The city of Jackson, Mississippi, was without a reliable water supply Monday after rainfall and flooding pushed the Pearl River to dangerous levels, officials said.
Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba on Monday evening declared a water system emergency due to complications from the Pearl River flooding. He said issues at the O.B. Curtis Water Plant resulted in low or no water pressure for many residents.
“The water shortage is likely to last the next couple of days,” the city said in a statement.
Jackson, the state’s capital and largest city, had water problems even before the rainfall that prompted fears of floods from the Pearl River.
The city has been under a boil-water notice since July because tests found a cloudy quality to city-supplied water that could hinder the disinfection process and lead to illness.
Gov. Tate Reeves in a news conference Monday night said that the city’s water system was unable to produce enough water.
“Until it is fixed, it means we do not have reliable running water at scale,” Reeves said. “It means the city cannot produce enough water to fight fires, to reliably flush toilets and to meet other critical needs.”
Aug. 29, 202202:30
Flooding in Jackson, a city of around 153,000, was less severe than had been feared after the state received record rainfall, officials said.
The Pearl River was forecast to remain at a little over 35 feet but begin a slow decrease Monday night, the National Weather Service said.
“The good news is, is that the water levels came in lower than projected,” Lumumba said at a briefing earlier Monday, adding that at that time it was believed that water had entered only one home.
But river water coming into what he said was an already “very fragile water treatment facility” meant it needed to be treated differently and resulted in a reduction in water going out into the system, he said.
“This is a city-wide challenge that they are working to recover from,” Lumumba said.
Reeves said there would be state emergency declarations as well as the city’s.
The Mississippi Emergency Management Agency would distribute water to residents, and the state would also be in charge of an effort to start emergency repairs and maintenance to get the water flowing again, Reeves said.
“The water is not safe to drink, I’d even say it’s not safe to brush your teeth with — because we are not seeing adequate chlorination and an inability to consistently disinfect the water,” Mississippi State Health Officer Daniel Edney said at a news conference.
Residents should fully boil water for at least three minutes, he said.
Reeves said that the city’s main water treatment facility had been “operating with zero redundancies” or backup systems, and that its main pumps had recently been damaged.
Jackson Public Schools said all classes would shift to virtual learning, and that there would be no in-person instruction, starting Tuesday due to the water shortage.
The Associated Press contributed.
Source: | This article originally belongs to Nbcnews.com
