Thursday evening, Monica Amneus posted a photo of running water pouring out of her sink's faucet to her Facebook account with the message: "HALLELUJAH."
After 12 days without water, the 24-year-old Charles Village resident had cause to rejoice.
"We have water! I have to give huge huge thanks to our friends who supported us through this 2 week ordeal," the Arizona native wrote. "It's hard having my family on the other side of the country, but the people I've met here have made me feel like I have plenty of family right here in Baltimore. This nightmare is finally over, and now it's time for a hot shower and clean dishes!"
The Baltimore Sun reported on Amneus' water outage in Thursday morning's paper. By the evening, after 12 days of filing complaints, crews had restored water service for her and five other residents of the Calvert Street rowhouse they rent.
City officials say they're making quick progress cutting down on a spree of broken pipes, frozen meters and water outages caused by persistently below-freezing tempuratures. On Wednesday, city officials were able to put 562 customers back in service, they said. The backlog of water-related complaints now stands at 4,174.
Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake said Wednesday the city has established a new "command center" staffed 24 hours a day to respond to water issues. City officials have extended public works employees' shifts to 12 hours a day and tripled the number of inspectors investigating water problems, from seven to 21.
City officials said Thursday they have also enlisted the help of Baltimore County, which they said will handle water-related problems there. The city says the new plan brings the total number of water inspectors per shift to 28.
The problems shot up sharply beginning around Presidents Day, when brutal cold burst pipes in homes, schools and businesses around the Baltimore area, city officials said. About half of the city's 400,000 water customers are in Baltimore County.
Pipes broken on public property must be repaired by city government, but those that break on private property are the responsibility of the property owner.
"Since we announced the emergency commander center yesterday, we cut the backlog by about 1,000," Rawlings-Blake said Thursday. "We are shifting resources that had been used for county investigations to city users. We're really trying to be as aggressive and nimble as possible. I know this is an extremely frustrating winter on so many levels."
More than 2,100 city water customers still have no water service, according to city statistics.
lbroadwater@baltsun.com
Twitter.com/lukebroadwater