It's 6 degrees outside, the power has been out since midnight, and the house is getting colder by the hour. You turn on the kitchen faucet and get a thin trickle, then nothing.
The question isn't whether the pipes might freeze. It's what you do in the next few hours.
A winter blackout shuts off the furnace, and the furnace is what keeps the water lines under your sinks and along your outside walls above freezing. Once those lines freeze, you can lose your tap water for days. If one bursts, you can lose a lot more than that.
Here's how to keep the water running, what to do if a pipe freezes anyway, and how to make sure your family still has drinking water if it doesn't.
Before the storm: 4 jobs that take one afternoon
Most frozen pipes are prevented weeks before the cold snap, not during it. The American Red Cross recommends a few simple steps on its frozen pipes page:
- Drain and store outdoor hoses. Close the indoor valve that feeds each outdoor spigot, then leave the outdoor spigot open so any water left inside can expand without cracking the pipe.
- Insulate exposed pipes. Pipes in the garage, the crawl space and under sinks on outside walls freeze first. Foam pipe sleeves are cheap and slide right on. The Red Cross notes that even a quarter inch of newspaper wrapped around a pipe gives some protection.
- Find your main water shutoff valve. If a pipe bursts, this is how you stop the water. Find it now, in daylight, and make sure it turns.
- Store drinking water. More on this below. It's the one step that protects you whether the pipes freeze or not.
When the power goes out: keep the warm air on the pipes
Without the furnace, your job is to slow the cold down and keep what heat you have near the plumbing.
Let the faucets drip
Turn the cold water to a slow drip on any faucet served by pipes along an outside wall. Moving water is much harder to freeze, and a drip relieves pressure if ice does start to form.
Open the cabinet doors
Open the doors under the kitchen and bathroom sinks so the warmer room air can reach the pipes. Move cleaners and chemicals up high first if there are kids or grandkids in the house.
Keep the garage door shut
If any water lines run through the garage, keep that big door closed. It holds in more heat than you'd think.
Close off the rooms you don't need
Shut the doors to empty bedrooms and keep everyone, and every bit of heat, in the rooms where the plumbing is. A smaller space stays warmer longer.
If a pipe freezes anyway
A faucet that gives only a trickle is the first sign. The frozen spot is usually near an outside wall or where the water line comes into the house.
- Leave that faucet open. As the ice melts, running water helps clear the rest of the pipe.
- Use gentle heat only. With the power out, that usually means towels soaked in hot water and wrapped around the pipe. Once the power is back, the Red Cross lists an electric heating pad or a hair dryer as safe options.
- Never use an open flame. The Red Cross is clear on this: no blowtorch, no kerosene or propane heater, no charcoal stove. Besides the fire risk, burning fuel indoors fills the house with carbon monoxide, which you can't see or smell.
- Check the other faucets. If one pipe froze, others may be close behind.
If you can't find the frozen section, or you can't reach it, call a licensed plumber. And if a pipe has split, shut off the main valve before you do anything else.
The backup plan: drinking water you don't need the pipes for
Here's the part most people skip. Even if you do everything right, a long enough blackout in deep cold can still freeze a line. And a burst pipe means the water stays off until it's repaired.
That's why the smartest winter prep isn't about the pipes at all. It's having drinking water already stored in the house.
Ready.gov recommends storing at least 1 gallon of water per person, per day, for several days, for drinking and basic sanitation. For a couple, that's at least 6 gallons for 3 days. For a family of 4, it's at least 12.
The easiest way we know to store that much without giving up a closet is long-term water storage containers that stack. Each WaterBrick holds 3.5 gallons of drinking water in a slim block that slides under most beds, or stacks like building blocks in a basement corner. 4 of them cover a family of 4 for 3 days.
One more tip from Ready.gov: water you fill yourself should be replaced every 6 months. An easy way to remember is to swap it when the clocks change in the spring and the fall.
Don't forget a light
Most of this work happens in the dark: finding the shutoff valve, checking under sinks, wrapping a pipe in the crawl space. Keep a battery or rechargeable light where you can grab it. A lantern that lights a whole room frees up both hands for the wrench. Skip the candles. The U.S. Fire Administration recommends flashlights over candles during a power outage.
Final thoughts
A frozen pipe is a hassle. A burst pipe with no water stored is a real emergency, especially for a family that can't easily leave the house.
Spend one afternoon this fall: drain the hoses, wrap the exposed pipes, find the shutoff valve, and store enough drinking water for at least 3 days.
Then when the power goes out in January, you'll already know what to do.