Crews with the City of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management were to work through the night to repair a water main break in Midtown, and a boil water advisory remained “out of an abundance of caution and in accordance with GA EPD guidance.”
More than 24 hours after multiple water main breaks left much of the city without water, officials announced about 7 p.m. Saturday that crews had completed multiple rounds of repairs on the aging pipe at the junction of Joseph E. Boone Boulevard and J.P. Brawley Drive. The system was gradually being brought back online to allow for the rebuilding of system pressures, the city said.
Another major break, at 11th Street and West Peachtree, was still being repaired, Dickens said at a press conference Saturday night. A “State of Emergency” was declared for Atlanta to free up resources to help with the repairs, and the city’s joint operations center was activated.
“We don’t yet have an estimate for the timeline for that work, but they are out there working feverishly to get it done,” Dickens said. “We made great progress today.”
The outage caused significant disruption as much of Atlanta including all of downtown went more than a day either without water at all or with very low pressure.
The Georgia Environmental Protection Division will advise the city when the boil water advisory can be lifted, the city said. Watershed crews have sampled the water to make sure there is no contamination. Gov. Brian Kemp said that his office “remains in constant contact with city officials and will continue to make state resources available as they are requested.”
Atlanta Watershed said emergency repairs were also completed near 1190 Atlantic Drive in northwest Atlanta, and that water service had been restored to residences, businesses, and hydrants in the area. But at 9 p.m., the department said an 8-inch water main had been turned off to make emergency repairs near 4370 Minkslide Dr. in southwest Atlanta, affecting 35 homes.
Dickens was in Memphis on Friday, when the water woes began, and did not return until Saturday.
He started posting updates nearly 24 hours after many city residents started facing reduced water pressure or no service at all.
Many of his constituents were not happy.
“Where have you been?” one person posted in response.
“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.”
“Tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people in ‘your’ city don’t have water and it takes you almost 30 hours to say something?” a third posted. “Who are you working for again?”
The water system provides water for 1.2 million people, according to its website.
A number of people have said they first learned of Atlanta’s water woes Friday afternoon from performer Megan Thee Stallion, whose State Farm Arena stop was canceled both Friday and Saturday nights.
“Entertainers are doing the work the city should be doing,” said southwest Atlanta resident Amy Barnes. “How hard is it to hire someone to tweet?”
About 2 p.m. Saturday, Dickens made his first public appearance in response to the disaster.
“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 during a press conference at the site of one of the main breaks. “We thought we were going to be resolving this. Just to be honest, I thought the solution was closer than it actually was, so the communication didn’t come as fast.”
Dickens vowed updates would come every two hours until all issues were resolved.
Atlanta United’s soccer match against Charlotte FC will be played as scheduled Sunday afternoon at Mercedes-Benz Stadium, the team said on its website. The stadium will have limited food and beverage options due to the boil water advisory.
Much of Atlanta, including all of downtown, has been without water since Friday afternoon. Department of Watershed Management crews have been working to repair breaks on a 48-inch and 36-inch transmission line below Joseph E. Boone Boulevard.
“We’re working as quickly as we can,” DWM Commissioner Al Wiggins Jr. said earlier Saturday.
As the saga dragged on many Atlantans critiqued what they considered an inadequate communications response. 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.
Tourists at downtown hotels were forced to brush their teeth using bottled water upon waking up Saturday. Residents flushed their toilets with water they’d filled their bathtubs with Friday, ahead of widespread outages triggered by the multiple water main breaks.
Jared Winn, a resident at a historic building on Forsyth Street, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that 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 have stocked up on water bottles with uncertainty of when water will return to the area.
In Kirkwood, a neighborhood east of downtown, Jonathan Colbert was pulling 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.
A spokesperson for Grady Memorial Hospital confirmed Saturday that the facility continued to experience low water pressure. Elective procedures remain canceled but the hospital is “fully operational and our emergency room is accepting all patients,” according to a statement.
That was not the case at Emory University Hospital Midtown. A spokesperson for the facility said they have had to move some patients and divert ambulances, with the exception of patients experiencing urgent heart problems. To keep the hospital cool and air conditioning running, 58,000 gallons of water have been brought in via six tanker trucks to use in the hospital’s chillers and cooling towers.
Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport said Saturday evening it has low water pressure in some of its restrooms due to the water issues. It said it “is experiencing minimal impacts to operations” and will monitor the issue.
A geyser of water steadily erupted from below Joseph E. Boone Boulevard near J.P. Brawley Drive for hours, pooling across the entire width of the road. Dickens said the water mains across the city are “very old infrastructure” and he hopes to replace old pipes that may cause issues in the future.
Saturday evening, the city said crews had made “significant progress” in the area.
Wiggins confirmed that the burst line was around 80 years old.
“The age of the pipe caused some decay and corrosion around a fitting,” Wiggins said.
Water to the line has been restored, but in order to not cause further issues or damage to other lines in the system, Wiggins said water pressure has to slowly be returned back to normal.
Credit: Atlanta Department of Watershed Management
Credit: Atlanta Department of Watershed Management
Employees at the Hampton Inn & Suites and the Hyatt Regency in downtown confirmed with the AJC 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 have stopped working. Other accommodations such as refunds, waiving certain fees and helping guests transfer to hotels outside of the affected area are being implemented.
“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 on 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?”
Sarah O’Brien, owner of Little Tart Bakeshop and Big Softie, was forced to close all of her restaurant locations Friday afternoon and several remained shuttered into Saturday. Losing almost two days of revenue “is a disaster for a small business” like O’Brien’s, she explained in a statement. Little Tart Bakeshop in Summerhill and Grant Park reopened Saturday morning.
In Little Five Points, Sevananda Natural Foods Market is taking 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.
Credit: Mirtha Donastorg
Credit: Mirtha Donastorg
On Peachtree and 11th streets in Midtown, crews are working to fix a another water main break. A previous break on Brawley Street has since been repaired and water is slowly is returning to the affected area. Those breaks were not associated with the one in downtown.
Midtown resident Aaron Sentell walked a couple blocks from his home to where a gusher of water created a river flowing down Peachtree Street. Sentell said he still has water at his home, but is using bottled water and trying to conserve. He’s 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
Around noon, the record label behind South Korean boyband P1Harmony announced it would cancel its performance at the Fox Theatre on Saturday due to the water main break. An outcry on social media from fans ensued. All tickets will be refunded, according to a statement from label FNC Entertainment.
The Magnetic Fields show at the Variety Playhouse was postponed until Monday, the venue said. Dad’s Garage Theatre Company and Theatrical Outfit also announced both would be closed due to the water issues.
Dickens acknowledged that the water outages have affected people’s weekend plans, including concerts that were supposed to take place. Megan Thee Stallion was set to perform at State Farm Arena Friday and Saturday, but had to postpone both shows.
”I would love to be able to be in a place where I can say right now, you know, definitively yes or no that the concert will go on, that we will have enough adequate water pressure,” Dickens said. “We can’t give them a definitive timeline on if water is going to be sufficient enough for that concert or for other the events that are taking place in the city.”
The Fulton County Jail has not been without water, a spokeswoman said Saturday morning, but the sheriff’s office is complying with the city’s boil water advisory. Requests for information from the Atlanta City Detention Center and from the Federal Bureau of Prisons, which operates the Federal Corrections Institute Atlanta, were not immediately returned Saturday morning.
Zoo Atlanta closed Friday, but reopened as usual at 9 a.m. Saturday. The zoo advised that water fountains and water refill station will not be available, and some fountain drinks and concessions may not be open.
“As always, Zoo Atlanta has contingency plans in place to ensure that all of the animals have access to water,” a statement online read.
The Georgia Aquarium remained closed Saturday, but confirmed the water outage is not affecting animals.
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, Helena Oliviero, and Kelly Yamanouchi contributed to this article.
