DeKalb officials hope the repair of a partially blocked valve has solved the county’s weekend water woes once and for all.
The county reported at about 1:30 p.m. Sunday that it had discovered the blocked valve and fixed it, and that the system was “now fully pressurizing.”
“Hearing reports that our pressure is steadily climbing countywide,” the county tweeted. “Fingers crossed that we are on the up and up from here on out.”
As of about 4:30 p.m., no new issues had been reported, and many residents took to social media to announce they had started regaining water flow.
The fix came nearly 10 hours after officials first began increasing water pressure Sunday, a move made possible by placing a "solid sleeve" over the 48-inch main damaged Thursday near the Tucker intersection of Henderson Mill and Evans roads.
Officials began the slow-and-steady process of restoring water pressure to the main — and the primary affected communities of Decatur, Avondale Estates, Tucker, Druid Hills and Stone Mountain — at about 4 a.m., but many neighborhoods reported little or no water pressure well into the afternoon.
Shortly after 11 a.m., the city of Decatur posted on its website that it “continues to have issues with no water or extremely low water pressure.”
“Avondale Estates and other surrounding areas continue to have the same problem,” the city wrote. “We are in communication with DeKalb County to try and resolve this issue as soon as possible.”
Reports of ongoing outages were also made in the Oakhurst and East Atlanta Village neighborhoods.
Decatur resident Jeff Long told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Sunday morning that he’d been without water for 24 hours. He’s made repeated trips to Kroger for bottled water, he said, while also attempting to make sure elderly neighbors are taken care of.
The county “really got caught with their pants down on this,” Long said.
At about 1:30 p.m., he reported that he had “a trickle” of water at his home. Two hours later, he said he had enough pressure to fill pots for boiling.
The water saga started Thursday, when a county worker hit a fire hydrant near Tucker. Officials thought they had solved the problem Saturday morning, but the patch they installed blew when pressure was restored to the pipe.
The boil water advisory remained in place for all of DeKalb County on Sunday afternoon. Water used for drinking, cooking or preparing baby food should be boiled for at least one minute after reaching a rolling boil.
“Residents served by the DeKalb County Department of Watershed Management should continue to boil water until notified by DeKalb County that the water system has been restored to full operation and the microbiological quality of the water is safe for human use,” officials said in a news release.
Officials also asked residents to limit their water use to “basic needs” until Monday afternoon in order to “help speed the return of the pressure to all areas of the county.”
“Activities such as outdoor watering, car washing, etc. should be delayed until the system is back up,” the county wrote on Facebook. “This would include turning off irrigation systems that are on a timer.”
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