City’s Water Crisis: Could It Have Been Avoided? [VIDEO]

City Councilwoman LeVette Fuller gives the latest information on the city's water shutdown and explains why - and where - the major problems occurred.

"It's a big system with a lot of big pieces, but a lot of it is water main breaks," says Fuller, in describing the breakdown. "Yes, we have old infrastructure. Yes, we knew it was going to be cold and that the freezing was going to cause...breaks. In hindsight, we should have been better prepared and had people staged around the community to deal with those issues, if they were able to get access.

"The breaks happened between the water treatment system and the big tanks. Then, the pressure released (when) millions of gallons of water emptying out of those tanks and freezing on top of everything else that was frozen, because of the water mains breaking underground in the cold.

"I can say that we might not be able to control Mother Nature, but I can control how I respond. and in this moment, it's taking longer to repair because of the amount of ice."