The Hamilton County Office of Emergency Management has released a timeline of the water main break that happened late Thursday night.
8:21 AM
A water outage is impacting a large area of Chattanooga.
Last night, Tennessee American Water Company had a scheduled outage and a 36-inch main broke in the Moccasin Bend area.
This is has resulted in the following parts of the city being without water: Moccasin Bend, North Chattanooga and Downtown.
TAWC is working to repair the water main.
There’s no ETA on completion at this time.
The Chattanooga Fire Department and Hamilton County EMA started mobilizing resources after 11 pm last night when they got the call.
All working fires in the impacted areas will have to request tankers from Tri-State Mutual Aid Association. A tanker task force is on standby.
Multiple public safety agencies are at the Hamilton County Emergency Operations Center working together to address issues caused by the outage.
Right now, hospitals, medical facilities and assisted living facilities are officials’ top priority. They are also focused on making sure first responders have what they need, as well as the jail.
They have recommended that schools in the affected areas close.
The Tennessee Emergency Management Agency is providing 500 hundred pallets of water, as well as water buffaloes to help deliver large amounts of drinkable water.
This is going to be very hot day so extra steps will be taken to get water to those who need it.
The Tri-State Mutual Aid Association is gathering resources and agencies to draft water to keep fire hydrants full in those areas.
8:30 AM
TEMA has reported three pallets of water are headed to Erlanger Medical Center.
Hamilton County Maintenance Department is bringing 10 portable toilets to the jail.
8:52 AM
Tennessee American Water Company reporting affected areas everything west of Missionary Ridge: Downtown, East Lake, East Chattanooga, Tiftonia, North Chattanooga, Red Bank and Signal Mountain.
Relocating Tanker Strike Teams to Chattanooga Fire Training Center to stage until needed to respond to a specific location. Teams include: Chattanooga Fire Department, Tri-Community VFD, Highway 58 VFD, Dallas Bay VFD, Sale Creek VFD, Sequoyah VFD, Soddy Daisy FD, Sale Creek VFD and Mowbray VFD.
Tanker Strike Teams on STAND-BY at Chattanooga FD Station 7 at Volkswagon Plant are: Bradley Co. Fire Rescue, McMinn County, Polk County, Meigs County, Catoosa County, Walker County, Dad County and Whitfield County.
8:58 AM
All Hamilton County schools have been closed.
9:55 AM
The Tennessee Department of Agriculture asks any food manufacturers or preparers to suspend their services until hot water can be re-established.
Kurt Stafford, Director of Engineering for Tennessee American Water, says last night, a planned project was happening when crews had an unexpected break on a 36 inch line.
This could be potentially a multi-day event.
They’ve closed a number of valves and crews are making progress.
An estimated 35,000 customers are impacted.
Voluntary conservation measures in place. Residents are asked not to water their lawns for the time being.
Teams are working as quickly and safely as possible to fix the issue.
“Everyone has the same goal here and that’s to bring things back to normalcy as quickly as possible,” said Hamilton County Mayor Jim Coppinger.
11:07 AM
Chattanooga Police Chief David Roddy says law enforcement encourages residents to check on their neighbors.
TVA’s downtown complex closes.
The Chattanooga Fire Department has a contingency plan in place with water tanker shuttles. TVA has supplied a pump for water out of the river.
11:30 AM
Water and portable toilets are headed to the hospitals, thanks to the help of the state.
Water will be delivered to vulnerable populations who can’t go get water.
Crews are working to isolate the water main break so they can start to repair the damage.
Tennessee American Water anticipates 6-8 hours of work once the break is isolated and repairs start.
The earliest anticipation of water being restored is 8 p.m.
More than 150 pallets of water will be dispersed to areas of high need. More will be available.
Officials are also working to procure bulk water tankers.
Sally port of the jail is closed. All local agencies have been notified. Bottled water has been shipped in and portable toilets are being used.
All Hamilton county Schools are being dismissed according to their tier level dismissals.
CFD is working to maintain availability of water.
Tanker strike teams have been deployed to impacted areas. Another strike team is on standby from North Georgia, along with two teams at the state level.
EMS is having crews transport people to outlying areas unless it’s a major medical emergency.
UTC has closed their campus and closed off academic buildings so they can keep residential buildings cool.
Red Cross is on standby. If needed, they will open shelters.
All hospitals are open. Erlanger North is still taking patients in their ER for the time being.
Downtown facilities still have water flowing. They are staging water and portable toilets. Parkridge East is taking medical traffic.
Water distribution sites will be open until 8 p.m. and will re-open at 8 a.m. Saturday. Each family will receive half a pack of water per day.
Vulnerable citizens who are unable to travel to a distribution site can call 311 at 423 643-6311.