MEMPHIS, Tenn — While all Memphis Light Gas and Water customers were put under a precautionary boil water notice Friday, Jan. 19, many others are facing a more distressing situation with no water access at all.
That includes the Highland Row apartment complex on the Highland Strip, right next to the University of Memphis.
“As of right now, it seems like there’s no water pressure on any of the sinks,” said tenant Griffin Childers.
Childers said it was Wednesday when they first started losing water pressure.
“It started to kind of slowly drip out of the faucet instead of coming out,” he said. “I noticed it with my shower as well. There was no water coming out. No hot water coming out.”
By Thursday afternoon, almost none of the more than 300 people living there had access to water.
“I couldn't fill up my dog's water bowl because I don't have any more water from the faucet,” Childers said.
In an email to residents, Highland Row management confirmed that all three of their apartment buildings had little to no water service. That included the businesses located underneath the apartment buildings.
MLGW President and CEO Doug McGowen said Friday that they don’t have a current timeline for when all waterlines could be fixed, but suspect it could take days.
“Overnight, we had worked about 700 tickets for either low water, no water or breaks. So that number’s going to continue to go up,” he said.
In a statement to residents, Highland Row management said this is what they were told by MLGW:
"I was told that they (MLGW) are not able to give an ETA at this time, but they have had several main lines break and they have crews out working on them now."
Childers said he is staying with family in Cordova until the water comes back on.
“As of now, there’s no water and no way of knowing when we’re getting water,” he said.
In the meantime, Highland Row management has been distributing as much bottled water as possible, but they said that it is becoming harder to find at area stores.
MLGW and local government agencies are holding another round of water giveaways Saturday from 12 p.m. - 2 p.m. at Shelby County Fire Stations 62 and 66.