Freeze Warning: What East Texas Homeowners Must Do in the Next 24 Hours

A hard freeze in East Texas hits differently than it does in Dallas or Amarillo. Those folks have insulated crawl spaces, better-built pipe chases, and houses that were designed with cold weather in mind. Down here in Liberty County, Chambers County, and the Baytown-Crosby-Highlands corridor, most homes were built for heat. The pipes run through exterior walls, under pier-and-beam foundations with nothing but open air underneath, and along outside walls of garages that might as well be screen doors in January. When temperatures drop below 28°F for more than four hours — which the National Weather Service says is the threshold for pipe damage — homes in this part of Texas are in real trouble.

You have a window right now. Use it.

Which Pipes Are Most at Risk in East Texas Homes?

The pipes most likely to freeze are the ones nobody thinks about until they burst. In pier-and-beam homes — which are common throughout Chambers County and the older neighborhoods of Highlands and Crosby — water lines running under the house are exposed to ambient air temperature with no insulation between them and the cold. Supply lines to outdoor hose bibs, irrigation systems, and washing machines on exterior walls are also high on the list. Ice makers, water softeners in garages, and any line that travels through an unheated utility room are candidates too.

Copper pipe bursts faster than PEX in a freeze, and a lot of the older housing stock in Liberty County still has copper throughout. A single burst half-inch copper line can dump 8 gallons of water per minute into your walls, floors, or crawl space before you even know something's wrong.

How Much Should You Drip Your Faucets — and Which Ones?

Drip the faucets farthest from your main water line. That's the answer. The goal is to keep water moving through the lines that are most exposed, because moving water resists freezing longer than standing water.

Set each at-risk faucet to a slow, steady drip — roughly 5 drops per second, which works out to about 1 gallon per hour per faucet. That's not a trickle, and it's not a stream. You want consistent movement without wasting water. For most East Texas homes with municipal water, that's a manageable overnight cost — typically under $2 per faucet based on average Liberty County MUD water rates.

Drip both the hot and cold handles on any faucet served by pipes in an exterior wall. The hot side matters because the hot water line runs back to your water heater through some of the same vulnerable areas. Don't forget the bathtub faucet — it's usually the one connected to your longest pipe run.

What Should You Wrap or Cover Before the Freeze Hits?

Cover your outdoor hose bibs first. A foam hose bib cover from any hardware store runs about $3 to $5 each, and they work. If you don't have one on hand, wrap the bib with an old towel and secure it with electrical tape. Not pretty, but it'll do the job.

Pipes under pier-and-beam homes should be wrapped with pipe insulation foam — the pre-slit kind sold in 6-foot sections for around $1.50 per foot. Armaflex and Frost King are the two brands worth buying. Get the right diameter for your pipe size; a half-inch pipe needs half-inch insulation, and using the wrong size defeats the purpose entirely.

Close your crawl space vents. This is the step most people in Chambers County and Liberty County skip. Open vents let cold air circulate directly under the house. Temporary vent covers cost about $8 each, or you can stuff them with cut pieces of rigid foam insulation board. Do this before dark.

For irrigation systems, turn off the supply at the backflow preventer and blow out the lines with compressed air if you have a compressor. If you don't, at minimum shut the irrigation supply valve and open the drain petcock at the bottom of the backflow preventer to release standing water.

How Do You Shut Off Your Water if a Pipe Bursts?

Know where your main shutoff is before you need it. That's not a drill recommendation — it's the difference between a $400 plumber bill and a $14,000 restoration job.

In most homes in the Baytown area and across Harris County's unincorporated communities like Crosby and Highlands, the main shutoff valve is either in the garage, near the water heater, or at the meter box at the street. The meter box shutoff requires a meter key — a flat, T-shaped tool that costs about $12 at any hardware store. Keep one in your garage. Keep a second one in your truck if you're smart about it.

Gate valves (the round-handled kind on older homes) should be turned clockwise until they stop. Ball valves (lever handle) turn 90 degrees perpendicular to the pipe to shut off. If your valve hasn't been touched in 10 years, don't be surprised if it's stiff or won't fully close — that's a problem to fix before the freeze, not during one.

My honest opinion: every homeowner in Liberty County, Chambers County, and East Harris County should know their shutoff location the same way they know their breaker box. It is that fundamental.

What Should You Have Ready in Case a Pipe Freezes or Bursts?

Assemble a short list of supplies tonight, before stores get picked over. Freeze events in East Texas — the 2021 freeze being the clearest example — empty hardware store shelves within 12 hours. Don't count on getting what you need once the temperatures drop.

Here's what to have on hand:

• A pipe repair clamp (fits your most common pipe diameter, usually ¾-inch or ½-inch) — around $8 at Home Depot
• Pipe repair tape (self-fusing silicone tape like X-Treme Tape) — $10 per roll and can buy you time until a plumber arrives
• A hair dryer or heat gun for thawing frozen pipes — apply heat starting at the faucet end, not the frozen section, and work backward
• 5-gallon buckets — at least 2, for catching water or bailing if something lets go
• Towels and plastic sheeting — for containing water damage while you make calls
• Your plumber's phone number saved in your phone right now

If you discover a frozen pipe that hasn't burst yet, thaw it slowly. A hair dryer on low works fine. Never use an open flame — propane torches have started house fires in attics and wall cavities throughout Southeast Texas, and a burst pipe is a far easier fix than a fire.

What About Your Water Heater and HVAC During a Freeze?

Don't turn your water heater to vacation mode during a freeze. That's a mistake people make thinking they'll save on gas costs, and then they end up with a unit that can't recover fast enough when temperatures drop below the setpoint. Keep your water heater set to at least 120°F. If you have a tankless unit, especially a gas-fired Rinnai or Navien model, confirm the freeze protection mode is active — most modern tankless heaters have it built in, but only if the unit stays powered.

Set your thermostat to no lower than 65°F overnight, even in rooms you're not using. Open cabinet doors under kitchen and bathroom sinks to let warm interior air reach those pipes. It sounds minor. It is not minor. That 10-degree air difference against an exterior wall is often what keeps a pipe intact.

CenterPoint Energy serves much of Harris County, and Entergy Texas covers most of Liberty and Chambers County. Both utilities have had load management situations during past freeze events — Uri being the most obvious one. If ERCOT calls for grid conservation this cycle, your heat may cycle off or reduce. A backup heat source — electric space heater, propane heater with proper ventilation — is worth having staged and ready, particularly for households in Dayton, Baytown, and Anahuac where rural infrastructure can be slower to stabilize.

The Bottom Line on Getting Through Tonight

There is no shortcut here. A freeze event in East Texas with temperatures forecast below 25°F means real risk for homes that were never built to handle it. The 2021 winter storm caused over $200 million in insured losses in Harris County alone. Most of that damage came from burst pipes, and most of those burst pipes belonged to people who didn't take the 90-minute window of prevention seriously.

Drip your faucets. Wrap what you can reach. Close your crawl space vents. Know your shutoff. Have a plan for if something goes wrong. And check on your neighbors — especially the older folks in Highlands and Crosby who may not be watching the forecast as closely as you are. That's East Texas. We handle things together.