Tens of thousands of Toronto residents without water amid outage

An entire Toronto neighbourhood is going without water today and there appears to be no end in sight for residents who have had to travel elsewhere to hydrate, wash and more since yesterday evening.

Approximately 15,000 people who live in Crescent Town near Danforth and Victoria Park Avenues have been impacted by a broken watermain, with some of them taking to Twitter to complain about the lack of response from the city — as well as from their local councillor, Brad Bradford, who seems to be busy campaigning for mayor.

Crescent Town's water is shut off owing to a pipe leak at 5 Massey Square. No word on when the thousands of residents will have water again. @BradMBradford can we get some drinking water stations set up here? @311 told me to call back later.

— Jennie Worden (she/her) (@JennieWordenTO) June 16, 2023

Upon getting through to 311, one community member says they were told water service to their multi-building complex on Massey Square was set to be restored Thursday night. Instead, they awoke to the complete opposite this morning.

"Instead, today, the water to the entire complex was shut down. BUT the nice person at @311Toronto says that it's a private matter, because the City website says we have water," they wrote on social media shortly before noon today.

"We assuredly do not have water."

@311Toronto when will we get a word on the water shutdown at massey square and crescent town??? Thousands of residents are without water and my neighbour are elderly couple, who is gonna provide them? Who is gonna take responsibility??

— samystarfish👾 (@samystarfish21) June 16, 2023

The individual was also notified that the city does not provide emergency water services until an area is without water for at least 24 hours.

They added that the security team at their building stated at 9 p.m. last night that the interruption could last up to a whopping 48 hours.

With no time estimate on when repairs will be completed, some people have been crowding around local fire hydrants to access water, while others have been lining up to get a limited supply of bottled water from security personnel.

Citizens have had to line up at fire hydrants and building security offices to get water to drink.

The scene has become quite chaotic, with many desperate for a drink, an update, and a fix as soon as possible.

Notices of an "emergency water shutdown" have been posted around buildings 2/4, 6/8, and 10/12 Crescent Town Road, notifying those inside that there will be no hot or cold water thanks to the leak, which is located near the service entrance of 5 Massey Square.

"Residents will be notified as soon as the repair to the main pipe is completed and water supply is available," the posters read.

While the city isn't confirming the outage, teams are working toward fixing the leaking pipe that caused the mass shutoff.

A local recreation club was forced to close Friday as a result of the mass shutoff, while students from Crescent Town Elementary were relocated to a nearby school with running water for the day.