Water main breaks, causing chaos in Atlanta

ATLANTA, Ga. (Atlanta News First) — Multiple water main breaks caused chaos in Atlanta on Saturday.

Atlanta Mayor Andre Dickens declared a state of emergency Saturday and thousands of residents remain under a boil water advisory. Dozens of businesses, bars and restaurants closed due to water outages.

One of the water breaks occurred at the intersection of 11th Street and West Peachtree Street NW, near the Eleventh Street Pub.

The break has been gushing water for over a day.

Tommy Jellison, who works in the restaurant’s kitchen, calls it a disaster.

“No one is doing anything about it,” he said. “Everyone stays there and we lose money.”

On Saturday around 5 p.m., water broke a window of the pub.

He said water seeped into the kitchen, which was located below street level.

“You have all these city employees here and nothing is happening,” Jellison said. “This has been going on for almost 24 hours.”

Antony Ellis lives in a high-rise building in Midtown, where he hasn’t had running water in more than a day.

“We had no drinking water, no cooking, no sanitation,” Ellis said. “It’s just crazy because you don’t expect that in a modern city.”

Just a few hours after coming out of the water, he was forced to brush his teeth with bottled water.

“It’s amazing how quickly you go through this, you don’t realize it until it’s gone,” Ellis said. “I can’t flush the toilet, I can’t take a shower, I can’t boil water to cook.”

With much of Atlanta still without water, Jacob Steinebrey is frustrated with local leaders.

“The lack of communication is really the biggest problem,” Steinebrey said. “If it lasts more than a day, two days, that’s when it will really start to be a problem.”

As of 11 p.m. Saturday night, the Midtown station wagon had not yet been repaired.

Water flowed all day down West Peachtree Street and pooled at the intersection of 14th Street.

The water main break at the intersection of Joseph E. Boone Boulevard NW and James P. Brawley Parkway has been repaired, but there is no timeline for repairing the Midtown break.

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