Damage From Winter Storm Keeping Plumbers Busy

Plumbers around the city have been as swamped as the homes they are fixing.

You will find many of them with a wrench in one hand and a phone in the other – and the phone is constantly ringing.

“It’s non-stop,” Victor Gonzalez, owner of Plumbing Doctor, said. “We’re averaging 62 calls per hour. We cannot keep up with the volume of work.”

The thousands of customers across the city still dealing with water woes aren’t having much luck trying to pin down a plumber either.

“I just went through the phone book one by one,” Rebecca Haytack said. “Someone told me three weeks. Someone told me he had 5,000 other people in front of us.”

Six days since the storm hit, plumbers estimate as many as 60 percent of El Paso homes are still dealing with a wet mess.

“We just took the first person that said they could come out,” Haytack said.

Throughout the city, there are desperate customers and plumbers frantic for supplies.

“You name it, the stock is running low,” Gonzalez said.

Gonzalez admits with demand up, so are his prices.

“We’re not charging by the hour. We’re giving flat rates,” Gonzalez said. “At the very least, you’re looking at paying about $189. And at the very most – I would hate to put a figure on that. We’re running into some extreme conditions.”

For customers dealing with extreme conditions of their own, shelling out extra cash isn’t much of a bother.

“I’d be willing to pay a little more after six days of no water,” Haystack said. “We’re lucky that we found someone so hopefully we’ll have water by tonight.”