City officials are facing criticism after hours of little to no communication after numerous water main breaks led to restaurant closures, loss or revenue for business owners and frustration among thousands of residents who could not shower or drink tap water.
Mayor Andre Dickens was not in the city Friday when the line below Joseph E. Boone Boulevard near downtown Atlanta burst. He was in Memphis, but flew back on Saturday after the city faced “setbacks” on repairing a 48-inch and 36-inch transmission line.
“I want to be candid that overnight we did not do the best job of communicating. We could have done a better job over the past day. And for that, I apologize,” Dickens said around 2 p.m. at the site of the break.
Repairs on that break were finalizing Saturday afternoon and authorities said water would still take several hours to be restored to much of Atlanta, including all of downtown. Officials with Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management said during a press conference that crews had to slowly pressurize the system to bring water back to the area.
After hearing that some progress had been made, many across Atlanta were still not happy with what they considered a slow response from city officials. The DWM went more than 10 hours without providing updates and a text notifying residents about a boil water advisory was only sent out around noon, about 22 hours after the advisory had been put into place.
It was only around the time that the line was repaired that Dickens released his first statement on the issue. Countless residents have taken to social media to express frustration regarding Dickens’ delayed response. One X user shared the mayor’s brief statement, responding with, “Guess who’s back.”
“Where were you yesterday? The problem began Friday morning. Why 24 hour delay in response from you?” another X user wrote.
“This has been a disaster from a leadership standpoint,” another posted. “People understand pipes break but your silence on updating the people is unacceptable. Please do better.”
Dickens stressed during a 2 p.m. press conference that updates would be provided every two hours until all issues were resolved. He explained that the water mains across the city are “very old infrastructure” and he hopes to replace old pipes that may cause issues in the future.
Al Wiggins Jr., Commissioner of the DWM, confirmed that the burst line was around 80 years old. It broke due to decay and corrosion around a fitting that was leaking, he added.
Earlier this month Atlanta voters backed the longstanding one-percent sales tax that funds water and sewer projects for another four years. The renewed tax is estimated to collect roughly $1.1 billion over the next four years. It will take effect in October and extend through September 2028.
On Peachtree and 11th streets in Midtown Saturday, crews worked to fix yet another water main break. Midtown resident Aaron Sentell walked a couple of blocks from his home to where a gusher of water created a river flowing down Peachtree Street. Sentell said he still had water at his home, but was using bottled water and trying to conserve. Like many, he was frustrated by the lack of information from the city.
”They put out a statement, but there’s not a lot of guidance,” he said.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Tourists at downtown hotels had to to brush their teeth using bottled water Saturday morning. Residents flushed their toilets with water they’d filled their bathtubs with Friday, ahead of the widespread outages.
Jared Winn, a resident at a historic building on Forsyth Street, said he noticed that water was just barely dripping out of his faucet around noon Friday. By 2 p.m., he and his partner were out the door and on their way to Acworth to stay with a family member.
“I feel bad for a lot of my neighbors who possibly can’t (leave), but yeah, luckily we were able to have somewhere to go for a time,” Winn said.
He described neighbors filling up tubs with water to be able to flush toilets, while others stocked up on water bottles.
In Kirkwood, a neighborhood east of downtown, Jonathan Colbert pulled a wagon filled with nine large bottles of water. When he woke up and saw he still had no running water, he ventured out to a nearby gas station to see what bottles he could find.
”I tried to grab as many as I can because I don’t know how long this is gonna be and then with two small children, I want to make sure that we have adequate water,” he said.
Credit: Mirtha Donastorg
Credit: Mirtha Donastorg
Employees at the Hampton Inn & Suites and the Hyatt Regency in downtown confirmed that they and neighboring hotels remained without water. Bed linens aren’t able to be washed and some air conditioning units that rely on water had stopped working.
“We’re just giving them water bottles just so they can flush the toilet, wash their face, brush their teeth, just do basic things at least,” a front desk employee at the Hampton Inn said.
Tonya Sullivan of Portsmouth, R.I., was in town for an American College Health Association conference that drew people from across the country, but her presentation and the rest of the conference was canceled Saturday. With no water, Sullivan said the Marriott Marquis had shut off air conditioning. Public restrooms that were previously closed reopened Saturday morning, but were not flushable.
Dianne Kincaid of Champaign, IL, attended the same conference. When word of water problems spread, she filled her hotel bathtub with water and used it to flush the toilet and wash her hair. She credits her training as a Boy Scouts leader, which taught her to be prepared.
Owners of Che Butter Jonez in southwest Atlanta, Detric Fox-Quinlan and her husband Malik Rhasaan, closed their eatery Friday around 5:30 p.m. and soon realized they wouldn’t be able to open back up in the morning. Since the restaurant is only open Thursday to Saturday, Fox-Quinlan expects they’ll lose more than $2,000 from the closure. It doesn’t help that Rhasaan was planning to make shrimp and grits, one of their most popular dishes that always brings crowds of customers.
”It’s a loss that you wish you didn’t have to encounter,” Fox-Quinlan said. “Things happen in business, I get it, but like, what is happening, Atlanta?”
Credit: Mirtha Donastorg
Credit: Mirtha Donastorg
In Little Five Points, Sevananda Natural Foods Market took a big financial hit because of the water outage, according to Michelle Taber, the store’s grocery manager. The market has multiple machines that can fill up water containers, but they were out of order.
”People come far away to fill up their water bottles here,” Taber said. “Our ... five gallons got all bought up yesterday and I had a supply to last us through the weekend. A lot of extra cases of water that we had were walking out the door yesterday.”
Carlos Wright was at the store Saturday morning to refill his large water jug but walked out empty handed. The Castleberry Hill resident used the last of his water Friday night trying to clean, wash dishes and flush the toilet. When he woke up this morning and saw he still had no running water, urgency set in.
A spokesperson for Grady Memorial Hospital confirmed Saturday that the facility continued to experience low water pressure. Elective procedures were canceled, but the hospital was fully operational and the emergency room was accepting patients, according to a statement.
The Fulton County Jail had not been without water, a spokeswoman said Saturday morning, but the sheriff’s office is complying with the city’s boil water advisory.
At the Atlanta City Detention Center, which had intermittent low water pressure Friday and Saturday, officials secured several 330-gallon water tanks, according to a spokeswoman. The facility has remained fully functional and has adequate water supplies for essential needs, an email stated
Zoo Atlanta closed Friday, but reopened as usual at 9 a.m. Saturday. The Georgia Aquarium remained closed Saturday, but confirmed the water outage was not affecting animals.
“As always, Zoo Atlanta has contingency plans in place to ensure that all of the animals have access to water,” a statement online read.
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
Credit: HYOSUB SHIN / AJC
— Please return to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution for updates.
Staff writers Olivia Wakim, David Wickert, Matt Kempner, Mirtha Donastorg, Kimberly Johnson and Helena Oliviero contributed to this article.
