PUBLIC SAFETY DIRECTOR ROBERT LAMARCHE ADDRESSED THE MEDIA
DELTA COUNTY EMERGENCY MANAGEMENT DIRECTOR BOB BERBOHM ADDRESSES THE MEDIA
A news conference was held Friday in Escanaba to give the community an update on Thursday’s water main break, which happened at 5:30 in the morning in the 100 block of North Lincoln Road, near the Delta Plaza Mall.
Escanaba City water/Wastewater Superintendent Jeff Lampi says the city lost one million gallons of water in the incident, which was caused by a twelve-inch main failing due to the severely cold weather.
Public Safety Director Robert LaMarche said that it was quite an undertaking to close all of the roads in the area, and he said that several people were ticketed for disobeying the traffic barriers that were put up in the area. He says that the department’s overnight shift stayed on and worked extra hours to help the day shift with the incident.
Delta County Emergency Manager Bob Berbohm says he’s tabulating all of the expenses from manpower to materials, and will try to get state reimbursement for some of those costs. He says the city could qualify because Governor Gretchen Whitmer declared a statewide State of Emergency earlier this week.
Escanaba City Manager Patrick Jordan praised the city’s staff for getting the problem resolved so quickly that there was no need for a boil advisory, and that there were no injuries in the incident.
Escanaba Mayor Marc Tall said that all of the city’s departments worked well together, similar to the event nearly three years ago to the day, when the city;s power plant had a major malfunction during frigid weather.
