A boil water notice remains in effect until further notice for the estimated 10,000 customers on the city of Vicksburg’s water system and the Yokena-Jeff Davis Water District, which buys water from the city.

An electrical short in the elevator was the cause of a power outage that shut down the city’s water treatment plant for about three hours Tuesday, Public Works Director Garnet Van Norman said, forcing the city to issue the massive boil water notice.

Customers should vigorously boil drinking and cooking water for at least two minutes before using it or find an alternate source of water.

Alerts telling people about the outage and the boil water notice were sent Tuesday night through the city’s smartphone app and Warren County’s Code Red telephone alert system.

Van Norman said the short “ blew the main electrical system to the plant,” he said. “We’re trying to find out what caused it.”

He said machinery at the plant, which provides water for about 10,000 customers in Vicksburg and the Yoken-Jeff Davis Water District was down from about 4:30 p.m. to about 7:40 p.m., and caused the city’s Porters Chapel and Kuhn water tanks to drain out.

While the shutdown affected the entire city, Van Norman said some areas of the city were affected worse than others. It was the second time in three years a power outage shut the water plant down. In 2013, a transformer blew, shutting off power to the water plant and putting the city and Yokena-Jeff Davis under a boil water notice for four days.

“We had some areas that never lost pressure and others that lost all water pressure,” he said. “We have to find which areas were hit hardest.” He said city officials have notified the Mississippi Department of Health and the boil water notice will be lifted once water tests come back negative.

Warren County Emergency Manager John Elfer said the outage highlights the need for a well-stocked emergency preparedness kit.

“You never know when you’re going to have infrastructure that’s interrupted. You need a kit with good food and water for about three days. This is a good example. It might not be a storm. Yesterday was an electrical outage,” Elfer said.

Locally, restaurants and schools were taking precautions.

Vicksburg Warren School District Superintendent Chad Shealey said school district maintenance workers covered water fountains in the affected schools, and bottled water was also delivered.

“We had cases of bottled water delivered to the schools and we checked with cafeteria managers to make sure we had enough food for three days that could be cooked without using water,” Shealey said. “We’re keeping up with the situation and waiting to hear when the boil water notice is lifted.”

Vicksburg Catholic School will hand out bottled water while the boil water notice is in effect, school officials said.

Porters Chapel Academy Headmaster Pam Wilbanks said the school started preparing Tuesday night to make sure students would have water.

“We went last night and got some, and the cafeteria also got some,” she said. “We have enough for lunch and after recess. Our water pressure is good, so we’re good as far as that goes.”

Highway 61 Coffee Shop owner Daniel Boone said he was closed, adding, “It’s having a profound effect on me. I hope it’s not too long.”

Boone said there were ways he could make coffee, “but it is very complicated to do it and stay within (health department) regulations.”

At Vicksburg’s Chick-fil-A and other restaurants across Vicksburg, fountain drinks were unavailable because of the water use restrictions. Chick-fil-A was only offering tea and lemonade — both made with boiled water — Wednesday morning.

“It affects you a lot because you have to come in and get the water boiled to make tea and lemonade. You also have to boil water to wash dishes and so employees can wash their hands,” said Chenara Sylvester, the operations director for Chick-fil-A.

Other than drinks, no items on the menu were changed Wednesday, Sylvester said.

“We did have to boil water to wash produce,” she said.

YMCA Program Director Allison East said the pool at the Y will remain open.

“We don’t have water for our water fountains,” she said. “We do have distilled water in our restrooms that comes from a tank, so they do have access to water that way.”

Attempts to contact city recreation director Joe Graves were unsuccessful, but South Ward Alderman Willis Thompson, who oversees the recreation department, said the city pool and splash pad are open. He said the pool is operating on a limited schedule.

The director of nursing at Vicksburg Convalescent Center said the center has an emergency plan required by the state, adding emergency water is stored at the site and potable water is avaialble for bathing residents.

“We buy ice to supplement ice from the machines and we have enough to last for several days,” she said.

 

Editor Jan Griffey and reporters John Edwards, Alex Swatson and Austin Vining contributed to this report.