Water was safely pulsing through pipes in a busy central DeKalb County corridor by Monday afternoon, though some who make their living in the area are still dealing with the fallout of being dry for almost 48 hours dry last week.
County crews fixed the ruptured joint on 30-inch water main on Clairmont Road by lunchtime Monday, without needing to again shut off service. The order to boil water in the area also was lifted Monday afternoon, after county crews allowed water to flow for everything but drinking over the weekend. Still, some businsses were trying to catch up from what they lost.
“I did half of the business I was down for,” said Mike Gattone, general manager of the Holiday Inn Express whose driveway is just feet from the giant hole dug to make the repairs. “Guests can be understanding and patient, but they want to take a shower and have their morning coffee. Who can blame them?”
When the water began rushing down one of central DeKalb County’s main roads Wednesday afternoon, it seemed more a traffic headache for rush hour than anything else.
Those who live and work in the area knew the back ways to bypass blocked roads and still hop on or off nearby I-85. The busy Century Center office park, for instance, has a back way to an access road right onto the interstate.
Denise McCluskey was grateful she knew the route when threaded out of the 282-room Marriott in the office park Thursday afternoon, almost 24 hours without water in their room.
She and husband, Jerry, had to check out of the hotel and head back to their Cartersville home. Jerry couldn’t get his planned cancer treatment at the nearby VA center without a full-service room waiting for his return.
“It’s kind of hard when you can’t go to the bathroom,” Denise McCluskey said Monday, when the couple had returned upon learning the water was back on. “It was a sight, just disruptive in every way.”
Jerry McCluskey was more matter-of-fact. “It really wasn’t that bad, because we could leave.”
Crews couldn’t. They expected the more typical 24-hour return to service, especially when they dug out the problem and saw that the water main, built in sections in 1941 and 1963, was fine. All that needed to be replaced was the burst joint.
But when the county shut off nearby valves to dry out the main, so it could be properly heated for the new joint, more leaks sprung. It took another day of testing all 18 valves to find three feeder pipes that needed their own repairs before the larger problem could be addressed, said county spokesman Burke Brennan.
By that time, the county set up a pumper to handle the leaking water so service could be restored for the weekend.
“You can’t go home and not have water,” Brennan said. “That’s frustrating to the community, to the businesses and to us. We did everything we could, as quickly as we could, to address it.”
Still, the delay created a virtual ghost town in an area typically busy with restaurants, shops and offices. Bench Warmers Sports Grill, for instance, lost out on the first NFL game of the season by being forced to shut down Thursday night with no water.
Some office workers, who did not want to give their names, talked of being forced to leave work early, time that must be made up this week.
The loss of service stilled the fountains in the sparking pool at the 355-unit Gable Century Center on some of the hottest days of the year.
Jason Johnson, an account manager who lives in the complex, was among many residents who said they stayed with family or friends when the water was cut.
But now they must deal with the ongoing traffic jam. Clairmont Road, already clogged much of the day, will remain down to one lane in each direction for at least another day to allow for a repaving of the burst area.
“The traffic that built up is a pain,” Johnson said. “It’s just the inconvenience of it all.”
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