AUBURN, Mass. - Last weekend's sub-zero temperatures lead to pipe bursts in homes, businesses and other buildings across the region, and created a hectic situation for local plumbers and other contractors. 

Seniors living at the Elm Park Tower in Worcester have now been out of their apartments for three days due to a pipe burst, and the Worcester Housing Authority said it's been difficult to find help quickly due to the increased demand for contractors' services. 

At Gervais Plumbing Heating and Air Conditioning, cold weather often means responding to a handful of burst pipe calls, but nothing else has compared to last weekend. 

"We've been in business 19 years and I've never seen that inflow of calls coming in," said co-owner Jeff Gervais. "Even when it's extremely hot we don't get that. This area's just never seen anything like that."

Gervais said his company spent most of Saturday responding to homes and businesses who lost heat, but when temperatures rose above freezing on Sunday, burst pipes became the main issue. 

"Especially in commercial properties where people don't go in for days on end, and they go in, open the door and the mechanical room is flooded," Gervais said. 

From Friday night to Monday night, the company fielded roughly 1,000 calls, and there's still plenty of work left to do. Operations manager Josh White said it was an all hands on deck effort, with most people working overtime to meet the demand. 

"Saturday just started getting a little overwhelming for everybody," White said. "Everyone was pitching in and doing everything they could. There's just so many calls and you can only get back to so many."

Staff said they were reasonably prepared for the cold weekend, and this will help ensure they're more prepared next time. They said the best way homeowners can prepare their pipes for cold weather is to leave the faucet on lightly to keep water constantly running, or leave a space heater near areas where pipes tend to freeze. 

For those still waiting for help, co-owner Scott Gervais said he understands the frustration and Gervais and other plumbing companies are working hard to keep up. 

"It takes time to get to everyone at once," he said. "We had as many techs as we could running. I felt bad for the people that were panicking because their house was flooding with no heat for little kids."