Water service returns to most of Clayton County
Water returns for thousands of customers in metro Atlanta
For nearly a week now, Clayton County has been under a state of emergency due to widespread water outages brought on by the freezing winter weather. But faucets began flowing for neighbors on Thursday. County officials say the hardest hit areas by the outages were Forest Park, Hampton, Riverdale and College Park. The news was a relief to so many residents, who have been without water since Christmas.
CLAYTON COUNTY, Ga. - The water, for the most part, is flowing again in Clayton County. This after punishing cold caused pipes and water mains all around metro Atlanta to rupture. Thousands of customers struggled with running water in their homes since Christmas.
A lot of people in Clayton County are aggravated. They have had to live with little or no running water for days. Folks at the Village on Riverwalk apartments go their water back on Thursday afternoon.
Justin Young says it is on, but flowing a little slower than normal at his home. Young had no service at his College Park apartment since Christmas.
"I had to get a hotel for me and my wife and my daughter," Young said.
Young is one of about 6,000 customers around Clayton County forced to live without running water or low pressure in their homes since the weekend.
"There’s multiple people in these apartments having this problem who weren’t fortunate enough to have money to go get a hotel room like me," Young said.
The punishing cold ruptured pipes shutting off water for homes, businesses, and even government buildings.
Workers at Clayton County Water Plant on Thursday handed out cases of bottled water to help people still struggling.
"When is it going to come back?" Niyoka Dennis asks, echoing thousands of residents this week.
Dennis lives with four other people, including her kids.
"The pressure is low, so it’s taking a while for the water to load up and that’s a lot," Dennis said.
She says the water is back on at her home, but barely.
"It’s just low, low pressure," Dennis said. "They ain’t going to take anything off the water bill. But what can we do?"
The water authority earlier said there were still several apartment complexes and mobile home parks with low pressure or no service. They say the problem was on private property, not the county’s side.
The county still urges residents to boil the water.
They will be giving out water at their facility Friday at 8890 Roberts Road in Jonesboro.