SAN ANTONIO — The Texas Division of Emergency Management is urging Texans to stay safe this weekend and protect people, pets, pipes and plants from the cold weather.
Texans are urged to stay off the roads and bring their animals inside, but protecting pipes and plants may require a trip to the hardware store.
KENS 5 spoke to staff at Johnnie Chuoke's Home and Hardware today about the best options for homeowners.
Manager Trudy Chuoke said one new option for outdoor faucets was the Freeze Miser, which will automatically drip in cold temperatures when placed on an outdoor faucet. Hardware stores also sell regular faucet protectors that simply create in insulated cap over faucets.
Many customers also stocked up on pipe insulators that can be cut to fit exposed outdoor pipes. Chuoke said the insulators can be secured with regular duct tape or specialized isolator tape.
Chuoke said homeowners shouldn't need to worry about indoor pipes as long as they keep the home around 70 degrees and open cabinet doors. Homeowners are also encouraged to let faucets drip when the weather drops under 25 degrees.
Automatic sprinklers should be turned off.
Plants, on the other hand, should normally be covered with blankets and tarps. The store was already sold out of fabric plant blankets but Chuoke said tarps were still in stock and should work just fine.
"It will have grommets in it, attach it down to the ground so it doesn't blow off and that way you still get good insulation," Chuoke said.
Experts at The Garden Center recommend moving tender plants in containers from the north side to the south side of the house. They said watering helps plants before freezing temperatures as water and a few inches of mulch insulates the roots.
Learn more about protecting against winter weather here. Find out what a licensed plumber had to say here.