Georgia Magazine - December 2011 - (Page 34B)

Take precautions to avoid frozen pipe disasters Georgia Gold Medal Plant of the Month Sweetly scented BY CONNIE COTTINGHAM T creates a good background for other blooming plants. What can homeowners do to protect their property? rich foliage, this evergreen Nothing drains your wallet and makes your holidays soggy like coming home to a house full of water. According to insurance industry experts, the average homeowner insurance claim for water damage and freezing is nearly $6,000, making frozen pipes one of the most costly problems facing homeowners every winter. Come wintertime, homeowners can take simple precautions to keep the pipes intact and avoid pouring thousands of dollars into home repairs. “Homeowners will plan every detail of a weekend trip when they’re headed out of town, but they often don’t think to prepare to prevent their pipes from freezing,” says Jeff Dudan, CEO and founder of AdvantaClean, a national water damage restoration company. “Even in warm-weather climates, there are measures you should take to protect your home from water damage when a cold snap hits.” Consider this: For December’s gardening tips and how to overwinter your plants, see Georgia Gardens on page 28. his month’s featured Georgia Gold Medal Plant is Fragrant Tea Olive, Osmanthus fragrans. evergreen, its upright form is often used as a fragrant screen. With glossy green, • According to the Insurance Journal, every year, approximately a quarter-million homes and offices in the United States have at least one room damaged by a frozen pipe, and a decade of these insurance claims has cost more than $4 billion. A large Although the creamy blooms are tiny and often hidden in the foliage, they fi ll the air with a sweet fragrance in September and October. Some varieties have yellow or orange blooms. Expect this shrub to mature at about 10 feet tall in the Piedmont, and at 20 feet or even 30 feet in South Georgia. Large specimens can be trained into small trees. Winter protection is advised in its northern limits (Zone 7). Liberty notes • Ensure water tanks and pipes are insulated. Pipes in attics, crawl spaces and outside walls are more vulnerable to freezing. • Let the water run! Letting both hot and cold lines of a faucet drip in the extreme cold can prevent a pipe from bursting. A running faucet relieves pressure between the faucet and the ice. No pressure means no bursting. • Keep bathroom and kitchen cabinet doors open during a cold spell to let warm air circulate around the pipes. • Seal any leaks in your home, attic, basement or crawl space that might allow cold air inside where pipes are located. “If you turn on a faucet and only a trickle comes out, suspect a frozen pipe,” Dudan says. “Keep the faucet running and apply heat to the frozen section of pipe until full water pressure is restored. If you’re unable to locate or access the frozen area, call a licensed plumber. You’ll also want to check all of the other faucets in your home. If one pipe freezes, others may too.” Fragrant Tea Olive, Osmanthus fragrans Connie Cottingham is a freelance While traveling out of town during the winter months, when the temperature is expected to drop, take these precautions to reduce the risk of coming back to burst pipes and a soggy home. • Always keep your thermostat set at 55 degrees or higher. Lowering your heat might save you some pennies on the heating bill, but you could end up paying a much bigger price when you return home. garden writer, master gardener, garden club member and landscape architect who gardens in Zone 7b Athens. How are the plants selected? Plants are chosen by the Georgia Plant Selections Committee, a nonprofi t organization composed of professionals in the horticulture industry. For more information, visit www.georgiagoldmedalplants.org. “One of the most important things every member of your household should know is how to shut off the water main,” Dudan says. “If a pipe bursts, quick action will minimize the damage and prevent wet and flooded crawl spaces and basements from becoming a breeding ground for mold.” Rights of the accused: Confrontation Clause, Compulsory Process Clause BY JIM JESS T he phrase in the Sixth Amendment, “to be confronted with the witnesses against him,” is referred to as the Confrontation Clause. This guarantees the right of the accused to face his or her witnesses in open court and also to cross-examine them to determine the veracity of their testimony. The whole point of this process is to get to the truth. Allowing an accuser to face the defendant requires responsibility on the part of the witness to tell the truth. This right also allows a defendant to defend himself or herself from inaccurate or false charges, if this should be the case. Of course, this does not mean that no one will ever tell a lie on a witness stand. It makes it more 34B diffi cult, however, to speak false- hoods under the glare of a judge, jury, prosecutor and other members of the community, especially if there were other witnesses at the scene of an alleged crime. The Compulsory Process Clause, “to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor,” guarantees the right of a defendant to compel a witness to testify in court. This allows a defendant to present evidence that could lead to his or her acquittal. As with the prosecution’s witnesses, the prosecution has the right to crossexamine the witness to test the integrity of the witness’ statements. There is no perfect justice system on this earth, but the authors of the More online at www.georgiamagazine.org Sixth Amendment sought to shape our justice system with time-honored principles that would establish justice in the United States. The right to confront one’s witnesses and the right to present witnesses on one’s behalf are both procedures that evolved from English common law and were further developed in Colonial America. Today, with all its fl aws, our justice system still works amazingly well to protect our rights and punish the unjust. This is in marked contrast to systems in other nations where basic human rights are ignored, and liberty is but a dream in the minds of the victims. For more Liberty notes, see page 9. GEORGIA MAGAZINE • Drain your water system before you leave town. To drain the system, shut off the main valve and turn on all water fixtures (cold and hot) until the water stops running. When you get home, turn on the main valve and let each fixture run until water comes out and pressure returns. • Second only to hurricanes, frozen and broken water pipes cause more losses—in terms of the number of homes damaged and the total amount of claims paid by insurance companies nationwide—than any other cause. Bonus content GEORGIA GOLD MEDAL PROGRAM http://www.georgiagoldmedalplants.org http://www.georgiamagazine.org

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Georgia Magazine - December 2011

Georgia Magazine - December 2011
Contents
Viewpoint
Mailbox
Georgia News
Picture This?
Calendar of Events
Currents
Magical Nights, Holiday Lights
Between the Covers
Around Georgia
My Georgia
Georgia Cooks
Snapshot

Georgia Magazine - December 2011