The call about a burst water pipe came to Doron Jensen, owner of Jensen's Supper Club in Eagan, from the alarm company about midnight on Saturday, when the temperature was hovering just above zero.

By the time Jensen arrived at the restaurant, just off Hwy. 13 and Silver Bell Road, he found firefighters chopping down the front door with an ax. Thousands of gallons of water were flowing out the door, and the parking lot looked like a skating rink, Jensen said Monday.

The damage from a busted overhead sprinkler at Jensen's has shut the restaurant down, putting 45 employees temporarily out of work and adding to a long list of clients that busy restoration companies are serving after a dangerous cold snap let up over the weekend, leaving frozen and broken pipes behind.

Jensen's was one of numerous commercial and residential properties that have had pipes freeze and break in recent weeks, according to employees of LeMaster Restoration Inc. of Burnsville, a disaster-restoration construction company that specializes in fire and water damage. It wasn't clear how the 2-inch sprinkler line contracted and broke at Jensen's.

An office at Red Pine Elementary School in Eagan was drenched last week when part of an air-intake unit froze and a pipe burst.

And some residents have come home, turned up their heat and realized only then that they had broken pipes. Some people did not turn their heat up enough when they left for vacations and others had pilot lights burn out, leading to frozen pipes, said Bill Moes, a water-damage specialist for LeMaster.

"With the hard freezing, and now the temperature starting to get up 10 or 15 degrees, we're starting to have lots of problems with pipes breaking," Moes said Monday at Jensen's.

The problem could persist as temperatures continue to see-saw; lows are expected in the teens through midweek, but the temperature is expected to drop back near or below zero over the weekend.

Moes' crews at Jensen's were opening up the walls on Monday afternoon, and earlier in the day they had discovered a great deal of standing water under the once-gleaming hardwood floors. Until Monday morning, Jensen's goal had been to get the restaurant open again by Friday.

But the discovery of pooled water could put off the reopening by a couple of weeks, he said.

Jensen will have someone answering the phone until 7:30 p.m. daily to advise patrons checking for updates. He could easily lose six figures in sales if the restaurant has to stay shut down a couple of weeks, Jensen said.

"I've got a longtime tenured staff that makes most of their money from tips," he said. "Even if I pay them for their wages, that's no consolation."

Joy Powell • 612-673-7750