Viewpoint: Faulty Hose Bibs One of Many Subrogation Opportunities from Record Freeze By Lee R. Wickert | February 26, 2021 Although I am a native Texan, I grew up in Wisconsin. Therefore, I am no stranger to cold weather or the devastating effects it can have on people and property. When I moved back to Texas two years ago to open Matthiesen, Wickert & Lehrer’s Austin office, I assumed I was saying goodbye to cold weather forever. I was wrong. While the temperatures in Wisconsin hovered around 10°F, the mercury dropped to an astonishing 6°F in Austin last week, lower than any week in history other than one in 1983. We also set an all-time record for 6.5 inches of snow in a single snowfall. Streets were covered with ice and drivers in ditches due to their only experience with ice being unsweetened iced tea. Vehicles could not make it up hills and were colliding with other vehicles and stationary objects. Many houses with plumbing and hot water heating systems outside of their homes were experiencing frozen pipes which led to inevitable flooding once the pipes thawed. Power outages after a week of freezing led to 3 million people being without power and the price of energy in Texas skyrocketed to $10 per kilowatt hour (kWh) compared to $.05 in Wisconsin. The loss of power meant loss of heat, which exacerbated and compounded the resulting damage. Insurance claims resulting from water damage resulting from frozen pipes alone could be in the tens of millions of dollars. Ice on the roads does not excuse drivers from exercising caution and will also lead to tens of millions of dollars in property damage claims. Plumbers will be in high demand and homeowner insurance claims will certainly be on the rise.