In MD, and it has been pretty cold for a while, and my house heat was set at 66 when sleeping. Water was fine last night and woke up 430am this morning, noticed the water pressure was gone throughout the house. Water meter was not spinning at all, and all faucet felt no pressure when turning on.

Called the county water dept and was told the inlet pipe must be frozen and ask me just to thaw it. The main shut-off valve is in a crawl space that is adjacent to the external wall, so it does get colder than the interior, but I wasn't expecting the below freezing drop. Any way, I checked the tubing but did not find any sign of frost or burst (finger crossed), put a portable heater close to the pipe from ground and left the door open for four hours now. The pipe and water meter (closer to the interior door so should be warmer than the far end) felt not too cold to touch, but still nothing coming to the water meter.

Called county again, and was told I do not have meter outside plus nobody report anything but me from the neighborhood, but when I walked around I did see a blue painted cap on my drive way said "water meter" , seem like the piping from the street goes underneath that to the house? Any possibility that was frozen?

Any other possible causes? Thanks a lot.

 

Water can freeze anywhere it isn't sufficiently protected. Once you are convinced the water line isn't frozen at your house you have to suspect the supply line to the house although normally they are buried deep enough to prevent freezing. Do you have a basement, crawlspace or slab?

It was 1 degree when I got up this morning and we had water, 2 hrs later [after it warmed up close to 10 degrees] our water froze. I thawed it out with a kerosene jobsite heater placed in the crawlspace.... and now our water has went almost out - no pressure

 

With this extreme and very prolonged cold you MUST leave the water trickling especially at night.

Was it a electric or kerosene/propane heater? If it was electric there is no need to leave the crawl space door open. Leaving the door open just makes it harder to thaw pipes. You are letting the heat out and may be letting in more cold than the heater can handle, possibly making the crawl space colder than without the heater.

I just had one of my houses have the supply from the city freeze. Our pipes are only buried 12" deep the meter boxes only have a cast iron lid. The cold has finally soaked deep enough into the ground that the piping in the meter boxes are freezing.

 

I use a kerosene heater in my crawlspace but still shut the crawlspace door - that way the heat doesn't escape. It does allow some fumes into the living space but it's not like you are going to lay down until those fumes dissipate. Just use commonsense!

Just got back from my oldest son's place [same road] We are pretty much convinced it's froze up on the water company's side of the meter. They have a back log thawing out frozen pipes - said it would take close to a week ..... by then we'll have warmer temps and it should fix itself.

 

its a small electric heater, and i followed your suggestion to close the crawl space door. i feel its pretty warm there and its been a day almost warming up, still nothing.

 

if its outside supply line frozen, would a pro plumber be able to do anything, say if its underground...

 

That blue cap in your driveway is just the access cover to the shutoff valve. The valve should be located below the anticipated frost level. My service is 4' deep from the road to the house.

Your water line comes thru the foundation and into your crawlspace ?
How far below ground do you think that is ?
Does the water pipe still feel cold where it enters the crawlspace ?

Be sure to leave something open in the house so that if/when the pipe unthaws.... water can readily flow.

On edit: based on your last post. My uncle would go out with a truck mounted welder and clamp on to the water services at different areas. In order for it to be effective in your case.... the pipe would need to be disconnected from the house so that it was not grounded to the house.