Mayor Dickens declares ‘State of Emergency’

The end of water saga could be near, Atlanta. But there is still work to be done, Mayor Andre Dickens said late Saturday.

More than 24 hours after multiple water main breaks left much of the city without water, officials announced about 7 p.m. Saturday that crews had completed multiple rounds of repairs on the aging pipe at the junction of Joseph E. Boone Boulevard and J.P. Brawley Drive. The system was gradually being brought back online to allow for the rebuilding of system pressures, the city said.

Another major break, at 11th Street and West Peachtree, is still being repaired, Dickens said at a press conference Saturday night. A “State of Emergency” was declared for Atlanta to free up resources to help with the repairs, and the city’s joint operations center was activated.

“We don’t yet have an estimate for the timeline for that work, but they are out there working feverishly to get it done,” Dickens said. “We made great progress today.”

A boil water advisory was still in place while the entire water system was being brought back on, the city said.

The Georgia Environmental Protection Division will advise the city when the boil water advisory can be lifted, the city said. Watershed crews have sampled the water to make sure there is no contamination. Gov. Brian Kemp said that his office “remains in constant contact with city officials and will continue to make state resources available as they are requested.”

Atlanta Watershed said emergency repairs were also completed near 1190 Atlantic Drive in northwest Atlanta, and that water service had been restored to residences, businesses, and hydrants in the area. But at 9 p.m., the department said an 8-inch water main had been turned off to make emergency repairs near 4370 Minkslide Dr. in southwest Atlanta, affecting 35 homes.

Dickens was in Memphis on Friday, when the water woes began, and did not return until Saturday.

He started posting updates nearly 24 hours after many city residents started facing reduced water pressure or no service at all.

Many of his constituents were not happy.

“Where have you been?” one person posted in response.

“This has been a disaster from a leadership standpoint,” another posted. “People understand pipes break but your silence on updating the people is unacceptable. Please do better.”

“Tens of thousands, maybe hundreds of thousands of people in ‘your’ city don’t have water and it takes you almost 30 hours to say something?” a third posted. “Who are you working for again?”

The water system provides water for 1.2 million people, according to its website.

A number of people have said they first learned of Atlanta’s water woes Friday afternoon from performer Megan Thee Stallion, whose State Farm Arena stop was canceled both Friday and Saturday nights.

“Entertainers are doing the work the city should be doing,” said southwest Atlanta resident Amy Barnes. “How hard is it to hire someone to tweet?”

About 2 p.m. Saturday, Dickens made his first public appearance in response to the disaster.

“I want to be candid that overnight we did not do the best job of communicating. We could have done a better job over the past day. And for that, I apologize,” Dickens said during a press conference at the site of one of the main breaks. “We thought we were going to be resolving this. Just to be honest, I thought the solution was closer than it actually was, so the communication didn’t come as fast.”

Dickens vowed updates would come every two hours until all issues were resolved.

Much of Atlanta, including all of downtown, has been without water since Friday afternoon. Department of Watershed Management crews have been working to repair breaks on a 48-inch and 36-inch transmission line below Joseph E. Boone Boulevard.

The department provides water to more than 1.2 million people, the division says on its website under “Fun Facts.”

“We’re working as quickly as we can,” DWM Commissioner Al Wiggins Jr. said earlier Saturday.

As the saga dragged on many Atlantans critiqued what they considered an inadequate communications response. The DWM went more than 10 hours without providing updates and a text notifying residents about a boil water advisory was only sent out around noon, about 22 hours after the advisory had been put into place.

Tourists at downtown hotels were forced to brush their teeth using bottled water upon waking up Saturday. Residents flushed their toilets with water they’d filled their bathtubs with Friday, ahead of widespread outages triggered by the multiple water main breaks.

Jared Winn, a resident at a historic building on Forsyth Street, told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution that he noticed…