A car drives through a small river made after a water main broke on West Mississippi Avenue on Sunday afternoon. The break resulted in a miniature flood of water that reached as far as Hixson Pike.North Chattanooga residents living on four streets may have experienced low water pressure or no water this afternoon after a water main broke in the 1100 block of Mississippi Avenue. Water gushed fast and strong enough through the community to push leaves and knock over a mailbox.
The water ran for more than an hour along West Mississippi Avenue, Mount Vernon Avenue, Fairmount Avenue and Valentine Circle before Tennessee American Water addressed the problem.
The water gushed out because of a 50-year-old 12-inch water main broke along Mississippi Avenue. Like infrastructure across the country, the water infrastructure in North Chattanooga is aging. Water company officials cut the water off this afternoon to start work on repairs. They planned to have repaired the water main and have the water flow normal by midnight, said Daphne Kirksey, external affairs manager for Tennessee American Water Co.