LITH Family Comes Home From Florida To Flooded, Frozen Home

LAKE IN THE HILLS, IL — A Lake in the Hills family came home from a sunny Florida vacation to a rude awakening in their home, according to reports, as the brutally cold temperatures made one of their pipes burst.

“A neighbor heard water pouring from our roof,” Vanessa Carranza, who owns the home with her husband Max, said, according to WGN9. They returned home from their Disney World trip Thursday, Jan. 4 to find the immense damage to their home.

“We think one of our pipes probably burst due to the multiple days of cold weather,” she said. The bitter cold we've been feeling is to blame, as temperatures have rarely broken into the teens during this cold snap. “We completely lost the ceiling. All the drywall is down, but just from that you can see it trickled, followed the rafters, all the way into the kitchen…”

Related: Winter Is Coming: How To Protect Your Pipes

Ceilings, walls and floors all over the Carranza home are damaged. “We’ve got leaks everywhere,” Vanessa Carranza said, WGN9 reported. “The house is completely flooded. We’ll probably have to replace all the floors, the carpet, roof, walls.”

Another northwest suburbs house had its pipes burst Tuesday. The mansion, featured in the classic 1993 film 'Groundhog Day,' suffered around $10,000 in damage, its owner said.

The Carranzas have learned their lesson. “Next time we’ll definitely let a neighbor know that we’re going and maybe have somebody stop by take a look, run things for a couple of days,” Vanessa said, according to WGN9. They will stay with relatives until their figure out insurance and repairs.

Article image via Shutterstock