hmmm better turn off water heaters since we got zero water here in decatur..It could burn up your heat strips

We've had heavier rains...how come this hasn't happened before?

Be careful who you vote for as you make not like then we they get into office. We don't have water, can't get leaves picked up that has been in the yard 7 weeks, roads have holes and ruts in them. The Mayor, his assistant and council members should resign or be impeached.

Somebody asleep at the job. Heads need to roll at Decatur Utilities. Totally unacceptable. Just like the airlines blame it on the weather and it's not your fault.

Peter it must suck being you.

like it's never rained this much before? too much rain seems like an excuse by DU for some other screw up.

It seems clear that we are not getting the whole story. If the water was merely turbid but safe, the obvious thing is to keep pumping the water and post a notice on their website that the water is safe but cloudy due to recent rains. Then commerce, industry, and health care in Decatur would not have had to come to a screeching halt.

I work at Decatur General Hospital and the CT scanners use water cooling and were not working this afternoon. Likewise all GI procedures had to be canceled. Developing x-ray film requires running water.

I hope the Decatur Daily will continue to investigate and tell us the truth about this event. How it happened, why it hasn't happened before, what is being done to prevent it from happening again?

decatur utilities screwed up but lke any political organization can't accept the blame and must blame it on a source (God/weather) outside their control. They should investigate why this happen and take corrective action to prevent reoccurance.

Peter, thats shows how stupid you are The city of Decatur has NOTHING to do with Decatur Utilities!

Decatur Utilities is located in Decatur, Alabama and is a municipal utility owned by the City of Decatur. Decatur Utilities (DU) is the operating name of the Municipal Utilities Board of Decatur, Morgan County, Alabama. The Board was created by Local Act No. 89 of the Alabama Legislature in 1939.Read it and weep Mossy oak!!!

hey new editor, sink your teeth into this story....loss revenue for business? recent increase in sewer rates? emergency preparedness plan failure? broken water heaters? potential structure fire loss? safety? sanitary loss? city and county buildings closing? The list goes on an on. You wrote in the Sunday paper that you plan to do some investigating. This should be just what the doctor ordered. Have fun!

It takes more than one term of office for streets to get potholes. It takes neglect over several terms. This council has done some, thanks to federal money. But clearly a couple of days of rain is not responsibile for this FUBAR.

What I really want to know is what is the utility company going to do to prevent this from occuring again and again. The businesses of Decatur can't continue to operate in this mickey mouse town and lose money because the city could not plan for something of this magnitude. I agree we have had much more rain than this before and its wasn't an issue. All you newspapers and TV stations need to eat this up and get the residents of Decatur a straight answer not some fabricated answer designed to keep most people happy.

We need to really think about the hourly employees of the restaurants that were closed today. This not only means that the companies lost business but most of these employees did not make money today!

I agree Meghan, most of the employees of these business that closed today will not get paid but Decatur Utilities will be quick to disconnect there power and water if they can't pay. Who is gonna reimburse these employees?

What about the elderly people in the nursing homes here in Decatur!? I am a charge nurse at one of the facilities, off tonight, but can only image what is going on with them! This is a poor excuse for a city! They want to increase rates, have higher taxes, but can't keep the water running! Give me a break and a FOR SALE sign!

Debra Henry

what do hospitals do?? if they have their 96 hours joint commission sustainability plan in place....that should not have happened. hospitals are required to be able to self support for a minimum of 96 hours with out ANY outside help....power water food everything needed to run a facility. they should also have a plan for the EMA to assist if needed. there should be food on hand to feed a full hospital and staff for ten days. doesnt have to be fancy, sandwiches, soup, cereal. there are also sorts of government emergency plans for just this type of emergency.....

Fire all the incompetent %^@*&!

Ok everybody lets help out. The City is in need of help, so I have come up with a schedule that may help. Due to the water shortage try to go by the schedule for taking baths for this week. Please limit your showers to one minute.

Last name starting with A to E take a bath on Monday

F to J take a bath on Tuesday

K to O take a bath on Wednesday

P to T take a bath on Thursday

U to Z take a bath on Friday

Try living with a 17 year old teenage daughter who thinks the world has official ended, due to the loss of water.

The concern should be fires. One industrial plant along the river goes up in flames, the whole town does.

As easy as it would be blame the mayor and city council for this it really isn't their fault.Granted most of them don't know the difference between a water pipe and a garden hose.This falls on Decatur Utilities.The have engineers and specialists with college degrees and all sorts of titles that handle the water.They have been entrusted to make our water safe.This would fall on them.What the mayor and city council need to be held accountable for is how fast this is corrected and what they do to ensure this does not happen again.Now is not the time to play the blame game,it's time to play the Fix it game.

True enough businesses lost money,but can you just imagine if Decatur Utilities had let the cloudy water run on through?Every restaurant here in Decatur uses water to make their tea and coffee,to cook with and a lot of people order water with their food.Do you know how many people there would have been claiming to be sick and wanting to sue the city?Parkway and Decatur General's emergency rooms would have been flooded with every hypochondriac claiming to be poisoned.

Now about a couple of posts up above about employees losing pay........it's only been 1 day so far is it really going to make or break you?If your employer is closed because of snow,ice or some other sort of severe weather do you blame the City of Decatur for that?Most people I know relish a day off work.I saw several places today that chose not to close and had port a johns brought in.Now if this turns into a 3 or 4 day ordeal then yes I see where it will really hurt people.

My teens and I have been creative in our conservation today. We discussed not too many weeks ago about how spoiled we are to have such an abundant water supply in Decatur... I think something about Vegas or Cali sparked that discussion. Guess they'd be a little better prepared. Wouldv'e been much worse if I hadn't run the dishwasher last night and done several loads of wash yesterday!

Question... do some homes have no water pressure, or just really low?

@ Joseph......no pressure at all here,nothing in SW Decatur

wow, thanks buttermilk... I'm too close to a water tower and didn't realize it was that bad.. .Glad I didn't go out and buy water that yall needed! Now I know why my daughter's friend living in SW went to h'ville for dinner

Yw Joseph.Not speaking for all SW Decatur just my end.Fortunately I'm close to Wal Mart and got a few cases of bottled water.Even when it's fixed I think I will stick with bottled water for cooking and making coffee for awhile lol.

I ran all the water I stored up this morning thru the brita pitcher, except the 3 gallons we might need for flushing. I normally use tap water for boiling, but I use filtered for anything under the boiling point that we are going to ingest. When we got a fridge 10 years ago with filtered water and ice, i couldn't go back to drinking tap. This week we might use filtered for brushing teeth too!

Save your complaint, people. Use them when you get the bill for these repairs with all the overtime being spent to fix it. Look for a minimal increase in your water bill. MINIMAL, Ha. They call it sticker shock. And yes, the City council will approve this RAISE>

You idiots the Mayor and Council have NOTHING at ALL to do with this!!! Get your facts straight Paul D!

D U is TOTALLY separate from the "the city". The mayor does not sign D U pay checks!

@ Mossy oak...Who do you think owns Decatur Utilities?The Chinese government?The City of Decatur OWNS Decatur Utilities.You should get YOUR facts straight before you get on here calling people idiots.

http://www.decaturutilities.com/about-us.html

First paragraph from that link:

Decatur Utilities is located in Decatur, Alabama and is a municipal utility owned by the City of Decatur. Decatur Utilities (DU) is the operating name of the Municipal Utilities Board of Decatur, Morgan County, Alabama. The Board was created by Local Act No. 89 of the Alabama Legislature in 1939. Decatur Utilities has 165 employees working to achieve our vision of being your “supplier of choice” for utility services.

Now a link from http://www.digitaldecatur.com/departments/cityleadership/councilmembers.html

Roger Anders from district 2 is assigned:

Public Works (includes garage)

Municipal Utilities Board

So if Decatur owns it they have nothing to do with it?

@ Joseph,That's a very good idea.I had been considering it since last month myself.I noticed around the first of December at several places that the water smelled highly of chlorine.Around a week later I quit noticing the smell.We have one of those pitchers too and I think we are going to start buying the filters again for it.I know some people claim you can't tell the difference between tap water and bottled water but I can.

THE MAYOR AND COUNCIL DO NOT CONTROL DU. PERIOD!

Iced Tea never knows whether he will be green ot herbal on any given day!!!

@ Mossy...calm down your highness

@ Josephine...nice to see you too sunshine :)