Water Heaters - leaking hot water heater

Hi, my hot water heater bit the bullet today. It leaked all over the place and even into our carpets (that sucks!). The bad thing is we don't have any water because the technician said that the valve above the hot water heater was leaking also, so he had to turn off both hot and cold water. I've been using my shop-vac for the past two hours trying to get up as much water as I can - the darn carpet still feels as wet as when i started!! I started to notice some more water on the concrete near the hot water heater and under the washing machine. I looked around the back of the hot water heater and there appears to still be a drip coming from it. What the heck is that and how do I stop it?? Thank you. I'm a new homeowner and I've had to buy a new furnace, new appliances, and now a new hot water heater.

ddurose, Welcome to the DIY Forums.
If the tech did not drain the heater, there is probably still water leaking out of it. Hook up a garden hose to the drain valve at the bottom of the tank and drain it the rest of the way. Open up a hot water faucet while doing this so it doesn't air-lock. Good luck.

And you will quite likely never get all the water out of your carpet with a shop vac. There is a pad under the carpet that acts like a sponge. Forget about the shop vac and call a carpet cleaner with extraction equipment. They will pull the carpet back, remove the pad and discard it, suck out as much of the water as possible, then put a carpet fan in the room for at least 24 hours, maybe more.

If you don't there is a possibility that you will only create a breeding ground for mold and mildew. Of course, it really depends on how much water got into the carpet in the first place.

As mentioned, it is mandatory to replace the carpet pad. This is not expensive. Get one of the so-called Tornado blowers that discharge a high volume of air through a floor-level volute. You slip the volute UNDER the carpet and let it blow for a day or two.