Louisville mayor works with utility company to restore water in town

LOUISVILLE, Miss. (WCBI) – The City of Louisville is without water for a second day.

Residents all across town lost service around 4:30 yesterday afternoon.

The Louisville Water System is now working to get over 3,500 customers their water.

WCBI talked to the Mayor and the Manager of the city’s utility department to get an update.

The City of Louisville has been without water for over 24 hours and residents are asking when service will be restored.

Louisville Mayor Will Hill said he has been working with Louisville Utilities and assures everyone they are doing their best.

“The priority is to restore water to all and to prioritize health care facilities but so are residents and businesses. The emphasis on one sector is not the case here. It restores the water and restores it as quickly as possible and I can tell you firsthand from my own experience that we’ve been working around the clock,” said Hill.

While there is a limited supply of water available at stores in town, Hill said the goal is to have the faucets running before it becomes urgent.

“Obviously there’s been significant demand-supply issues at the stores and the storefront. We would respond to any significant needs if we are contacted and we have a water tanker truck to be in place for our citizens today. But we also hope to have the system on as soon as possible but we can not declare when,” said Hill.

Hill also asked residents to help the city keep an eye out for leaks and breaks, so they can focus their efforts and speed up the process.

General Manager of Louisville Utilities Wilson Webb said the breakdown didn’t come on all at once.

“We actually started losing water Friday 23. It wasn’t sudden. It was just a slow gradual decline and we looked the last two days for leaks and we found a few. And most of them are on private residences and they are out of town for the holidays and with business, we probably cut off around 20 of those,” said Webb.

And the hard freeze has played a large role in the issues.

“It’s just an extreme weather event and things that came together to make it do what it did so we’ve been working around the clock for the past 24 days, and we are making progress. We are starting to make some pretty good progress, and I hope to have all the lines pressurized by this afternoon, and then we will start working on tanks and stuff,” said Webb.

You can also keep up with the progress of the water on Mayor Hill’s Facebook page.

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