Columbia does not get many winter storms, and the ones it gets tend to be ice rather than snow, which is worse for a house’s systems. Anyone who was here in February 2014 remembers the limbs coming down through the night and the days without power that followed. A Midlands winter storm does three things to a home: it coats everything in ice, it freezes what was never insulated for freezing, and it takes the power, often for days. This post is arranged around those three risks.
Ice: what it does and what to do about it
Ice is the Midlands’ particular problem, because a quarter inch of it adds hundreds of pounds to a tree limb and to the power lines running beneath it. For the house, that means limbs coming down on roofs, outdoor units, and generator enclosures, and power lines that stay down for days once those limbs take them. Before the storm, have limbs that overhang the roof, the outdoor unit, or the service line trimmed, since pines and oaks that survive every summer thunderstorm lose branches under ice. Clear the gutters so melting ice drains rather than backing up under the shingles. During the storm, the heat pump’s defrost cycle handles frost on the coil, but a solid glaze over the cabinet or the fan grille is worth knocking off gently once the freezing rain stops.
Freeze: what it reaches and how to protect it
Most of Columbia’s plumbing was installed for a climate where hard freezes are rare, and a winter storm supplies the one hard freeze a year that finds the pipes nobody insulated. The vulnerable places are the crawl space, the garage, the exterior walls behind kitchen and bathroom sinks, the outdoor spigots, and the irrigation backflow preventer. The routine before the storm is short, and it starts with disconnecting and draining the hoses, cover the spigots, wrap bare pipe in the crawl space and garage with foam insulation, close the foundation vents, and confirm the main shutoff valve turns. On the cold nights themselves, open the cabinet doors under sinks on exterior walls, let a faucet at the far end of the house drip, and hold the thermostat at 55 or above even if you leave. Our post on preventing frozen pipes covers all of it, including what to do if a pipe freezes anyway.
The freeze also finds the heating system, which is asked to hold a house at 68 on a night in the low 20s, something it may not have done since last winter. A heat pump leans on its auxiliary heat strips in that weather, and a strip that failed last year shows itself on exactly that night. If the fall tune-up did not happen, a heat pump check before the storm is the single most useful appointment on this list.
Outage: the part that lasts the longest
The 2014 storm left parts of the Midlands dark for most of a week, and Helene in 2024 showed a days-long outage can arrive in any season. When the power goes out in a winter storm, the heat pump, the furnace, and the electric water heater all stop, the sump pump under a crawl space stops while melting ice and rain are filling it, and the house begins falling toward the outdoor temperature. Preparing for that has two levels, and the first is the household, meaning flashlights, battery banks charged, a few days of water, the refrigerator and freezer set a little colder so they hold longer, the thermostat left at a steady setting so the house starts the outage warm, and a plan for which room holds heat best. The second is backup power, because for a home that has lost power for days more than once, a standby generator that starts on its own and carries the heat through the outage is the difference between an inconvenience and a night somewhere else. If you already have one, confirm its weekly self-test is running and schedule service before the storm, and if you rely on a portable generator, run it now, replace stale fuel, and plan where it will operate, well away from every window and door.
The two safety items that belong on every list
A winter storm brings out space heaters, fireplaces, and generators, and carbon monoxide is the quiet risk of all three. Test the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors before the storm, put in fresh batteries, and replace any unit past the date on its back. And a portable generator must never run in a garage, on a porch, or near a window, and must never be plugged into a wall outlet, because that sends power back into the lines where crews are working. Those two items cost nothing and prevent a storm’s worst outcomes.
After the ice melts
When the storm passes, walk the house before the day gets busy. Check the pipes that were exposed, look at the floor around the water heater and the ceiling under any attic air handler, and take a flashlight into the crawl space for standing water. If the power was out, give the heating system a few minutes before judging it, since a flicker during restoration is hard on capacitors and control boards, and look at the panel for tripped breakers. Our post on what to check when the power returns covers that walk-through in detail.
If something did not hold
2nd Wind Heating & Air Conditioning has served Columbia since 1985, and the days after an ice storm are among the busiest we have. If the heat did not come back, a pipe has split, or the sump pump is silent with water under the house, reach us through the website chat at any hour or schedule online, and members of the Cloud 10 Membership receive priority scheduling when the storm fills the calendar. If a pipe has burst, shut off the main valve first, and then call.