UPDATE 7:30 P.M. – Water services have been restored for homes and businesses in Temple after crushed underground piping caused an outage lasting nearly 28 hours.
A Temple city spokesperson told 25 News all affected homes and businesses in the area of Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive now have water.
They did not say if the city would issue a boil water notice for those without water since Wednesday afternoon.
Still, for people living in apartments and homes along MLK, the water shortage came without any warning from the city.
"I got up this morning still no water so I called the company and asked them what was going on," said Abby Lott, who said she had to contact the city first to find out what went wrong. "She said they had a water break and had no idea when water would be back on."
City officials said an accident is to blame.
“I want to say first that obviously this wasn’t planned," Allison O'Connor, a spokesperson for Temple, said about the outage. "This wasn’t a planned construction on the pipe itself. This was an accident and we are doing everything we can to fix it as soon as possible.”
O’Connor said a replacement part didn’t make it to the site until late Wednesday, causing a further delay.
25 News spoke with a city official, asking not to be identified, who said the lack of communication isn't surprising.
They said the city has no way to properly alert the public in real time about any water issues or display a map with an outage area like other cities do in the area.
The city did not disclose details about the accident that crushed the water piping and broke the underground valve.
ORIGINAL STORY:
TEMPLE, Texas – Homes and businesses in parts of Temple have been without water services for over 24 hours, but relief is still far from certain.
A Temple city spokesperson told 25 News the disruption started around 3:45 p.m. for services in the area of Martin Luther King, Jr. Drive.
Utility crews worked to figure out what caused the water stoppage and found a leak at Meadow Creek Lane and Case Road.
"They worked throughout the night digging to get to be able to repair it," the spokesperson said.
The city said crews found a crushed pipe and a damaged T valve underground, and workers will need to make repairs including 20 feet worth of pipe.
Several people without water told 25 News the city failed to notify them about the water outage.
The city said it notified crews to begin the work, but individual homes and businesses were not contacted.
The original leak site is disrupting service for the rest of the addresses on MLK Drive, according to the city.
The spokesperson said they have no timeline available about when the repairs will be made to the area.
This is a developing story and will be updated accordingly.
