BY ROGER SMITH
MOUNTAIN CITIZEN
INEZ — Martin County residents have been grappling with water outages since Saturday, with the situation escalating due to freezing temperatures affecting the water supply.
Outages began Saturday evening, followed by an emergency alert from the Martin County Water District at 4:25 p.m. The alert stated an 8-inch main line break along Route 40, known as Blacklog Road, would result in outages and low pressure. MCWD confirmed that workers would valve off sections of Route 40 from Giovanni’s restaurant to Buck Creek Mountain, affecting communities on Wolf Creek, Pigeon Roost and Meathouse Roads.
Customers at the head of Meathouse, on Big Branch, said Tuesday that their water had been off for five days straight.
More concerns surfaced Monday as residents in the Inez area started reporting water outages. By Tuesday, the situation had worsened, with MCWD issuing another alert. This alert advised customers of outages and low water pressure due to freezing-related problems at the 40 West booster station. The affected areas included Tomahawk, Milo and Eden West.
On Tuesday, reports of water outages surfaced on social media from other areas, including New Route 3, Old Route 3 and Saltwell.
Water outages were also an issue in the southern portion of the county along Route 292, with residents reporting water outages Tuesday.
MCWD issued a boil water advisory for a broad swath of the county at 4:25 p.m. Tuesday. This includes areas from the top of Inez Mountain to Tomahawk, encompassing Rockhouse, North Milo and South Milo, Old Route 3 up to Buffalo Horn, all connecting roads, and Upper Alpha. The advisory also included Long Branch to the end of Route 292 in Lovely.
Due to the potential for bacteriological contamination of the water supply following the freezing temperature-induced issues, MCWD advises residents to boil all water used for drinking and cooking, bringing it to a rolling boil for three minutes before use.
The water district did not provide a definitive timeline for when the situation will be fully resolved.