MARSHALL, Texas (KLTV) - An entire East Texas city remains under a boil water notice after a contractor caused a water main break.

That break was in Marshall at the corner of Alvin street and south Carter street according to city officials.

The answer? The city doled out bottled water to citizens.

Well before the scheduled 1 p.m. start time, cars began to line up at the Marshall Civic Center.

“We had lines forming last night. We had to tell them it’s going to be here tomorrow, I promise,” said Randy Pritchard, the city emergency management coordinator.

The source of the problem was a water main break, and though it’s been repaired, water pressure remains low, and a boil water notice remains in effect.

“It was damaged by a contractor running a horizontal boring machine. It will take a while for the pressure to build,” Pritchard said. “We do it slow, so we don’t damage anything. We’re hoping by early evening, all our pressures will be restored. We went ahead and contacted the state. Told them what was going on, told them we’re going to need some bottled water to hand out to our citizens. Anyone who needs it, we’re going to make sure that they have it.”

Residents are advised to boil their water two minutes prior to consumption, and continue until the boil water notice had been rescinded.

“The soonest we can do a test for that will be Monday morning. Takes about 24 hours. I’m expecting Tuesday mid-day to lift the boil advisory,” Randy said.

“We recognized that our citizens had been 24 hours without water,” said District 6 City Councilwoman Amanda Abraham. “So this was the least we could do to accommodate them. Our employees have been working around the clock to fix the issue, so the least I could do is get out here and hand out some water.”

Within 30 minutes, the first pallets of water were distributed, and a second delivery of bottled water was expected by 2 p.m.

“We’ll be here until we run out of water, or people stop coming, whichever comes first,” Pritchard said.

Pritchard said people should be prepared for situations like this by having enough water and food on hand for at least three days, in the event of a water loss or power outage.

Again, it could be Tuesday before the city knows if the boil water notice can be lifted.

Copyright 2022 KLTV. All rights reserved.