Is it too late to protect your pipes with this Borderland freeze?

EL PASO, Texas - The winter storm that moved through the area on Wednesday night brought freezing temperatures to the Borderland. For reference, on Wednesday night in El Paso, temperatures bottomed out at 20 degrees at the airport with windchill in the single digits. On Thursday at the airport, 18 was the low, with windchill in the teens.

Forty-five minutes north, Las Cruces on Wednesday reached a low of 24 with windchill in the teens, and on Thursday, 16 degrees was the low with windchill in the single digits. If numbers stress you out, the bottom line is that it has been VERY cold! In early February, daytime temperatures should be in the low 60s, whereas overnight lows should be sitting right around freezing.

The question is, is it too late to try to protect your pipes? The simple answer is maybe. The cold temperatures we've already had are more than enough to cause your pipes to freeze and break. If your pipes are still unprotected, you might just be lucky as they've survived many freezes this winter- but who knows how long that will last.

How do pipes break in the first place? Christina Montoya from EP Water explained, "what ends up happening is that if theres water in there, it freezes and it expands, and thats what causes the pipes to break."

After speaking with numerous plumbing experts across the Borderland, their advice was to wrap them up as soon as possible. If your pipes haven't broken already, who's to say on the next hard freeze that they'll survive again. Wrapping them with insulation will help. The plumbers suggested foam insulation or insulation covers that can be bought at stores. If you are unable to purchase those items, try to cover your pipes with towels, or even cardboard, which will create a layer of defense against the cold.

"It's important for all of us for everyone who owns a home or business to protect your pipes, to protect your backflow preventers. That's another issue with a lot of commercial businesses. They are exposed and we have been asking people to cover those. There are covers you can buy to cover those backflow preventers, and if you haven't done that already, please do," Montoya added.

ABC-7 reached out to Sun City Plumbers, who stated they are "very busy" will multiple calls about broken pipes. On Friday they had three crews trying to fix broken pipes across the city. Some plumbing and hardware stores reported having a surplus of customers, while others stated business has actually been slow.

In case your pipe does break, Montoya said, "another important thing is to just be aware and know where your water meter is and how to turn it off. So that if you do have a pipe break, you can get out there and turn it off and avoid any water waste. A lot customers are not familiar of where their water meter is and how to turn them off. You can buy a meter tool at a hardware store or use a wrench and a screwdriver to turn that valve 90 degrees that that it is off."

She said the most common place for your water meter is out in front of your house on the curb. It should have a circular metal lid that you can lift off to access the meter.