A huge water main blowout on Tuesday cut off running water to roughly 80% of Anson County, sending residents on a mad dash for bottled water and pushing some businesses to shut down early. Water from the rupture gushed across U.S. Highway 74 near the Wade Hills area in Wadesboro while crews hustled to isolate the break. County officials said repairs would continue overnight and warned that a precautionary boil-water notice would be in place once service came back.
According to WCCB Charlotte, about eighty percent of the county lost water service for at least 12 hours. At the Wadesboro Food Lion, staff capped customers at two packs of bottled water as shelves were picked clean. Residents including Leake Little and Teresa Short told the station the outage made basic tasks like bathing, cooking, and caring for elderly relatives a daily obstacle course.
County alerts said crews were closing valves around a major transmission-line break at U.S. 74 East and Morven Freight Line Road and initially projected service would return by 9 p.m. The county also shared a flyer pointing residents to bottled-water pickup sites at local fire stations and cancelled Tuesday’s commissioners meeting after the outage sidelined the Government Center, according to Anson County.
County leaders told reporters that private utility crews had been working on a separate repair job when the pipe burst and that the fix will run at least $500,000, WCCB Charlotte reported. Officials said crews were working around the clock and that they hoped to have water flowing again by Wednesday morning.
Aging Plant and Long-Term Headaches
The outage also put a harsh spotlight on long-standing infrastructure issues. Engineers and county officials have been weighing a multi-million-dollar overhaul of the Anson County water treatment plant. Consultants from Hazen & Sawyer have drawn up plans, and county leaders have debated phased repairs and possible rate adjustments to qualify for state and federal money, the Anson Record reported.
How to Get Safe Water and What Residents Should Do
Municipal notices urged residents to stick with boiled or bottled water for drinking, cooking, and brushing teeth until tests show the system is safe. The Town of Lilesville issued a boil-water advisory on July 7. Several local fire departments opened bottled-water pickup sites during station hours, and the county released a flyer listing pickup locations and times for residents who needed supplies (Anson County flyer).
Officials called the break a blunt reminder of how vulnerable small-town water systems can be and said they would post updates on service restoration and test results as soon as they have them. Residents were urged to keep an eye on county and town channels for the latest information on water pickups and boil-water instructions.
