BROOKINGS – With temperatures in the Brookings area dipping as low as minus 32 degrees Wednesday morning, according to a National Weather Service observer reporting to the office in Sioux Falls, people and property alike were pushed to their limits earlier this week. 

The extent of damages caused by the extreme cold won’t be known until things warm up again on Friday and into the weekend.

Although there were no major accidents caused by the cold, houses struggled to retain their heat, furnaces and plumbers, technicians and mechanics put in long hours Tuesday and Wednesday.

A few issues for BMU

Brookings Municipal Utilities electrical department manager Russell Halgerson said that it’s been a pretty uneventful week for BMU, all things considered. Still, they faced a power outage and a broken water main later in the day on Tuesday.

The power outage occurred in the area of Christine Avenue and Eighth Street South, affecting about 40 people. The power went out at 9 p.m., and most people had power restored by 9:30 p.m. About four people didn’t get their power back until 1:30 a.m., however, due to replacing a transformer.

The water main break happened about 6 p.m. Tuesday, along the 1400 block of First Street, Halgerson said. Work wrapped up around 10 p.m. that night.

“I think that severe cold weather really increased the stress on that kind of thing, and I think it finally just gave way,” Halgerson said.

There was also a report about an odd noise coming from the water tower at 20th Street South and Main Avenue South. Halgerson said there was nothing to worry about there.

“What happened was it was so cold that either an ice chunk formed inside the water tower or it broke loose off the side of the water tower and it was banging on the inside wall of the tank. It happens every once in a while, but that water keeps circulating in the water tower, and as it hit the side of the wall, it would make an odd noise, and that’s what people were hearing,” Halgerson said.

He’s not surprised with the overall lack of problems BMU faced.

“On the electric side, we have a very robust system, and it’s all underground. So, we really didn’t anticipate much issues. We’re just proud of our staff and how they responded to the outages we did have. They were efficient and, most importantly, they worked safely to get everyone restored and get power back on for everyone,” he said.

Lot of people stayed home

According to Brookings County Sheriff Marty Stanwick, Tuesday and Wednesday were surprisingly uneventful for his office, with no major incidents. He chalked it up to people staying at home if they could help it.

For those who had to be outside, they did have a few instances of vehicular problems stemming from the cold. In particular, there were a few cases of semis gelling up and a few stalled motorists along Interstate 29.

One semi driver with a gelled-up truck was given a ride by a deputy into town to a motel while a wrecker service tended to his truck.

“Basically, we went and got them and brought them to town,” Stanwick said, adding, “We had really decent warnings (about the weather), and I think people prepared. I was pleased with how well it did go in the county.”

He credits the closure of schools and South Dakota State University for helping keep people home and off the roads. He noted that in the northeast corner of the county, snow was a factor, especially northeast of White, where snow was drifting.

“They’d plow a county road, and it’d drift right back in as they were going,” Stanwick said. “The northeast corner of the county, they were struggling to keep the roads open.”

The cold not only presented a challenge to those who ventured out onto the roads, but homes could struggle to cope with the temperatures.

Furnaces, pipes

Perry Electric general manager Jason Coons said Perry’s workers put in a lot of hours on Tuesday and Wednesday on calls about a variety of issues homeowners faced.

“Our calls started coming in shortly after midnight (Tuesday). We had about 15 calls come through our emergency service and then yesterday (Wednesday), we had over 60 service calls just during the day,” Coons said.

Some of those calls were burst pipes, but most calls were in regard to homes not being able to maintain their heat. That didn’t surprise Coons, who noted that houses here aren’t designed to withstand minus 40 to minus 50-degree weather.

When called to come to a house that was struggling to stay heated, his workers would perform an evaluation to make sure that the furnace was working properly.

“They’re checking things like air filters and vent pipes, things like that,” he said. “A dirty air filter can cause a furnace to essentially shut off because it’s overheating because it’s running so long. Putting a clean air filter in can allow a furnace to run for longer periods and maintain temperature better.”

They also checked to make sure intake and exhaust pipes weren’t blocked from accumulated ice or drifting snow. For a few of the calls they serviced, that was the issue. Similarly, gas meters should be checked on to ensure that they aren’t buried in the snow, as they need vent.

Coons said that anybody with furnace intakes and exhaust pipes on the roof should not try to take care of the issue themselves.

“We’ve got people to send out, more than one person so one can hold the ladder and the other can clear those pipes,” he said.

Some other tips he offered were not to use ovens or ice fishing heaters to stay warm indoors. In the case of the heaters, they can produce deadly carbon monoxide. Similarly, he advised against using any open flames indoors.

Instead, keeping all doors shut, setting the temperature a bit higher than normal and keeping all room vents open are preferable.

“Closing off vents to heat specific rooms most of the time has the opposite effect, causing the furnace to overheat because the furnace is designed to heat the entire home, not just rooms,” Coons said.

He expects more problems to come as the weather improves and the temperatures rise.

“The biggest thing is that furnaces are going to start to cycle and start to shut off. They’re going to be tired. Some of those bearings and those blower motors are going to be tightening up because that motor has stopped or the drains are going to be plugging. There’s a number of things that can affect furnace operation,” Coons said.

Scheduling for a furnace tune-up every year can help ensure that all parts of the furnace are in good shape for the weather ahead.

Mike Holen, owner of Complete Plumbing, and Brad Stahl, a manager at Courtesy Plumbing, agreed that more problems caused from the severe cold will start to appear late Thursday into Friday and the weekend as things warm up.

That’s because even if a pipe has cracked from the extreme cold, it shouldn’t actually start to show signs of leaking until after the water in the pipes thaw, when the temperatures begin to rise again.

As of Thursday morning, Holen said his company has only responded to three calls about burst pipes.

Winter car woes

Plenty of motorists were suffering car woes this week, as well. One of the most common is that when the temperature hits 30 below, a lot of vehicles won’t start. Blame it on a bad battery.

“I would say we jump-started over a hundred vehicles by now, mostly in Brookings,” said Cody Clifford, of Aurora Auto Body and Glass, the only AAA-service provider in the area. “We’ve towed several vehicles, from semi-tractors to people sitting around town here. We’ve sold a ton of batteries.”

For those in the auto repair and service business, the bad news of bitter winter weather can be good for business.

“It is and it isn’t,” Clifford said. “It’s a good money-maker, but it’s a lot of hours, too.” And the AAA connection “generates a ton of business for us,” he added. “We’re probably 20 calls behind on AAA as we speak (about 10:30 Thursday morning).”  

“We ended up with quite a few battery issues, dead batteries stuff,” said E.J. Bassett, of Jackrabbit Tire & Service in downtown Brookings. “With this cold, it’s pretty tough on them. If the battery is weak, this cold just puts them over the edge.”

One thing has pretty much changed in the business of jump-starting a dead battery: the days of the black-and-red 20-foot jumper cables are over. Those still in the business of resuscitating dead batteries use an “electric 12-volt car battery charger” aka a “jump pack” in the jargon of the trade.

Jackrabbit has sold and installed several new batteries over the last couple days, some to customers who brought their cars in after they were jump-pack started.

“We haven’t had any problems, everything went smoothly. Every car’s starting,” said Ron Dobesh, laughing heartily. 

When asked for “the real story,” the owner of Ron’s Auto Repair admitted, “We’ve had a few people whose cars aren’t starting because it’s so cold. We’ve done a bunch of batteries.” He added, “I don’t do a lot of jump starting anymore.” 

But when he does that’s when the jump-pack is pressed into action.

“It’s a jump-pack with quite a few amps in it,” he added. “You wouldn’t believe it, I’ve had people who tried jumping it with their buddy’s car and it wouldn’t start. You hook that thing (jump pack) on and it cranks right over.”   

Batteries are a hot item, and Ron’s has sold half a dozen the past couple of days, as have other auto service and repair businesses in the Brookings area.

“We sold more batteries and stuff like that,” said Jamie Lenning, of GP Auto Service & Repair in downtown Brookings.

Contact Eric Sandbulte at esandbulte@brookingsregister.com. Contact John Kubal at jkubal@brookingsregister.com.