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<p>By the time you read this, everyone on the West Side should have water again.</p><p>Officials with Pennsylvania American Water on Thursday said nearly all of the approximately 6,600 customers who were without service at the height of this week&#8217;s main break had aqua flowing into their pipes.</p><p>A 126-year-old main, beneath the intersection of Mercer and West Walnut streets in Kingston, ruptured at 2 a.m. Tuesday.</p><p>The final holdouts were about 25 homes on Vaughn Street in Luzerne, whose service was set to be restored later Thursday afternoon.</p><p>But that doesn&#8217;t mean all was quite back to normal.</p><p>Refilling the 30-inch pipe could take up to 12 hours, PAWC spokeswoman Susan Turcmanovich said, due to the size of the shutdown necessary for the repairs.</p><p>&#8220;As the pipe refills and comes back online, customers might again experience discolored water caused by the reverse flow of the water,&#8221; she said. &#8220;Customers simply need to run cold water faucets until it clears.&#8221;</p><p>As well, a boil-water advisory was issued for West Side communities and parts of Wilkes-Barre.</p><p>Then, too, there is the matter of patching up a very big hole.</p><p>&#8220;Once service has returned to normal, we will begin road restoration in the area of the break,&#8221; Turcmanovich said.</p><p><strong>&#8216;We got through it&#8217;</strong></p><p>In Kingston on Thursday, Daniel J. Flood Tower resident Audrey Zinman was still having a good laugh about seeing her photo in the morning&#8217;s paper, standing over her waterless kitchen sink the previous day.</p><p>Waterless no more, Zinman showed a reporter the notice sent around to residents, advising them to boil anmy water used for cooking or drinking for at least one minute, and to run their bathroom hot water for two to three minutes to get the air out of the lines.</p><p>With joy, Zinman turned the bathroom taps to let the water flow once again. But her expression also turned more serious.</p><p>&#8220;That was a terrible experience,&#8221; the 83-year-old said of two days without water. &#8220;But we got through it.&#8221;</p><p>Paul Keating, Kingston&#8217;s municipal administrator, witnessed a different return to normalcy on Thursday afternoon.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;ve been at my desk all day, catching up on paperwork,&#8221; Keating said. &#8220;I have not received one (water-related) call.&#8221;</p><p>Indeed, four of the water tankers still set up for residents quietly stood at the ready when visited by a Times Leader reporter and photographer on Thursday, with no queues of jug-carrying neighbors coming to fill up. That was a contrast with the situation two days earlier.</p><p>Turcmanovich said the tankers will remain in place until the boil-water advisory is lifted. That, she said, will happen once two consecutive days of test results confirm that the water meets all quality standards.</p><p>Keating, meanwhile, praised the water company for their efforts, especially given what he called the complexity of reaching the broken line.</p><p>According to Turcmanovich, contractors were hampered Wednesday by malfunctions to pumping equipment in the storm water system, which caused delays in the repair schedule.</p><p>In addition, the break was located under a storm water culvert, Turcmanovich said, making repairs very difficult as water continued to drain from the 30-inch pipe. Pictures clearly showed workers standing knee deep in muddy, brown water.</p><p>&#8220;I&#8217;m pleased with the outcome,&#8221; Keating said of the work.</p><p>Forty Fort Mayor Andy Tuzinski similarly praised PAWC not just for its work, but for the thoroughness of the company&#8217;s communications with him and other municipal leaders.</p><p><strong>Fire response</strong></p><p>Keating and Tuzinski also agreed on another key point: Sending thanks to area fire departments which came to the aid of their communities while the water system was compromised.</p><p>Among those good Samaritans were crews from the Back Mountain, Exeter Township, Courtdale and even distant Hazle Township.</p><p>Visiting tanker trucks proved invaluable during an intense fire Tuesday night at a double block home on Dorrance Street in Kingston, Keating and Tuzinski said.</p><p>According to Tuzinski, the tankers enabled firefighters to &#8220;knock down a whole lot of fire very quickly.&#8221;</p><p>&#8220;This is a prime example of people helping people,&#8221; Tuzinski said. &#8220;I can&#8217;t say enough about it.&#8221;</p><style>
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<div class="neCaption">Crews continued to work on the water main break at Mercer Avenue and Walnut Street on Thursday morning. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo0>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_IMG_145610.jpg</photo0><caption0>Crews continued to work on the water main break at Mercer Avenue and Walnut Street on Thursday morning. </caption0><photoCredit0>Clark Van Orden | Times Leader </photoCredit0></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_audrey2.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Audrey Zinman, of Daniel J. Flood Towers in Kingston, was grateful to have her water back on Thursday. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo1>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_audrey2.jpg</photo1><caption1>Audrey Zinman, of Daniel J. Flood Towers in Kingston, was grateful to have her water back on Thursday. </caption1><photoCredit1>Pete G. Wilcox | Times Leader </photoCredit1></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_tuzinski1.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Tuzinski </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo2>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_tuzinski1.jpg</photo2><caption2>Tuzinski </caption2><photoCredit2>Pete G. Wilcox | Times Leader </photoCredit2></div><div class="neFile"><img class="neImage" src="https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL082215WaterMain12.jpg">
<div class="neCaption">Pennsylvania American Water employees work to fix the water main break in Kingston on Mercer and Walnut streets. </div></div><div class="metaInfo"><photo3>https://www.timesleader.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/08/web1_TTL082215WaterMain12.jpg</photo3><caption3>Pennsylvania American Water employees work to fix the water main break in Kingston on Mercer and Walnut streets. </caption3><photoCredit3>Aimee Dilger | Times Leader </photoCredit3></div></div>
<div class="metaInfo"><bylineMeta><p>By Roger DuPuis</p><p>rdupuis@www.timesleader.com</p></bylineMeta></div><div class="metaInfo"><factboxMeta><p><strong>BOIL WATER ADVISORY</strong></p><p><strong>What:</strong> Customers are urged to not drink their water without bringing it to rolling boil for one minute, or to drink bottled water. Customers are also encouraged to use boiled or bottled water for making ice, washing dishes, brushing teeth and food preparation until further notice.</p><p><strong>When:</strong> Once two consecutive days of test results confirm that the water meets all quality standards, the boil water advisory will be lifted.</p><p><strong>Where:</strong> Kingston, Edwardsville, Forty Fort, Swoyersville (east of the Back Road, not including Back Road), Luzerne (Walnut, Carpenter, Academy, Sly, Charles, Miller, Chapel and Tener streets), Wilkes-Barre (Water Street between North and Courtright, including Courthouse, Courtright Street between River and Water, Tannery, Priestley and Reichert streets).</p><p><strong>Water: </strong>Until the advisory is lifted, tanker trucks will remain at:</p><p>&#8226; Gateway Shopping Center, Edwardsville;</p><p>&#8226; Swoyersville Borough Building;</p><p>&#8226; Intersection of Walnut and Wyoming Avenue, Kingston;</p><p>&#8226; Luzerne Shopping Center, Luzerne;</p><p>&#8226; Vaughn Street, Luzerne.</p><p>Water in those tankers is safe to drink, Turcmanovich said.</p></factboxMeta></div>

Water back on, but boil advisory remains in place