Auburn Hills — A large water main break continued to cause issues in five Oakland County communities on Monday, shutting down businesses, restaurants and some schools, though regional water authority officials said they’re making progress with repairs.
The break to a 42-inch transmission line in River Woods Park in Auburn Hills prompted nearby communities to declare a state of emergency, school districts to cancel classes Monday, and nursing homes to evacuate.
Gov. Gretchen Whitmer also declared a state of emergency. Speaking at an event Monday in Macomb County, Whitmer said as soon as she and her colleagues heard about the break, they activated the State Emergency Operations Center and declared a state of emergency.
She said that experts are estimating that it will take two weeks for service to be restored in the communities.
“But two weeks is too long for business, for schools and for families to go without water,” Whitmer said. “So there’s a lot of work that needs to be done, but I’m hopeful that GLWA (the Great Lakes Water Authority), Oakland County and contractors can speed up the timeline to restore service. We’re monitoring it and assisting wherever we can to cut that time down. We want to get people restored as quickly as possible.”
The water main break has forced roughly 200,000 residents in Orion Township, Lake Orion, Rochester Hills, Pontiac and Auburn Hills to severely restrict their water use. GLWA is asking that residents only use water for what is “absolutely necessary for hydration and essential sanitary purposes.”
GLWA crews cut through the broken pipe early Monday and removed the damaged pipe. Late Monday morning, the replacement pipe segment was craned into the site, and crews were working to complete the installation process, which was targeted to be finished by Monday night, officials said.
“The next step is for crews to complete the installation of the new pipe segment by welding steel joints to the existing pipe,” GLWA said in a news release. “This is expected to be completed late Monday night.”
Impact on businesses, restaurants
Except for cars passing through, downtown Auburn Hills was largely empty Monday morning. All but a handful of businesses that served food and beverages were closed.
The owners of the Common Roots Cafe in downtown opened their shop from 10 a.m.-1 p.m. Monday with a limited menu.
“Yesterday was going to be one of our busiest days — Mother’s Day, obviously. But around 9:30 or so, they came in and said, ‘Hey, you’ve got to shut down,'” said co-owner Kal Hakkani.
Co-owner Ramzi Chakra estimated Common Roots will lose $2,000-$5,000 each day of the water emergency.
But while they’re under the emergency, Hakkani and Chakra are distributing water bottles to members of the community.
“We could sell these bottles for $4 apiece, and people would probably end up buying them. I’d rather give them away. Come in, grab them, take them,” Chakra said.
Like in Auburn Hills, Lake Orion’s downtown was mostly empty Monday.
Janice Snarski, who works at Wonder Cleaners and Laundry in Lake Orion, said she thought they were going to stay open until the fire department put a notice on their front door about the water situation.
“My owner asked them, ‘Can we stay open so that people can dry and drop off clothes?’” said Snarski. “We still have people dropping off clothes, but we take them to Clarkston.”
Snarski, who works from 8 a.m.-2 p.m. at the laundromat, said she usually sees 50 people during her shift. With only 30 minutes left on her shift Monday, she had only seen one.
“I’ve already had to turn down four customers because they wanted to do laundry and couldn’t, and they didn’t want to leave it,” she said.
The work underway
GLWA said its crews and emergency contractors have removed the water from the break site and excavated down to the broken 42-inch transmission line. Workers were installing safety measures and expected to remove the damaged section of pipe late Sunday, officials said.
On Monday, Chris Barnett, Orion Township’s supervisor, said GLWA representatives told him and other community officials that crews were making great progress at the break site.
He also said that he has visited the site and planned to visit again on Monday.
“I would just ask our residents to let’s let the experts do what they do,” the supervisor said. “We’re doing the fix the right way the first time. In the meantime, our workarounds are working. We’re not gaining ground yet, and we’re certainly not out of the woods.”
Barnett said the township was placed under a boil water alert on Sunday, and it remains in place. He explained the alert is necessary because the township was getting emergency water from pipes under the city of Pontiac, which it has never done before.
He said the township would continue moving senior citizens from its assisted and long-term care facilities to other locations on Monday. Staff will also deliver water to those who need it and are homebound, Barnett said.
GLWA officials said they expect to have a new section of the pipe installed by the end of Tuesday.
Ken Dawley, who lives in Orion Township, said he dodged the water emergency because his home uses well water. But his son, who lives in Auburn Hills, wasn’t so lucky.
“He’s been affected, so he took some water home from our place yesterday when he was over,” said Dawley, 74, who walked his dog through downtown Lake Orion on Monday afternoon.
Water available in impacted communities
Meanwhile, GLWA deployed three trucks with water to three locations in the affected communities.
GLWA began distributing water to residents Sunday at Auburn Hills’ department of public works headquarters. By Monday afternoon, they had distributed more than 5,000 gallon-sized bags of water, according to Kristofferson Fagan, a GLWA management professional for water operations.
“The community has welcomed us here. They’re pretty much happy with the service that we’ve offered,” said Fagan.
Fagan said GLWA will be at the public works headquarters daily from 8 a.m.-7 p.m. “as long as the community requests our presence.”
Barnett said Monday that the township had five semi trucks with water arriving later in the day.
Also on Monday, drug store giant Walgreens said it was increasing the inventory of bottled water and gallons of water to ensure accessibility at all of its stores in the area to support communities affected by the water main break.
Company officials said all Walgreens stores in the area would have additional stocks of water available by noon.
How the break happened
Water authority officials said the break happened at about 1:30 a.m. on Sunday in the system’s transmission main underneath River Woods Park in Auburn Hills.
However, Orion Township officials declared a state of emergency the day before as a precaution. They said that the water authority advised them that the leak remained stable and residents could continue using water as normal.
GLWA said that its crews were working diligently with the communities to reroute water to avoid water restrictions. But “despite our best efforts, the water main broke before the rerouting could be completed,” it said.
Suzanne Coffey, CEO of the Great Lakes Water Authority, said it will be at least two weeks until the water main is fixed.
cramirez@detroitnews.com
@CharlesERamirez
This article originally appeared on The Detroit News: Two Oakland Co. downtowns mostly empty as water main break fix advances
Reporting by Charles E. Ramirez and Max Bryan, The Detroit News / The Detroit News
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
