CHARLESTON, W.Va. — West Virginia American Water Company has double the amount of crews out to address a number of water main breaks in the Kanawha Valley and across the state.
“We’ve actually repaired 101 water main breaks since last Friday,” said Laura Martin, external affairs manager for WVAWC.
Emergency orders have been coming in at about a couple dozen per hour as of Thursday afternoon, Martin said.
“We’re seeing widespread impacts all over our system — the Kanawha Valley area, Huntington, some main breaks in Princeton’s system, but also all across the country,” she said.
Customers in Dunbar were impacted after several water main breaks Wednesday. In Charleston, crews worked to repair at least 86 water main breaks that happened since Christmas.
Martin said they want customers to be patient and realize crews are working in bitterly cold temperatures.
“The conditions are challenging. The conditions are dangerous. Often it takes much longer to repair a water main break when it’s zero degrees out simply because the pumps don’t work the same way, equipment doesn’t work the same way,” she said. “We’re just asking customers for their patience during this time.”
The increased number of water main breaks are entirely due to the single digit and sub zero temperatures the area experienced over the last week, Martin said.