This morning we made an attempt, after I did my early morning work, to go out to IHOP for a nice, late breakfast but made it only out on to MacArthur before I was called and turned back and had to work. We should have known better than to attempt to go out to eat on the first Sunday after the freeze was over. What were we thinking.
I am working all day today, of course, I am still doing the regular Sunday coverage so I put in a full Sunday of work.
The weather turned warmer last night and today the pipes that had frozen during the crazy freeze that we had last week began to thaw and burst. All over Irving, and presumably Texas, today buildings began to flood. Our apartment building was no exception.
Luckily for us none of the pipes directly above our apartment had frozen, but down at the far end of our hallway – the part that I walk through on my way to the office – was not so lucky.
We did not realize what had happened. It was late morning and I was just taking a shower when the fire alarms went off. At first Dominica yelled at me for taking too long of a shower and setting off the alarms but there was no steam anywhere – not even the mirror was fogged up – so that make no sense. We have a tiny water heater so you can’t take a long shower anyway. Ten minutes tops unless you want a cold one. I can keep my good books in the bathroom as it never gets humid enough in there to even wrinkle the pages. So me setting off the alarm seemed rather unlikely.
Dominica thought that she heard the alarm going off outside of our apartment as well but before we could really check it had shut off. Oreo, of course, was going into a panic because of the alarms so I pretty much had to take him straight outside for an extended walk. He was terrified of returning to the apartment at all.
While we were out we found the fire truck along side our building and the waterfall pouring from the end of the building closest to the office. I talked to the firemen and they said that the pipes above the third floor had ruptured sending a veritable waterfall crashing through the apartments. I can only imagine how much damage there was on the inside considering the cascade flowing off of the balconies. The lawn around the building was flooded and water was streaming down towards MacArthur Boulevard. There were people in the hallways all wet and someone standing, soaked, out on the sidewalk in his pajamas. Anyone who’s apartment was in line with that water lost everything. Many apartments were completely destroyed.
We are very thankful that our apartment was spared. The alarms went off several more times throughout the afternoon as the fire department had to return a few times. I am not sure if similar situations happened in further portions of the building or not but it seems likely.
For dinner we decided to get some French Provincial again so Dominica ordered online and I walked over to pick it up. Yummy.