Broken Pipes Cut Water To Thousands

People lined up in the streets to fill buckets from water tankers Tuesday after a rapid thaw cracked pipes, cutting off water to 750,000 homes in Scotland and northern England.

Andrew Panting, head of public relations for Northumbrian Water, a company in northeast England, described the situation as “pretty critical.”

“Some areas have been without water for a couple of days, and other areas are at risk of losing their water,” he said. “We have plenty of water, but we cannot get it treated and supplied quick enough to satisfy demand.”

Pipelines have fractured as a result of a fast thaw after an intensely cold period that started just before Christmas and lasted into 1996.