BELLE — Belle residents woke Tuesday morning with no water service as main breaks on Alvarado Avenue and Jersey Street depleted the city’s water towers. Service was later restored around 4 p.m. with a boil order in place.

Public Works Director Darrin Guinn and employees Clay Ridenhour and Jim Goben were out most of Monday night, along with Belle Mayor Pro Tem James (Pudd) Mitchell attempting to locate and patch the main breaks.

“We started on the one on Jersey Street, which was coming up in a yard, but found the break beneath the middle of the street,” Mitchell said.

Around 7 a.m. on Jan. 16, City of Belle posted a public service announcement, “There are at least two water main breaks and water tower issues. But please know they are working diligently to fix the problems and have called in additional help.”

The city contacted Mid-State Pipeline to assist with the leak on Alvarado Avenue, between First and Second Streets while city workers repaired the leak on Jersey Avenue. Just after the second leak was patched, Mitchell said a third leak sprung up 20 feet below it on Alvarado Avenue.

“They got the last break fixed and another 20 feet away another one busted and they are digging again,” Mitchell said. “We got the road sawed out and getting down to it now.”

Mitchell said the city’s water is currently distributed from the tower on Third Street or the newer tower on Mitchem Avenue. As of 1:45 p.m., Mitchell and the city crews had been on site for about 19 hours. The Third Street tower had 7.1 (pounds per square inch) PSI instead of 58 PSI, its normal operating recommendation. The Mitchem Avenue tower, recommended to stay at 46 PSI, was empty.

Mitchell said the Maries R-2 School District called him to ask about an estimated time of completion. Mitchell said he didn’t have one yet. As soon as the breaks were fixed though, the water pressure would take time to be restored.

“We will have to go around and drain lines to get the tower back going,” Mitchell said. “It emptied out the tower with all the leaks.”

When asked what the primary concerns were, Mitchell said the holes were full of water, the water towers were empty or nearly empty and not refilling due to the many breaks. Furthermore, the city was trying to complete the project with water technically staying on. They didn’t know when the project would be finished.

Temperatures at 9 a.m. on Tuesday at Legends Bank read -3 degrees Fahrenheit.

“We worked everything live, so there shouldn’t have to be any kind of boil order,” Mitchell guessed at the time. “The water tower is refilling but not at a fast rate because of the leaks.”

At 5 p.m. residents were still concerned about the lack of water or pressure.