Atlanta water outage: Residents blast city response as crews work on repairs - The Atlanta Journal Constitution

Atlanta water outage: Residents blast city response as crews work on repairs

The day after numerous water main breaks left much of Atlanta without water, Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens took to social media to provide updates - and came in for a swift drubbing.

“Where have you been?” one person posted.

“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 mayor didn’t return calls or text messages The Atlanta Journal-Constitution started placing Saturday morning, when many residents woke up to another day without water.

“We apologize for the disruption over the past day & assure you we will have updates as they become available,” he wrote in a social media post.

The— Andre Dickens (@andreforatlanta)
@CityofAtlanta and @ATLWatershed teams are working hard and nonstop to repair the water main breaks impacting you. We apologize for the disruption over the past day & assure you we will have updates as they become available. pic.twitter.com/Ef42fBqRMM June 1, 2024

Officials with Atlanta’s Department of Watershed Management said during a Saturday news conference that crews were slowly pressurizing the system to bring water back to the area. Since 5 p.m. Friday, crews had been working to repair breaks on a 48-inch and 36-inch transmission line below Joseph E. Boone Boulevard.

Much of Atlanta, including all of downtown, has been without water since Friday afternoon after crews began work to repair breaks to the line “that carries large volumes of water to the metropolitan area,” the DWM said. Al Wiggins Jr., Commissioner of the DWM, was not able to say when exactly water would be restored but said he is hopeful it will return to homes, businesses and hotels at least by the end of the day.

“If you’re experiencing a disruption in water service right now, again, we’re working as quickly as we can,” Wiggins stated.

Even with the partial good news, many Atlantans critiques what they considered an inadequate communications response from the city. 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 11:20 a.m., near the time when the line was fixed, that Dickens first posted about the issue.

“Guess who’s back,” someone posted in response.

.— Jozsef Papp (@JozsefPapp_)
@CityofAtlanta also posted a press release on Instagram about the water situation. No idea why it hasn’t been posted on other social media platforms. pic.twitter.com/CDP4B78nA1 June 1, 2024

Tourists at downtown hotels were still forced to brush their teeth using bottled water upon waking up. Residents flushed their toilets with water they’d filled their bathtubs with Friday, ahead of widespread outages triggered by 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.

Credit: Mirtha Donastorg

In Adair Park, which is just south of downtown, some members of the neighborhood board got up early and began handing out water bottles to those affected in the area.

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. Wiggins explained that the break was due to decay that caused the line to leak.

“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.

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.
Downtown Atlanta water outage: A history of past water break emergencies

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.
Water remains out in much of Atlanta after multiple water main breaks

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

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

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 news come after a Megan Thee Stallion concert was canceled at State Farm Arena on Friday.

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.

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 will remain closed Saturday, but confirmed the water outage is not affecting animals.

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.

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