Cleanup and drying when an ice storm takes out power and leaves a house without heat, pumps or circuits for days.
Fastest: call (833) 490-5225. Or send this and we call you back.
An ice storm plus a power outage creates a triple crisis: the sump stops and the cellar fills, the heat stops and pipes freeze, and the circuits that protected equipment go live. The work is emergency extraction, addressing the frozen pipes and heating loss, then structural drying. Phones here are answered 24/7 across Worcester County.
An ice storm in north-central Massachusetts is the kind of event that closes highways, brings down trees and leaves whole towns without power for days. In December 2008 about 350,000 Massachusetts customers lost power, the Governor declared a state of emergency, and five days later about 77,000 were still dark; a federal emergency covered nine counties.
It is the combination that is dangerous. Power going out is annoying; a cellar flooding because the sump stopped is a repair; heat dying in a freezing house is a crisis. But all three at once, in a house where nobody is there or where everyone is staying put in the dark, is the moment when the owner looks at the foundation and the burst pipes and the cellar and has to decide what to do first.
In the immediate aftermath, the first job is staying safe: do not run a generator, a fuel heater, a charcoal grill or an oven indoors, since all of them produce carbon monoxide that collects in a cellar and kills quietly. The water in the basement can wait hours; that smoke cannot. Call (833) 490-5225 once the heating and ventilation are settled so a crew can be sent as soon as one is free.
Never run a generator, a space heater, a camp stove, a charcoal grill, a propane heater or an oven indoors, because they all produce carbon monoxide that kills silently in cellars. A generator lives outside and well away from windows and doors, with its exhaust pointed away from the building. Do not step into standing water in a cellar where the power panel is wet or the circuits are still energised. If a supply line has burst, stay out of the basement and call the water company to shut off the main before attempting anything. If the furnace has filled with water, leave it for a technician to assess.
No generators, fuel heaters, charcoal grills or ovens run indoors, because they all produce carbon monoxide that kills in a basement and leaves no warning. If the house is getting cold, space heaters and a car in an open garage only, unless there is a fireplace with a working damper. That is the first call, not the water.
A burst line is a plumber's call; a frozen one is a heat problem first. Thawing is done carefully and outside the wall if possible. Once water is running again, the house has a working thermostat control and the cellar can be addressed.
A home heating oil system with no power needs the burner checked; a gas system may be able to run on its own pilot light or may need help. A heat pump cannot work without power. A generator can supply power if it is kept outdoors and well away from windows, or a temporary heat source can be vented outdoors. These are heating-trade decisions made before pumping the cellar.
Once the house is being heated and the burst lines are handled, the cellar can be pumped. A generator-powered pump runs outside, and a battery-backup sump takes over once the power returns, because the water keeps rising until the ground drains or the weather changes.
Once the house is warm, the power is back, the furnace is running and the cellar is empty, the drying equipment goes in. Readings are logged on the sill, posts, joist ends, subfloor and any equipment that went under, because the freeze-thaw cycle of an outage damages materials differently than a clean flood.
An unusually intense ice-loading event that covered a wide area of New England and knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of people. In Massachusetts about 350,000 customers lost service, the Governor declared a state of emergency, and a federal emergency declaration covered nine counties including Worcester County.
Outage times ranged widely. Some customers were back on in hours, but about 77,000 were still without power five days after the storm. In hill towns such as Royalston, where the lines run through heavy forest, some people reported nine and a half days without electricity, and in Princeton many residents were still without power almost a week later.
It is a reference point for what an ice storm here can do, and why a house without power for that long develops three problems at once: the sump stops, the heat dies, and frozen pipes burst.
No. A generator, a fuel heater, a charcoal grill or a camp stove all produce carbon monoxide, which is heavier than air and collects in cellars and other low spaces. Death from carbon monoxide in a basement is quiet and has no smell, and every power outage season brings deaths that way.
A generator must be kept outside and well away from windows, doors and vents, with the exhaust pointed away from the building. If temporary heat is needed, a space heater on a thermostatic outlet, or a car running in an open garage door only, is the right approach. A fireplace with a working chimney that is not in a basement is a fallback.
That is the first conversation when the power goes out, not the water.
The burst pipe, if there is one, because it is the ongoing damage. A cellar full of water sits there, but a supply line under pressure fills walls and drips into the floor below and the rooms above until it is dealt with. Thaw what is frozen first, then worry about the standing water.
A supply line that is frozen can sometimes be thawed from inside if it is in the house and accessible, or by removing trim and opening a wall if it is in an exterior wall. A burst line is a plumber's call and needs to be depressurised and capped. Some of this work cannot be done until there is heat in the house, so the heating system comes first, then the water supply, then the cellar.
It stops. The cellar water rises as the inflow continues, because the sump is no longer pumping out. Once the power returns the pump can drain what is there in a few hours, unless the freeze has also burst a supply line and the new problem is a leak inside.
A battery-backed sump keeps pumping for a day or two after the power fails, which buys time. If the house has no backup and the power is out for days, the cellar flood becomes inevitable unless a generator-powered pump is brought in. Sump pump failure water damage covers what a simple power loss does to an unpumped cellar.
It depends on what happened next. Sudden and accidental water damage caused by the storm or the failed sump is usually covered; a burst supply line caused by freezing is usually covered; a house that lost heat and got cold is usually not. The policy and the insurer decide, and the crew cannot.
That is one reason it is worth reading the policy before the season. Know what happens if the sump fails, if a supply line freezes, and whether the ice damage to the roof or the walls is covered. An outage is not a covered cause; what follows the outage is what matters.
If a claim is denied and you think it was mishandled, the Massachusetts Division of Insurance Consumer Service Unit takes complaints, though it cannot decide the cause of a loss. Readers in the New Hampshire towns go to the New Hampshire Insurance Department. The claims guide explains what to keep and why.
Heavy wet snow or freezing rain coats everything with ice weight. Branches come down, wires snap, and transformers fail from the mechanical load. The December 2008 storm put about 350,000 customers dark in Massachusetts, and about 77,000 had to wait five days for power to return; some hill-town customers reported power out for nine and a half days.
The standard pit-type sump with an outlet pipe works only on electricity. In an outage the water level rises and the cellar fills, and the longer the outage the more rises. Some houses have battery backup installed, which keeps the pump running for a day or two, but most do not. Once power returns the pump can drain what is there, unless the freeze has burst a supply line and the real problem is now inside a wall.
An oil or gas heating system with no power may be able to run part-way on its own systems, or may not. A heat pump is dead. As the house temperature drops, supply lines exposed to exterior walls freeze first, then basement rim pipes, then deeper lines, and the burst often appears the moment power returns and the thermostat calls for heat.
Hill towns such as Royalston, Ashburnham, Petersham and Hubbardston felt the December 2008 ice storm hard because power lines there run through forests that catch the ice. Broken branches brought down the wires, and some customers waited over a week for service to be restored. The denser towns of Gardner, Athol and Winchendon got power back faster on average.
Baldwinville and the Templeton villages sit between the hills and the lower land, and ice-storm experience varies by whether a house is near a major line or back on a rural one. The pattern is the same everywhere: no power means no sump, no heat, and a supply line freeze is likely before power comes back.
The practical lesson is that a battery-backup sump is worth the cost if you are in a stone or brick cellar in a mill village or an older town, and a standby heating plan—a space heater, a fireplace, a generator on the porch—has to be thought about before the storm, not during it.
If it's an emergency, call now. For non-urgent power outage and ice storm water damage, send the form and we'll call you back.
Not sure if you're covered? Check your ZIP code.
Water extraction, drying and cleanup after a frozen supply line splits and shows damage when the thaw arrives.
Removal, drying and cleanup after a sump pump fails, jams or loses power and the pit overflows into the cellar.
Pump-out, clearing, cleaning and metered drying of flooded cellars, including stone and brick walls, dirt floors and mechanical plant.
Drying and cleanup when meltwater backed up behind an ice dam and ran into ceilings, walls and insulation.
Only if the panel is dry and you can reach it safely. If the water is rising towards it or it is wet, do not touch it. Call the power company to report it, and leave the cellar. A technician will handle it once the water is out.
The burst pipe, if there is one, because it keeps damaging the house while the water is still flowing. A cellar full of water is a bad day; a supply line running unchecked is a worse one. Deal with the burst first, then the cellar.
Usually yes, unless the pump itself froze and cracked, or the discharge line iced over at the outlet. Once power returns a pump that is still intact will run and drain what is there. If the discharge outlet is frozen shut the pump runs but the water stays, so that is the first thing to check.
No, not an unvented one. A thermostat-controlled space heater on an outlet is much safer, but a dehumidifier is the right tool. Running heat without dehumidification spreads the moisture into other rooms instead of pulling it out of the air.
A cellar that stayed cold during the outage releases moisture slowly, so drying usually takes several days. Equipment runs continuously with readings logged, and the timeline depends on whether the freeze also cracked pipes or whether the cellar is stone, block or finished, since masonry holds water longer than frame walls.
Know where the main water shutoff is and keep it accessible. If you have a sump, consider a battery backup system. Insulate any exposed supply lines on exterior walls or in unheated spaces, and cover them with heat tape. Make a heating backup plan—a fireplace with a working damper, or a space heater, or a generator on the porch. Keep a flashlight and know how to reach this line: (833) 490-5225.