
Water service was restored to several major buildings in Atlanta after
corroding pipes burst in downtown and Midtown, forcing many businesses and
attractions to close and affecting water service in area homes, officials
said.
By Sunday morning, crews had completed enough repairs so that
service to Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport was fully
restored, said the Atlanta Department of Watershed Management in a news
release. Service was also restored to the Fulton County Jail and the Atlanta
City Detention Center, as well as "many of Atlanta's critical facilities, and
residents, including several senior high-rise buildings," according to the
department.
Atlanta officials were slowly repressuring the city's
water system earlier this weekend. The city was handing out cases of water and
setting up portable toilets at several fire stations and first responders were
checking high-rise residences to see if the elderly or other vulnerable
residents were OK.
"Water is a valuable, critical resource and
cities can't function and lives can't function without it," Mayor Andre
Dickens said during a news conference Saturday morning. "It's absolutely at
the top of our list."
In a second news conference Saturday evening,
Dickens announced that he had declared a state of emergency over the
situation. The mayor said that while the crews had made significant progress
repairing the first water main break, they were struggling with the second
break in Midtown.
Newsday, Atlanta water system still in repair on Day 5 of outages
The Wombat has Rule 5 Sunday: Pyjamarama up at The Other McCain.