North DeKalb residents will see their water pressure disrupted again at midnight as crews continue to work on repairing a break in a main water line, county spokesman Burke Brennan said Friday.
Brennan put the number of affected residents in the “tens of thousands” but said the county was pushing enough water through the line earlier to ensure residents could drink, cook and bathe during the day.
Work crews will try and repair the leak Saturday at 12 a.m., which will entail cutting back again on the water flow, he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
“The leak is still present and we will be attempting to insert a valve in the fire line today to stop the leak,” Brennan said.
Crews will insert the valve late Friday night in order to minimize water pressure disruption, according to a DeKalb news release.
The DeKalb Emergency Management Agency (DEMA) has been in contact with local hospitals, dialysis centers and nursing homes that may be affected, a Friday night news release said. The fire department has arranged for tanker trucks from other jurisdictions in the event of a fire or to supplement hospitals. The Georgia Emergency Management Agency (GEMA) is aware of the water situation in the event of a long outage.
Channel 2 Action News reported that a contractor hit a fire hydrant, causing the 48-inch main at the intersection of Henderson Mill and Evans roads to burst.
Brennan said crews had to reduce the water pressure to get control of the water gushing from the broken main, but pressure had been restored to most customers by 8 a.m. He said he had no idea about how many gallons of water were spilling each minute from the line
“Once we had control of the line,” he told Channel 2, “we were able to direct the water flow to help minimize property damage.”
There are no “boil water” advisories in effect, he said. The system will have additional testing Saturday to assure the water supply remains safe.
The low pressure issues affected several DeKalb cities from Tucker to Dunwoody, according to Channel 2.
— Reporter Daniel Funke contributed to this article.
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