When Mecha Franklin woke up Thursday morning, she found that no water was coming from her bathroom faucet and her toilet would not flush.
"I went to turn on the sink and it was like drip, drip, drip," said Franklin, a UF psychology senior.
Many Gainesville residents like Franklin experienced cracked water pipelines due to the sub-freezing temperatures.
By 9 a.m., Gainesville Regional Utilities had received several calls regarding frozen and cracked pipelines, said GRU employee Crystal Monroe.
Monroe said usually the problem occurs when the backflow preventer, which connects pipes to prevent contamination, breaks or cracks. If this happens, it is the responsibility of the resident to fix it.
Robin Schenk, a dispatcher for Mark Hurm and Co., a plumbing company in Gainesville, said people can prevent cracks by leaving water dripping or waiting until 9 a.m. or 10 a.m. to turn on a faucet.
