If you lived in Azle in February 2021, you probably remember the cold, the outages and the sound of water where it should not have been. We answer water damage calls across Azle and northwest Tarrant County, and the freeze that month is still the clearest example we have of how many pipes can fail at once. This post walks through what the record shows, using official and news sources, and what Azle homeowners can do to be ready for the next hard freeze.
One note up front: none of the figures below are Azle-only numbers. The public data we found is reported for DFW, Fort Worth, Tarrant County or the whole state, so that is how we present it.
How cold it got
The National Weather Service office in Fort Worth documented the event in its February 2021 winter storm summary. DFW Airport recorded a low of -2 degrees Fahrenheit on February 16, 2021. The same summary shows DFW stayed at or below freezing for 139 consecutive hours, from 5 p.m. on February 13 until noon on February 19. Pipes in attics, exterior walls, garages and crawlspaces do not tolerate that kind of exposure. Water freezes inside them, expands, and the damage often shows up only when temperatures rise and the ice melts.
What it did to pipes
The Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported on February 18, 2021 that crews were working to repair almost 100 water main breaks in Fort Worth, and that the city had counted 180 water main breaks since the previous Sunday, with 91 repaired at the time of the report. Those were breaks in public water lines. Inside homes, the same cold was splitting supply lines and fittings.
A second Star-Telegram report from that week quoted a State Farm spokesman saying customers had filed 18,900 claims across Texas that week, including many related to burst water pipes. In all of the previous year, he said, State Farm had only 75 claims related to frozen pipes. Those numbers are one company’s, not the whole market, but they show how sharply a single freeze can change the picture.
What it meant in Tarrant County
The Texas Department of Insurance published a summary of winter storm claims and losses covering the first 40 days after the storm, through March 31, 2021. Statewide, insurers reported 456,531 claims and expected to pay about $8.2 billion in losses covered by insurance policies. The report breaks claims out by county, and Tarrant County is on the list.
The Star-Telegram’s December 2021 follow-up pulled that figure out for the county: Tarrant County residents submitted 32,630 insurance claims in the 40 days following the storm, according to the Texas Department of Insurance data. Not every claim was for a burst pipe, since the storm also caused other kinds of damage, but the scale gives you an idea of how many households were dealing with damage at the same time.
The Texas Department of Insurance also wrote about the aftermath in a post on burst pipes and coverage, noting that a lot of the storm damage came from water from broken pipes. If you want to understand how your own policy treats a burst pipe, we cover that in our post on whether Texas home insurance covers water damage.
Why a freeze damages homes so quickly
A pipe does not need to freeze solid to fail. Ice forms a plug, pressure builds between the plug and the closed faucet and the pipe can split. When the ice thaws, water flows through the split. If you are away or asleep, it can run for hours.
That is why burst pipe damage is so widespread when it happens. Water runs down inside walls, through ceilings and across floors, and it soaks insulation and drywall on the way. A single split pipe in an attic can affect several rooms below it.
How Azle homeowners can prepare
Preparation for the next freeze is mostly small steps done before the cold arrives:
- Know where your main shutoff is. The Texas Department of Insurance advises turning the water off at the main when you have a leak, so everyone in the house should know where it is and how to close it.
- Let faucets drip and open cabinet doors. State Farm’s own frozen pipe guidance recommends leaving cabinet doors open so warm air reaches the pipes and letting faucets drip, since moving water is harder to freeze and an open faucet relieves pressure.
- Think about the pipes you cannot see. Lines in attics, garages and exterior walls are the ones most exposed to the cold.
- Photograph the damage if something does burst. Photos help with any conversation with your insurer later.
If a pipe does burst
Turn off the water at the main if you can do so safely, keep the power off near standing water and call us. Our team starts with water extraction in Azle or emergency water removal in Azle to get the water out, and then dries the structure so the damage does not keep spreading. You can read how we handle these calls on our burst pipe water cleanup in Azle page. If you want the number and the service area in one place, see how to contact Water Damage Azle.
Sources
- National Weather Service Fort Worth, February 2021: Historic Winter Storm and Arctic Outbreak
- Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Crews face repairing almost 100 water main breaks in Fort Worth neighborhoods, February 18, 2021
- Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Texas homeowners file insurance claims for burst pipes, February 2021
- Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Fort Worth residents recount February 2021 storm damage, December 2021
- Texas Department of Insurance, winter weather claims and losses summary (PDF)
- Texas Department of Insurance, burst pipes and coverage
- State Farm Newsroom, frozen pipe guidance