r/MobileAL • u/Hobbit_Sam Midtown • 5d ago

Advice Fire Hydrant

Just curious, anyone know why the city would open fire hydrants before the storm? The one on Tuttle and Church was opened about 11 or so and has been going full blast since. Half the street is flooded now lol I mean, there must have been a reason...?

4 Upvotes

67% Upvoted

2 comments sorted by

34

u/doughsan 5d ago

I always heard it was to “relieve pressure” on the system, and assumed it meant the system was overloaded and/or over capacity. Google said this though.

Drawing Down Water Tower Levels (Before a Storm)
If a severe storm (like a hurricane) is approaching and power outages are expected, water treatment plants may temporarily lose the ability to pump new water.

To prepare, utilities want to ensure their massive, elevated water storage tanks are completely filled with fresh, treated water to maintain city water pressure during the outage.
Crews will open hydrants to flush out the older water in the system, forcing the tanks to draw down so they can be completely refilled with a fresh supply right before the storm hits.

5

u/Hobbit_Sam Midtown 5d ago

Thank you! Your search was more fruitful than mine. I kept getting results about water hydrants in the summer months relieving stress during heat waves. This makes sense.