At Lafayette Utility Systems, News 10 spoke to director Jeffery Stewart about protecting your utilities during times of freezing weather.

LAFAYETTE, La. (KLFY) -- At Lafayette Utility Systems, News 10 spoke to director Jeffery Stewart about protecting your utilities during times of freezing weather.

"The most common problems we see during a freeze are on our water system. On a normal weather day water flows and there's no risk of freezing, but once we get to temperatures like we saw this morning at 15 to 20 degrees we start to see water freeze up in pipes," Stewart said.

Stewart told News 10 that there are a few ways to protect your pipes when temperatures get too low.

"Our advice and our recommendation to all our customers is to protect the pipes. That means insulate them when you can, it means open cabinet doors for exposed pipes, you try to keep the temperature of the pipes above freezing. We do not recommend dripping. Because we have about 60,000 water customers and if everyone was running their water lines and dripping we can see pressure issues on our system," Stewart said.

Stewart also advises residents to be aware of the condition of their utilities throughout this holiday weekend.

"If you do wake up or during this weekend if there are leaks that you notice be mindful. Look around, make sure you go to each of your faucets, your sinks, your toilets, and make sure you don't have water in your yard that doesn't belong there. If you see those things, shut your water off and give us a call."

Stewart said that if any issues occur this weekend or even as temperatures rise early next week crews will be on standby via their phone line 24/7 ready to help.