A one-vehicle accident in which a pickup truck took out a hydrant on Washington Street in Marion on Tuesday afternoon was still causing headaches for city water crews on into the next day.
The city announced the issue via its Facebook page on Tuesday, citing “major damage to a hydrant and water main resulting in customers experiencing little to no water pressure,” with some citizens already completely without water service as of the announcement Tuesday afternoon.
“Please note our team is working to repair the damage and restore services to customers as soon as possible,” said the announcement, which predicted at the time that the service would be restored to normal by Wednesday. “However, there is currently no reported time frame regarding the repair completion.”
As of press time Wednesday, nearly 24 hours since the announcement was posted, the system was still struggling to keep up with a constant loss of water.
Citing the loss of water service, the Perry County Courthouse announced that it would be closing at 11:00 a.m. on Wednesday. Numerous businesses and residents in and near Marion’s central downtown area reported low or no water service on Wednesday.
The situation is reportedly complicated by the fact that there appears to be no way to cut off the flow of water to the specific area of the system where the leak is located, so the lines continued to flow as crews attempted to repair the leak. All the while, the loss of water, and water pressure, threatened to put more residents out of water service as the day went on.
Marion’s city water employees were reportedly doing all they could as of Wednesday to stop the flow and restore service to the town’s water customers. The city’s Facebook page promised updates as the situation developed, but none had been posted as of press time.
