A cold snap blanketing the Deep South has upended water systems as local officials struggle to repair widespread leaks and broken pipes, forcing some people to take drastic measures to get by without reliable access to running water. Breakdowns in infrastructure arose in rapid succession after days of freezing temperatures in areas where extended periods of frigid weather are abnormal. The water woes are acute in places like Jackson, Mississippi, where the water system partially collapsed in late August and has had repeated weather-related breakdowns. Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba declared a local state of emergency Monday evening as its troubled water system failed to produce adequate pressure because of broken and leaking pipes. Crews have spent days working to identify leaks, but city officials said pressure remains low or nonexistent. Tekemia Bennett said she hasn’t had any water since Friday. She and her four children woke up with no water on Christmas day. “Christmas was very much like the Grinch came and stole it. I could not cook for my children. It was more like we were in survival mode,” Bennett said. “My kids were opening up their gift, but we don’t even have water. I couldn’t even make Christmas dinner.” People flocked to water distribution sites set up by the city, but the lines were “as long as the eye could see,” Bennett said. She got on line two days in a row before eventually giving up. Flushing a toilet without any pressure requires large quantities of water, a hot commodity in Jackson. So she began to cover her toilet bowl with plastics bags and trash can liners. “We are actually defecating in bags and tying them up and throwing them in the trash,” Bennett said. Throughout the Deep South, hundreds of leaks from broken pipes were draining water towers faster than treatment plants could replenish them. Selma, Alabama, was in the third day of trying to find leaks and started Monday to shut down major lines and interrupting service to try to isolate where the biggest leaks were happening, Mayor James Perkins Jr. said in a statement. Water crews in Florence, South Carolina, finally succeeded Tuesday to get the water pressure back up after having to follow just about every water line in the city to find a large, but hidden leak, officials said. Widespread water problems also continued in Georgia. Officials on Monday began distributing water in Clayton County, a suburb just south of Atlanta, after burst pipes caused many customers to lose water on Sunday. “It’s not a great feeling, and we are sad because on Christmas, I woke up to make tamales and realized we had no water,” Maria Landeros, a 30-year-resident of Forest Park, told WXIA-TV in Spanish. “This made me cry because I wanted to cook that for my family. Now we’re worried because we don’t know when the water might come back.” Cars lined up around the corner of the Forest Park police station as city officials gave out 200 cases of water over three hours. “We’re here to use the water for the most basic needs — for the bathroom. We can hold off on showering, but we want to use the water for the rest. I feel like we went back to 50 or 60 years ago with this […]

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