MEMPHIS, Tennessee — MLGW President Doug McGowen said Tuesday while things are moving in the right direction, it will likely take several more days to get the water system fully back to normal and the boil water advisory in most of Shelby County lifted.
MLGW crews so far fixed 26 broken water mains and repaired another four Tuesday.
McGowen said improvements made in boosting water pressure since the last boil advisory in 2021 made this current situation more manageable.
"We have boosted pressures and increased production dramatically just trying to maintain the pressures we have had here that's something that two years ago we couldn't have without the investments we've made over the last two years here in our water system so as bad as it has been it could have been significantly worse had we not made those investments so people today that have low pressure today may have had no water at all."
Still, that's little consolation to the thousands of customers whose faucets still don't work and bottled water is increasingly hard to find.
"With my bottled water I'm at my last one and at home my water is real low," Veronica Bougard told ABC24.
That's why Bougard showed up first in line at 7:45 Tuesday morning, ahead of MLGW's free bottled water giveaway at 10 in Northaven. She wasn't alone.
"It's hard because I went to a couple of stores yesterday and there was no water on the shelves," Bougard said.
The event offered critical relief for the tens of thousands in Shelby County without any running water - or just a slow drip - for days.
"This actually came in the nick of time, yeah it did," Bougard said.
"Getting thirsty and wondering if I'm going to run out of water or not," Ben Brown added.
Still, both bottled water recipients also called out MLGW's challenged infrastructure, with most of Shelby County under its second boil water advisory in two years.
"It's real frustrating because when you got to wash your dishes, then you have to cook and I mean, it's a hassle, it's rough," Brown added.
"You'd think after the second year that they would have had a better structure of getting everything situated," Bougard added.
Tuesday afternoon - at the Hickory Hill Community Center - Home Depot also provided buckets of water to flush toilets.
This, as the simple conveniences we take for granted aren't as certain right now.
"I thought i was at my grandmother's house and that was not yesterday, that was 50 years ago," Claudine Stansbury said.
The forced flush free water giveaway will continue Wednesday at the Hickory Hill Community Center between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m.