About 300 customers of Baltimore's water system were still without service Friday, and more outages were possible as temperatures were expected to remain below freezing through midday Saturday.
City officials stressed that customers without service can call 311 to have bottles of water delivered to their homes. The water system — which also serves customers in Baltimore County — has been experiencing broken and frozen pipes and meters for about three weeks because of extreme winter weather.
Connor Scott, deputy director of the mayor's office of emergency management, said the city began the water deliveries this week using firefighters and other government workers. The idea is to use other city agencies to keep Department of Public Works crews free to repair the infrastructure, he said.
"This is something we ramped up because of the magnitude of the outages and the longevity of the situation," Scott said. "Everyone who calls 311 is going to get a phone call from us."
Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke said the city's focus on repairing the water lines has been in the right place. She said residents in her district who needed water delivered have received it. "My experience is, we're doing it as fast as we can," Clarke said.
Leo Burroughs, a city activist, said the failure of the water system during the extreme weather calls for more drastic measures. He's worried that some residents have slipped through the cracks and said the city should set up distribution sites where families can go to fill up water jugs.
"The crisis we are facing now is, we have people who have been without water for two weeks or 21/2 weeks, and that needs to be rectified," Burroughs said. "This is a life-and-death situation. We've got to provide that service."
Deborah Fryson, a mother of three who lives in the city's Upton neighborhood, has been without water for 14 days. Fryson said she's had to carry jugs to her neighbor's house to fill up with water, which she takes home and heats on the stove for her family to use to bathe.
"It's been hell," she said. "I have been calling everyone to see if I could get help. I've cried so many times. What can I do? Why aren't they helping me?"
Fryson said the city had never told her that she could have water dropped off at her house.