By David Kenney | February 22, 2021 at 6:32 PM CST – Updated February 22 at 6:32 PM
CANTON, Miss. (WLBT) – A week-long Winter Storm caused problems with the water system in the city of Canton.
Widespread water outages were reported during and after the storm.
Canton city officials say they’ve restored their water system with 100 percent pressure.
The cold snap caused numerous waterline breaks across the city.
Howard Young, General Manager of Canton Municipal Utilities said, “Once we got the tanks back up and we had to make sure that we did it slow because if you don’t do it slow then you’re at risk of losing it again. So, as a pressure went up slowly releasing the water to everybody that helped us get things back to normal.”
Mayor Dr. William Truly said, “The entire city was impacted. This is an act of God. This is something we’ve never seen before. People did not have toilet water, personal needs water, drinking water. Folks could not even go to work so there’s the economic loss of income.”
Monday the city held a massive water drive handing out 28 pallets full of cases of water.
Mayor Truly says the age of the city’s infrastructure, was partly to blame for the failure.
“I don’t know who has the oldest aging infrastructure, Jackson or Canton, but we have infrastructure that’s 50 years old and when you freeze those pipes the natural consequence is to rupture. C.M.U. was able to find ruptured pipes and buildings that were not used,” said Mayor Truly.
Residents say it was tough not having water for several days. The city will remain under a boil water notice for at least two days until it’s safe to drink again.
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