Open the drain valve and disconnect the cold-water flexible pipe to the heater.

Steam locomotives typically carried a short length of flexible pipe (called a water-lifter) to refill water tanks from flooded shell holes.

It makes flexible pipes used in the offshore oil and gas industry to connect undersea wells with floating production platforms.

Loops of flexible pipes buried in trenches in the ground outside collect the few degrees of near-constant warmth present in the soil.

When floods strike, though, the houses float up and all the lines for water, gas, electricity and sewage float up with the house through flexible pipes.