POTOSI, Mo. — A gas main break knocked out service to the city of Potosi, Missouri, Tuesday, and residential service could take up to three days to be restored.
A letter from Mayor Joseph Blount said the break happened at around 8:30 Tuesday morning while crews were installing a new gas line. After a precautionary evacuation, Potosi Public Utility crews shut off the gas until the line could be fixed.
The letter said more than 900 homes and facilities were affected by the outage. Blount said the line is expected to be fixed at some point on Tuesday, and service will be restored for some by Tuesday night.
"We have natural gas so obviously we likely wouldn't have heat tonight," Jake Mercer said.
Mercer found out there was a natural gas main break from his wife who's a school teacher.
"My wife texted me that the line ruptured and it was going to affect the high school so they let out early today," Mercer said.
Blount canceled school after he got the call around 8 Tuesday morning while crews were trying to install a new 6-inch gas main from Desloge to Industrial Park.
"We have an old four-inch gas main that's there originally that's going to run parallel to it, so when they were digging up to locate the old gas main they accidentally hit that one. Luckily no one got hurt, there was no explosion or nothing like that there was no injuries," Blount said.
They shut the gas meters off across the city.
They repaired the line within hours and began to restore businesses.
"We have the hospital turned on, the prison turned back on. The Walmart, the shopping Center, everything on that side of town has been turned back on," Blount said.
More than 900 facilities and homes were affected by the gas main break. Crews worked to restore priority buildings and businesses first, but Blount says residential areas would take a bit longer.
"Cause we have to go inside their houses and we have to make sure that they're home so we are going to continue to work on getting them throughout tomorrow and hopefully if everything works out we can get at least 80-90% of the people back on by tomorrow evening," Blount said.
"Hopefully they get it done early in the morning so people won't be affected before the real weather starts rolling in," Mercer said.
With winter weather expected in Potosi and across the St. Louis area, the Red Cross will have a shelter at the Potosi Southern Baptist Church at 10165 West State Highway 8 for people in need of shelter.
"If you utilize the shelter, please bring comfort items like medications, clothing, personal hygiene items, etc.," the letter said.
Winter weather
Colder air is surging across the region in the wake of showers and a few stronger storms that moved through early Tuesday, especially south of the metro area. The arrival of the cold air will set the stage for the next winter storm to move in during the day Wednesday.
A variety of wintry precipitation across Missouri and Illinois is expected to develop from the southwest Wednesday moving into the metro area just before or during the evening rush hour. Mostly sleet is expected in the metro area with snow farther to the northwest and more of an icy glaze from freezing rain to the southeast.
The National Weather Service has issued a winter storm watch for much of the area, including the metro St. Louis area, for Wednesday afternoon into Thursday night.