Winter Pipe Breaks Cause Frustration in Atlanta

ATLANTA, Ga. - Frustration mounted Wednesday evening for some Atlanta residents who had been without water for 24 hours. The reason: the bone-chilling temperatures cause broken water pipes. City officials were able to repair the most recent break just before 5 p.m., but they know there will be more to come.

City workers know it’s going to happen—they just don’t know where the pipes will burst around town when the mercury drops. But Buckhead resident Russell Broom said he knows it’s been a bad 24 hours without water after workers were forced to cut it off in his neighborhood due to Wednesday’s break.

Down the block at Paul’s Restaurant, they had all the water they need. They were open all day on Wednesday and they had no issues with the water outage.

The hit-and-miss nature of what happens in the winter in Atlanta makes it even more frustrating. Some said they were forced to hit the gym just to take a shower.

Atlanta water crews have worked more than 20 pipe breaks since last weekend. They say some, like one on Peachtree Hills, take so long to repair because it depends on what workers find when they get to the scene. In that case, over the old, broken pipe was a tree, and it had to be taken down first before work on the pipe itself could begin.

Crews say these breaks are caused by soil, which changes from contracting to expanding in freezing temperatures.

The city is asking for patience during the cold weather, and they say you may see an employee handing out bottled water to help residents get through the annual occurrence.

The Water Department prioritizes which neighborhoods will get their pipes fixed first. Those at the top of the list include a pipe break by a hospital, a break where public safety is a factor, a break where there is a major thoroughfare and flooding that goes into residences. Other than these factors, the number of homes in a given neighborhood also gets priority over a small community.