A rupture in Vicksburg’s main water pipe will keep residents without water until late this afternoon, if not longer.

At mid-morning, a truck carrying a replacement section was being given a hero’s welcome – and full police escort – as it arrived from Hattiesburg at the break site near the Port of Vicksburg.

When service is restored, all customers will need to be cautious in their use of water because bacteria and other contaminants may have entered the system while pressure was lost.

At an emergency meeting this morning, Mayor Laurence Leyens said the pipe could be up and running again around 5 p.m., if there are no unexpected problems.

Once the pipe is repaired, a two-hour ramp-up period to repressurize was expected.

&#8220That’s subject to change,” said South Ward Alderman Sid Beauman of the projected repair time.

After the break was found, crews dug throughout the night and &#8220the hole is clean” for the repair job, Beauman said. &#8220They just have to drop it in and weld it.”

Ground movement over time apparently caused the failure of the 36-inch, metal and concrete pipe running from the city’s water plant on Haining Road near the harbor industrial park.

&#8220This is the biggest line in our system,” Leyens said.

Officials discounted any notion that an earthquake in the Gulf of Mexico on Sunday, not felt in Vicksburg, might have played a role.

Vicksburg has approximately 10,000 meter connections, but also sells its supply to several outlying private water districts.

In the county, Culkin – which has its own wells and also draws from city lines – and Yokena-Jeff Davis water districts declared boil water notices until further notice this morning. Fisher Ferry and Hilldale water districts said they have not issued any warnings as of this morning and were continuing service as usual.

Pressure from the released water blew a small crater along the side of the private road running parallel to Haining Road, next to Anderson-Tully Company off North Washington Street.

The 36-inch line is the city’s primary line from the water plant, and splits into two 24-inch lines running in opposite directions at about Jackson Street, Public Works Director Bubba Rainer said. From there, the system further branches out into webs of 18, 10 and 8-inch lines. About 3 million gallons of water run through the station at any one time, he said.

Once the line is repaired, Rainer said all city residents would be under a boil notice water for at least two days. Samples will be drawn from various points in the system and tested for contaminants that might cause people to become ill. Water will be OK for washing and other purposes.

Customers started losing pressure about 5 p.m. Wednesday, and the system was dry within a couple of hours. Before the break was found, 60 or 70 city workers and officials drove around the city for about three hours looking for a large pool of water or other signs of a break before Louie Miller of Riverside Construction spotted the area just below an embankment on the north side of Haining Road.

&#8220I saw the Johnson grass was knocked out there, and I backed up and said, ‘gotcha,’” said Miller, who said he decided to help the search when he heard of the break because his business is located near the plant and he knew the area well. &#8220I knew this had to be a big line, it couldn’t be a small one.”

Vicksburg extracts water from a field of wells in the area of the break. The well water is then transferred to a treatment plant on the harbor for purification. In then goes into the pipe network, which includes a series of elevated tanks to provide pressurized service.

The loss of service was the city’s first public emergency since Hurricane Katrina 54 weeks ago. That storm left most of the county without power, but water service was largely intact.