Bones and pipes are breaking across the Northwest with the cold, and now the warm up

Across the Northwest, emergency room doctors and nurses are being plowed under with fall injuries. Many people are falling from snow, ice and slick conditions.

Elizabeth Phelan, the founding director of the Fall Prevention Clinic at Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. She said young people often have ankle or wrist injuries and sometimes older people come in with hip fractures, back injuries or shoulder breaks. She said any break is typically a three-month ride to recovery. 

“It takes about that long for a bone to fully heal,” Phelan said. “So, people’s lives are definitely altered, and it often requires them to have help when they were previously independent.” 

Officials say Harborview Medical Center in Seattle has been treating a lot of injuries due to falls on ice and snow. Other hospitals across the Northwest said they are seeing the same.
(Courtesy: UW Medical)

There might be a slowdown in falls as weather is expected to warm in the Northwest over the coming week. 

However, another problem is about to burst –  contractors said pipes will flood many homes as they thaw out. Some Northwest contractors expect to be busy in the coming week. 

Richland general contractor Dan Vargo has already had a half dozen calls and he expects quite a few more, soon. 

“You know, obviously we’ll take the work but you know it’s under the worst possible circumstances for the homeowner,” Vargo said. 

Richland contractor Dan Vargo said open your cupboard doors to let the warm air flow in the sink area and let faucets drip a bit to help prevent frozen pipes.
(Credit: Anna King / N3)

The problem is when pipes freeze, homeowners might not know it quite yet. It is when the pipes warm up that they burst open with a flood of water. 

“Typically, immediate water damage is covered by insurance, so there’s that benefit. But depending on the damage, you’re out of a space for a period of time,” Vargo said.

Older homes – like the prefabs in Richland, built during the Manhattan Project – with lead or copper pipes are at high risk, Vargo said. So are camper homes and manufactured homes.