Thousands of Waterbury residents could soon have water restored
Officials said at least at some point, 100% of the city lost water.
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Thousands of people in Waterbury remained without water throughout the day Monday after a water main broke on Thomaston Avenue Wednesday, leading the whole system to lose pressure late Friday night.
"This sort of a catastrophic problem is just because it was a conjunction of all these pipes in one spot. It's like one in a million," said Waterbury Mayor Paul Pernerewski.
Officials said at least at some point, 100% of the city lost water.
"This is the one point in the city that would kill the city," added Waterbury's Water Superintendent Brad Malay.
Officials said 60% of the city was without water as of Monday afternoon.
"We caught a break with the snow - at least you go out, get snow, use that," said Bill Paternoste, a driver, who was on a line of cars picking up water bottles at a distribution outside Crosby High School.
Bottles were also being handed out at Municipal Stadium, while residents without a car could call 311 to find ways to get bottles delivered.
"My son's only 6 years old and he's crying because poop and pee can't go down the toilet, and he doesn't understand it," said Semi Maldonado, who was also picking up water.
City officials say crews were able to build a temporary bypass and divert the water flow around the break, which they said could get it back up and running for everyone at some point Monday night.
"It is going to be discolored," said Pernerewski. "It's going to have a lot of sediment as it starts flowing through the pipes, so you're going to need to let that run until clear clears out."
While people will be able to flush their toilets, the water still will not be drinkable, and the entire city would still be under a water advisory.
Officials said in the best-case scenario, the water would be cleared up enough to send for testing Tuesday morning, with results coming back 24 hours after that.
"You can only plan so much, but it's nothing you think of - it's all of a sudden boom - you're in this situation," Paternoste said.
Restaurants are also being impacted. According to Waterbury Director of Public Health Aisling McGuckin, when there is a boil water advisory, any place not selling pre-packaged food needs to be closed, unless it finds a way to get clean water from a separate source.
"Those that are currently operating are not following the guidance of the health department," McGuckin said. "We'll be issuing violation orders for anyone that's continuing to operate."
The city says it will continue distributing water at both locations again on Tuesday, while schools will also be closed again.
Officials say the issue is that many of the buildings have boilers powered by steam, and they need to make sure those are up and running.
After that, officials also said schools could reopen even if the water still is not cleared for drinking, which would be a separate issue for the superintendents and cafeterias to deal with.
