MEMPHIS, Tenn — On Saturday afternoon, president of the Memphis area's energy supplier Doug McGowen shed light on what’s going on with the low-to-no-water situation across the Bluff City.
McGowen told reporters a major factor at new developments with no water is that there is a break somewhere in the water line between the water pumping site and the development site. No matter if it’s a new home, business or apartment complex, the infrastructure it’s attached to can be a problem when there are several water main breaks across the city.
MLGW president McGowen said there are about 15% of customers with low to no water.
“Out of 255 thousand customers — doing the math on that, it’s just a couple of percent that don’t have water,” McGowen said.
Still, 15% of 255,000 is more than 38,000 customers left with little to no running water.
It’s also arguably important to mention, one customer could be as small as a one to four person household or as large as a fully functioning business.
Shelby County Emergency Services is providing water to residents. As of Saturday afternoon, each vehicle at a Shelby County water distribution site can get two cases of 24 packs of water, that’s about three gallons of water per car.
“It’s very frustrating — yeah, we need water to take our medication,” Memphian Chrise Miller said. “We need water to cook with and water just to cook period.”
“There’s about a gallon of water per day for individuals is what we recommend for individuals who are drinking,” McGowen said.
McGowen said he encouraged Memphians to prepare for the storm.
“That’s why we asked folks to put some water in the tub or in a large container for flushing in case you got into a no water situation,” McGowen said.
Some Memphians say they are hoping MLGW will prepare better next time.
“They need to get it together — as simple as that — they need to get it together,” Miller said.
MLGW took to social media stating they expect to lift the boil water advisory at some point next week. They said once temperatures are above freezing — at some point on Sunday — customers should cease dripping their faucets.
