It's a problem that is frustrating homeowners and making life difficult for many throughout the region. Service lines are freezing and water mains are breaking, leaving many without running water. Reporter Emily Lorsch spoke with a resident who has been dealing with this struggle for about a week and explains what the city is doing about it.

BINGHAMTON, N.Y. -- "Very disturbing. My wife gets nervous, I get upset, we can't take showers, we have to run to my son's to take showers in the cold, and we just are really upset over everything," said Binghamton resident Peter Basti.

That's what it has been like for him and his family. He lives in one of about 65 homes throughout the city without running water.

"We've been battling this condition this year for almost a month now so there's people who have been without water for seven days or more. This is an unusual year. We've never had the frost this deep this long," said Binghamton Water and Sewer Superintendent Joe Yannuzzi.

Basti's house is not the only one on St. Claire Avenue without water. The whole water main broke leaving several residents high and dry.

"They had a break last night until 9:30, they fixed that. And they're currently fixing another break. All we're in is a waiting game right now," added Basti.

The problem on St. Claire Avenue is that the water main wasn't put deep enough into the ground, according to Yannuzzi. "The mayor's very positive and he wants to get something done so we have that on the plan to tear that whole main out and re-do the whole street."

But for now, the priority is to just get running water. "We have a crew out there now and we just want to get them water now so they can get through until the spring," Yannuzzi added.

The city is also providing these residents with bottled water. "But that doesn't help with showers and washing dishes, and washing clothes," said Basti.

This district's councilman, John Matzo, said some residents are staying with family and others have gone to hotels. He believes the city council should consider hotel costs in the future budget. "I will bring that up and I did talk with other council people about this and maybe that's something we might have to look into in case something like this does happen again," Matzo added.

Yannuzzi said it certainly could. "It's not going to get any better because the weather is not going to get warmer for at least another two months."

He said homeowners should frequently run their cold water because the more of a flow you keep, the less the chance of your pipes freezing.