WEATHERFORD, Texas, Aug. 3 (UPI) -- A Texas town found itself without water on one of the hottest days of the year and officials declared a state of disaster, authorities said.
Weatherford, Texas, residents got nothing when they turned on their taps Monday after a crucial water delivery pipe broke, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.
Officials said a pump shifted inside the Weatherford Lake Water Treatment Facility about midnight Monday, breaking the pipe and wreaking havoc on the 15-year-old system that supplies water to some 13,000 houses -- and about 30,000 residents -- in the city.
As temperatures soared to 103 degrees F. residents drove to a downtown fire station where firefighters tossed a crate of bottled water into each car.
"It's amazing," Martha Buckner said as water was loaded into her car. "I can't believe this. It's too hot for us not to have water right now. ... I hope it is over soon."
City officials were scrambling to repair the broken pipe.
"We're going to be in conservation mode until it is permanently fixed," City Manager Jerry Blaisdell said. "Once the temporary fix is in place, it is expected to take between two and four days for the breakage to be permanently fixed."
No problems were noted when the treatment facility was last inspected in November 2008, the Star-Telegram said.
One official said the pipe that broke was an "artery that feeds into many lines."
"If you cut a vein, you'll still be able to move on and keep going," Charles Marshall of the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality said. "But if you cut an artery, it's a different story."
