Water mains fail, road closures in HC after Tuesday severe thunderstorms

Heavy rains caused storm drains to back up, water mains to fail and road closures throughout Henry County on Tuesday night, May 28.

Mt. Pleasant Municipal Utilities is trying to find an underground leak in the Linden Heights Area. Two water main breaks were reported last night. One was located on South Grand Avenue and Mt. Pleasant Utilities still is trying to locate the other.

Jack Hedgecock, with Mt. Pleasant Municipal Utilities, said they began receiving calls at 7:30 p.m. on Tuesday from residents complaining of low to no water pressure. Once they started investigating, Hedgecock said they began seeing water tower levels drop.

Two crews worked all night trying to find the problems. Hedgecock said that roughly 100 houses in the Linden Heights area were impacted by low water pressure. Water was shut off on Linden Heights as a new 10-inch valve was installed on South Grand Avenue.

'The towers are rebounding and we're out of the danger zone,” Hedgecock said, adding that large-volume water users have been asked to conserve water.

Hedgecock said a boil order may be issued yet today. If a boil order is issued, affected homeowners will be alerted with a note on their doors.

On the electrical side of things, Hedgecock said there were limited power outages Tuesday night and the 'system performed flawlessly.”

The Henry County Roads Department was assessing roads on Wednesday morning, May 29, following the heavy rains and flash flooding of the night before. This morning, roads around Cedar Creek, Crooked Creek and 105th Street in Winfield, Oakland Mills Road, Gibson Park, 260th Street and 275th Street were closed to traffic.

Henry County Engineer Jake Hotchkiss said that road crews are running all over the county trying to quickly get road closed signs put up.

Hotchkiss said as waters begin to recede throughout the day, they are assessing damage to roads.

'We're concerned about pipes washing out,” Hotchkiss said. 'We'll be evaluating bridges and keeping an eye on those as well. There's a lot of (water) pressure out there.”