Atlanta water woes extend into fourth day as city finally cuts off leak gushing into streets

livemint.com:

Atlanta's water problems weren't over Monday. Milena Franco, a resident of the city's Midtown neighborhood, said she and her husband had water all weekend. But Monday morning, the flow was cut off, as Franco discovered when she tried to take a shower.

“I got in the shower and I just cried for a little bit," Franco said. City officials said water was shut down in the immediate neighborhood as part of an effort to stanch the flow from a broken water main that had been gushing a river into the streets since Friday night. The geyser finally ran dry around sunrise Monday, after officials trucked in parts from Alabama under a police escort.

But a large swath of the city remained under an order to boil water before drinking it, even in areas where pressure had been restored after a first mammoth leak was fixed Saturday. The days of outages had some residents frustrated with the pace of repairs, saying the city still isn't doing a good job of providing information. “We are laser-focused on this problem and my administration understands how critical water is for our lifeline in this city," Dickens told reporters at the site of the water main break Monday.

But his news conference ended before reporters could ask all their questions because resident Rhett Scircle was asking the questions residents in nearby buildings wanted to know. “When will the water be back on? Is there any estimated timeline? We live right here!" Scircle yelled at Department of Watershed Management Commissioner Al Wiggins Jr. Wiggins, though, declined to estimate when water would be flowing again, even as backhoes continued digging in a hole behind him.