes freeze and then they thaw out, and it's really the change in temperatures that causes the pipes to expand and contract, and when that happens they're more susceptible to breaking," DPW engineer Cherod Hicks said.
For the first time in seven years, DPW's command center is up and running.
"2018 was a record-setting year for water main breaks, but this year, in anticipation of the cold weather, we don't want a repeat of what happened in 2018, so we're going to be preemptive," Hicks said.
They're fielding calls from 311 and watching the updates on breaks in real time. And so can you at their online interactive map.
"Don't wait until it's a break; if you see a small leak, let us know put that into 3-1-1 so that we can try to address it as quickly as possible before it grows," Mayor Scott said.
"We need everyone to play their part, whether that's the citizens calling in letting us know where we have water main breaks to the people at our command center to our frontline workers that are actually doing the repair in terrible weather; sometimes it can be a thankless job, but we just want to say thank you to everyone who's doing their part," Hicks said.
Residents are also reminded to keep a tap dripping at the lowest part of the home to protect their pipes and to keep bottled water ready in case of a shutoff.
Meanwhile, the command center will stay up and running until the number of breaks subside. Until then it remains all hands on deck.
