Water issues, travel woes linger with frigid metro Atlanta weather

Editor’s note: This story has been updated throughout the day Monday.

Freezing temperatures Monday from a prolonged arctic blast caused major problems with metro Atlanta water systems and holiday travel as forecasters predicted the potential for overnight snow showers.

Gov. Brian Kemp extended the state of emergency on Monday an additional day ahead of what forecasters said could be overnight flurries or a dusting of snow over a broad swath of North Georgia. The order is set to expire on Tuesday at 11:59 p.m. Georgia Department of Transportation said crews will be monitoring throughout Monday night and Tuesday morning and will be prepared to treat roads as needed.

Metro motorists can also expect the holiday work week to be busy on the roadways, as record numbers of Georgians are expected to hit the roads for Christmas and year-end holidays, according to a AAA forecast.

Across the United States, the winter storm had killed at least 49 people as of early Monday afternoon and is expected to claim more lives after trapping some residents inside houses with heaping snow drifts in addition to ongoing power outages.

Clayton, Forsyth, Haralson and Monroe counties issued or extended boil water advisories into Monday. The situation prompted Clayton officials to coordinate the distribution of bottled water for customers without service Monday afternoon.

ExploreArctic blast triggers boil water advisories for metro Atlanta counties

Clayton County Water Authority General Manager H. Bernard said there are warehouses, businesses, schools and churches that have been closed due to the holiday and have broken pipes that have gone unreported.

“This results in major water loss for our system. If anyone owns or maintains a property that has been closed, we ask that they go to that property and check to make sure they do not have any broken pipes,” Frank said.

The city of Atlanta Department of Watershed Management said Monday it was investigating an interruption in water service and low water pressure in the South Fulton area, as crews were also working multiple water main breaks across the city.

Fulton County libraries, senior centers, arts centers, behavioral health offices, and facilities serving adults with developmental disabilities will be closed Tuesday due to some facilities experiencing damage from frozen water pipes Fulton officials said further information about reopening would be released Tuesday.

In DeKalb County, water damage will close certain offices within the county’s courthouse through Jan. 3, while the Vinings Library Branch in Cobb County will remain closed after frigid temperatures caused a sprinkler line to burst.

Multiple residents of DeKalb County told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution they were having water service issues but had received no response from the county’s water department as of late Monday afternoon.

Late Monday, a DeKalb resident forwarded to the AJC an email from DeKalb watershed stating that crews have been repairing a water main break near Peachtree Industrial Boulevard and Miller Road since Monday afternoon. The water main repair is affecting most of central and south DeKalb County and no time frame has been given for repairs to be completed. About 8 p.m., DeKalb officials announced they were repairing a second water main break on Roland Road and a third one at I-85 and Shallowford Road.

Water issues even extended to Hartfield-Jackson International Airport, where a water pipe burst on Concourse E on Sunday, which forced a gate to temporarily shut down. Water pressure issues Monday resulted in some concessions being impacted.

Police across metro Atlanta have asked residents not to call 911 with water related issues after systems were overwhelmed. Water systems throughout the South, including Jackson, Mississippi, have experienced water issues as well, the Associated Press reported.

Christmas Eve brought the coldest weather in nearly a decade to metro Atlanta with temperatures dropping to the single digits. Temperatures remained below freezing on Christmas Day but, by Monday afternoon, temperatures rose into the 40s. Channel 2 Action News meteorologist Eboni Deon said snow could make it to parts of North Georgia and metro Atlanta by Monday night into Tuesday morning.

Deon said the snow flurries are expected north of I-20 but not enough to accumulate. Lows were expected in the 20s.

The city of Atlanta and DeKalb County each said they planned to operate warming centers through Wednesday morning.

The weather is expected to warm up the rest of the week bringing warmer temperatures on New Year’s weekend with a high above 60 degrees forecast for Saturday. Though showers could dampen the welcome to 2023.

ExploreHundreds of flights canceled, delayed at Atlanta airport

The bitter cold wreaked havoc on travel schedules over the weekend and left thousands of Georgians without power.

On Saturday, nearly 200,000 flights were delayed and 3,500 were outright canceled nationwide, according to FlightAware. Sunday saw more than 4,900 flights cancelled. At least 17,000 flights were delayed and nearly 5,600 flights were cancelled nationwide by 2 p.m. Monday, according to FlightAware.

Operations at Hartsfield-Jackson were improved on Monday but still caused headaches. More than 200 flights departing or arriving at Hartfield-Jackson were canceled by Monday afternoon, an improvement over the close to 300 flights canceled on Sunday.

Credit: Steve Schaefer

Credit: Steve Schaefer

Delta Air Lines, the No. 1 carrier out of Atlanta, said some cancellations are a result of damage to airport infrastructure, frozen equipment and continued restrictions in airports across the country.

Southwest Airlines spokesman Chris Perry said the airline, Atlanta’s No. 2 carrier, said the airline is trying to re-accommodate as many customers as possible, based on available space. According to FlightAware, nearly 2,700 Southwest Airlines flights, or two-thirds of its schedule, had been canceled as of Monday at 4 p.m. That was about 10 times more canceled flights as any other major U.S. carrier.

Airports in Baltimore, Houston and Denver were harder hit than Atlanta by the Southwest disruptions.

Air traffic is expected to pick up again Tuesday as travelers return home from holiday trips.

TSA security wait times at the airport were between 10 to 20 minutes around 6 p.m. on Monday. Travelers are still encouraged to arrive at least two hours early.

The worst of the state’s power struggles also appear to be over. Only sporadic outages remained Monday for customers of Georgia Power and the state’s electric cooperatives.

-Staff writer Dylan Jackson contributed to this report.