With extreme weather change comes more than just travel and clothing inconveniences. For the Kappa Alpha Theta sorority it meant cleaning up after a water pipe burst Wednesday morning.

Lt. Doug Wierson, of Ames Fire Station 2, 132 Welch Ave., said the station’s firefighters were called at 11:10 a.m. about the pipe break at the sorority house on Knapp Street.

The incident caused little damage to the house.

“Structurally, damage is minimal,” Wierson said. “Things got wet, but [the women] will be moving back [Wednesday] evening, and all the services are back in order.”

Wierson said damages were minimized partly because of the quick and organized response of the women in the house.

“They did themselves good on how they were prepared in dealing with the issues because they had buckets to catch water and dammed things up to get away from [valuable] things,” he said.

Water pipe damages are not uncommon this time of year, Weirson said.

During instances of extreme cold weather such as those seen Tuesday, water in pipes often freezes if appropriate heat in or around the pipes is not present. This freezing can lead to pipe breakage because water expands when it freezes, Then, when temperatures rise, water leakage and flooding can occur within the house, Wierson said.

This was what happened at the Kappa Alpha Theta house – a sprinkler pipe in a cold-air sleeping room burst, said Brian Sorenson, shift captain of the Ames fire department.

Although such incidents are not uncommon during erratic weather spells, Wierson said the incident was isolated.

Jennifer Paulus, Kappa Alpha Theta president and junior in elementary education, would not comment on the incident.