SAN DIEGO (KGTV) - Water is back on for dozens of families in Grant Hill after an unplanned outage left them without service for more than twenty-four hours.
“The city did admit that a contractor working nearby had broken a pipe,” said Alec Mackenzie, who owns apartments on L Street and was notified by his tenants that they were without water.
A city spokesman told 10News the outage occurred on a city project when the contractor was reconnecting newly-installed water lines at the intersection of 30th and L Streets. Portable water trucks, as well as bottled water, were available for impacted residents.
"You can't take a shower, brush your teeth, water for the dishes, all kinds of stuff," said Gonzalo Gonzales.
Mackenzie said 16 of his tenants went to bed and woke up without water, and so did everyone else on the block.
“I did have one new tenant move in officially yesterday,” said Mackenzie. “So, poor thing comes in and there’s no water, so that certainly makes me and my little studio look horrible.”
City crews brought out a potable water tanker Monday for families, but neighbors told 10News that ran dry by 10 p.m., leaving them with nothing until it was refilled the next day.
While 10News was at the scene Tuesday morning, a crew replaced the empty tanker with a fresh one, and about an hour later, water bottles were brought out and set on the corner of L and 30th streets.
However, some neighbors at the far end of the street, away from the water tanker and bottles, were frustrated that they weren’t personally notified that bottled water was provided.
“I think it was a little irresponsible to not take some initiative and make sure everybody had water,” said Mackenzie.
“I would think they have the resources to say, ‘We need 10 tanks to get these people water,’” he continued. “You’ve got children, you’ve got to get to work, you’ve got to get a shower, brush your teeth, whatever.”
The streets were left muddy Tuesday after neighbors say they flooded Monday.
Water was restored just before three p.m. Tuesday.
