Lawrence firefighters and sorority personnel clear a room of furniture after a water line break at KU's Delta Gamma sorority house, 1015 Emery Road, Monday. A break in a third-floor water line flooded portions of the building.

Pipes are bursting left and right and it’s only expected to get worse as things warm up later in the week.

Frigid weather is to blame for myriad pipe problems during the last few days, leaving plumbers and utility crews hustling and frustrating those affected.

Three housing facilities on and near the Kansas University campus have had plumbing lines break, sending water flowing and damaging property while students are on winter break.

City water crews have been battling the elements as they fix an assortment of underground water line breaks the past few days.

And Lawrence homeowners have come home to leaks that have left carpets soaked and valuables destroyed.

No fire here

Firefighters from Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical pulled bedding, mattresses and furniture out of KU’s Delta Gamma sorority house, 1015 Emery Road, after responding to a fire alarm there Monday morning. They arrived to find water coursing through the house.

Quite a bit of water already had accumulated by the time the leak was discovered and the water was turned off. The break was on the third floor and water had reached lower floors.

“It got too cold outside and (the water line) froze and broke and nobody was here,” said plumber Kevin Chaney, owner of Chaney Inc., as he was inspecting damage at the sorority house.

A representative of the sorority was on the scene. No estimate of damages was available Monday.

A broken sprinkler head caused water to flood 15 resident rooms in Hashinger Hall, an on-campus residence hall, early Sunday morning.

Kansas University spokeswoman Jill Jess said damage to the rooms was minimal and had been cleaned up by Monday morning. Icicles formed from water that leaked out the windows and down the front of the building.

There was also a water pipe that burst at Naismith Hall, a privately owned residence hall at 1800 Naismith Drive, an employee said. But the property owner didn’t provide information about the extent of damage or say when it happened.

From break to break

Area plumbers said they spent a majority of their Monday responding to broken water pipes.

Carladyne Conyers woke up Monday to find her kitchen sink wasn’t working. When she came home at lunch to meet the plumber, she discovered that water was dripping through the light fixtures in her basement.

A plumber punched a hole into the ceiling of her basement to locate the leak.

“I almost wanted to cry,” Conyers said. She had a similar and more destructive water pipe break last year.

Problems continued Monday night. About 7:40 p.m., a water line break was reported at the Legends Place Apartments, 4101 W. 24th Place.

Water, water everywhere

Lawrence city utility workers also kept busy tending to much larger pipes under streets. They had to evacuate a hole they had dug just south of Ninth and Iowa streets after a water line broke inside Monday afternoon, spokeswoman Jeanette Klamm said.

The workers were trying to repair a small leak when the pipe split further, sending water gushing, she said.

Water was expected to be shut down to nearby customers for a brief time, and one lane of traffic on Iowa Street was shut down around 12:30 p.m. so crews could fix the problem.

It was the third break in the city in two days, Klamm said. On Sunday, crews responded to breaks near the intersections of Cynthia Street and Randall Road, and Harvard Road and Iowa Street.

More pipe bursts can be expected as the weather warms up later this week, said Lawrence-Douglas County Fire & Medical Division Chief Rich Barr. When pipes burst, often the water will freeze and plug the break. When it warms up, the plug thaws and allows water to exit the pipe.