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Kerwin said the water crisis was a rare incident. <br />“Based on everything we know today, we don’t anticipate any future problems, but, of course, <br />we also didn’t appreciate one of the worst water main breaks we have experienced in 40 years of <br />service to the community,” said Kerwin. <br />Saturday morning residents were flocking to distribution sites for bottled water to help them <br />through the crisis, which canceled schools Friday and even postponed a Saturday UNC Chapel <br />Hill college basketball game. <br />Authorities said that 98,000 bottles of water were handed out to Orange County residents during <br />the crisis. The water distribution site McDougle Elementary ran out of supplies in just two hours <br />Saturday morning. <br />Chapel Hill Mayor Pam Hemminger and Carrboro Mayor Lydia Lavelle issued states of <br />emergency for their towns on Friday. <br />On Saturday, authorities released a lengthy explanation of two incidents that combined to create <br />the crisis. <br />The problems began Thursday when too much fluoride was pumped into an Orange County <br />Water and Sewer Authority on-site tank, officials said in the statement. <br />“We immediately shut down water distribution from the water treatment plant, containing the <br />fluoride overfeed at the plant,” officials said. <br />Orange County then began receiving water from Durham through a pipeline and called for <br />conservation efforts. <br />Then, on Friday morning, a major water line broke and was not repaired until around noon. <br />The incident happened on the northeast side of Chapel Hill near Foxcroft Apartments, which was <br />very close to the pipeline from Durham. <br />“The main break led to a rapid and large loss of water, dropping water pressure in some areas to <br />very low levels, and also dropping water levels in the community’s elevated water storage tanks <br />to critically low levels,” Orange County officials said. <br />At 2:15 p.m. Friday, the Orange County Health Department issued a notice directing residents <br />not to use the water. <br />During this incident on Friday fire protection was not affected, authorities said. <br />Officials managed to open a water connection with Chatham County on Friday afternoon, which <br />helped bring in at least 200,000 more gallons per day.