Atlanta

Boil water advisory lifted after water main break

ATLANTA — A huge water main break near the Georgia Tech campus left streets flooded and thousands of people in City of Atlanta without water Saturday.

The boil water advisory was lifted just after 8 p.m. Sunday.

“Sampling has confirmed there was no contamination of the public water system,” officials said in a statement. “Water may be used for all purposes without boiling.”

Officials said Saturday that the advisory was out of an abundance of caution. The Atlanta Watershed Department is waiting on test results before it lifts the advisory. Results are expected sometime Sunday around 7:30 p.m.

Georgia Tech police reported that the 36-inch water main broke at Ferst Drive and Hemphill Avenue near the university’s manufacturing institute. The break affected people for several miles in every direction.

Atlanta water customers reported widespread outages and low water pressure across the city Saturday afternoon.

Channel 2′s Matt Johnson was at Georgia Tech, where people who live in the area said their water was starting to come back on Saturday evening.

A Watershed representative said that crews are working as fast as they can and realize the number of people affected is larger than a typical water main break.

Even though some people said their water pressure was going back to normal, others said their water is discolored.

“I didn’t realize this was happening, and a little bit later when I saw I was trying to fill up water, it was all brown and muddy,” GA Tech student Sai Pentabadi said. “And then I just went online and saw there’s a boil water advisory.”

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Channel 2 Action News viewers have been calling and sending messages on social media about the outages since noon Saturday.

The reports have been widespread throughout the city.