Pumps go off-line, causing water pressure drop in city

Water pressure fell dramatically over Sunday night and early Monday morning as a result of a problem with the telemetry system that runs the city wells.

According to Mayor Tom Rist, city crews suspect a lightning strike from Sunday night's storm knocked the telemetry system off line at about 7 p.m., effectively shutting all pumps down.

Rist said he first became aware of the problem about 5 a.m. Monday morning when, like many area residents, he was taking a shower and seemed to have less water pressure than normal.

"After the pumps went down, the only water we had was from the tanks," he said.

After arriving at city hall at about 5:45 a.m. Rist said he took 73 phone calls, and ultimately had to call in an extra staffer early to help. "They weren't mad. They were just concerned," he said.

But the biggest concern he had was what would happen in the event of a fire. Fire crews were advised early Monday morning that if they got called out they should take extra tankers.

Rist said a backup alert system should have notified city crews of the failure of the primary telemetry system, but it didn't. "We'll be looking into that," he said.

The telemetry system was rebooted about 6:45 a.m., and by 7 a.m. Monday morning most water pressure had returned to normal.