Water service is not expected to be restored to campus at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga before 8 p.m. today and possibly 24 to 36 hours beyond that.
Campus officials are awaiting word from Tennessee American Water personnel on the timing of water service restoration.
The result of a Thursday night water main break reported by Tennessee American Water Co., the outage is responsible for Friday’s campus closure and cancellation of classes and events along with the cancellation of all classes and events on Saturday, including a WWE wrestling match inside McKenzie Arena.
Campus residence halls are UTC officials’ top priority to ensure their continued operation with minimal impact on students who live on campus. Portable bathrooms and hand-sanitizing stations were set up at residence halls Friday morning and will remain until water service is restored.
Food service has been provided at POD (Provisions On Demand) locations at South Campus and West Campus residence halls, where free bottled water also is being distributed through 7 p.m. today and resuming at 10 a.m. Saturday. Bottled water is available to students outside those hours from resident assistants in their buildings.
Mocs Express bus routes are operating as scheduled, and a Mocs Express Shuttle route to the Brainerd Road Wal-Mart has been added.
While air conditioning in many campus buildings is provided via a water-dependent system that cools indoor air, none of those buildings has lost air conditioning thanks to the efforts of Hamilton County, city of Chattanooga and state of Tennessee agencies who located and trucked water to UTC for use in air conditioning chiller systems.
In the temporary absence of water in fire sprinkler systems, UTC emergency management officials have initiated a fire watch that involves police and security officers visually inspecting for signs of smoke.
All classes and events scheduled to take place on campus on Saturday are canceled, including UTC intramural rugby and Chattanooga Wolves soccer games. UTC employees required to report to work on Saturday will be notified by their supervisors.
The Aquatics and Recreation Center (ARC) on campus closed on Friday and will remain closed on Saturday.
A Saturday Mocs volleyball game is relocating from Maclellan Gymnasium to Cleveland High School in Cleveland, Tn.
The WWE live event scheduled for Saturday night in McKenzie Arena has been postponed until Sunday, Jan. 19, 2020. All tickets purchased for Saturday's event will be honored on January 19. If you cannot attend the rescheduled date, refunds will be available at the point of purchase.
UTC is sharing information and updates as they are available and will continue to do so until the outage ends.