Drinking water systems serving nearly half a million people were not producing safe water in the wake of Hurricane Helene, while the status of hundreds of other water systems was “unknown,” the Biden administration estimated late Monday.
Across the Carolinas, Florida, Georgia and Tennessee, 361 water systems were “non-operational,” 247 were partially operating and 685 had an unknown status, meaning federal officials had not heard from them, according to EPA press secretary Remmington Belford.
All told, more than 3.5 million people reside in communities facing a known water system disruption, Belford said. That includes hundreds of water providers using back-up power generators and hundreds that were not supplying any safe water, he added.
“EPA continues to work closely with our federal, state and local partners to protect public health and the environment, assess damage, and help restore water service as quickly as possible,” Belford said in a statement to POLITICO’s E&E News.
