Cold weather caused 170 water main breaks in Philly in 15 days

Drowning in a sea of customer service reports of water main breaks, the Philadelphia Water Department has announced that it will now be accepting requests via social media, in addition to its call center.

Normally, the PWD’s call center is the best way to report a water main break. But these days, the wait can be up to two hours. That’s why the PWD recommends that if your home or business has a water main break, you should direct message them either on Twitter or Facebook for quicker response.

“We will be actively monitoring these pages for direct messages between the hours of 9 a.m. to midnight, seven days a week until further notice,” the PWD announced. They warn that it may take up to 24 hours for a response.

Philadelphia has seen a significant uptick in water main breaks in recent weeks as a result of the brutal cold weather that the region has experienced. For reference, the PWD said there were 176 water main breaks in the first 15 days of January alone—last year, there were a total of 117 water main breaks reported in the entire month.

As a result, the PWD says it has been working around the clock to address the issues, and still has 170 outstanding requests that need to be addressed.