GRIFFIN, Ga. — A water tower in Griffin is empty after it began leaking on Wedneday; city officials are working to find out why.
The $1 million tower sits behind a building on East Taylor Street in Griffin, and when it began leaking, employees in a nearby building heard a "boom" around 3:30 p.m.
"Like, an explosion-type boom," Hammond said. "We were all like, 'What in the heck?'"
Then, Hammond said she heard another disturbing sound.
"And then, you're standing out here and you hear the bolts falling," Hammond said.
Videos started circulating online of water bursting through a hole. Hammond said she watched it all in terror as approximately 800,000 gallons of water poured out of the 1 million-gallon tank.
"The only thing in your mind is 'What if this thing collapses?'" Hammond said.
Sarah Faulkner works with Hammond and said their office is very close to the tower. Employees were told to evacuate the building.
"It was pretty chaotic watching everybody go in and out of the building trying to grab all of their things," Faulkner said.
Faulkner said first responders showed up shortly after. Griffin City Manager Jessica O'Conner said crews are still trying to get to the bottom of this.
Watch Below | Water spews from hole in bottom of water tower in Griffin | Drone
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"We don't know what happened," O'Connor said. "We can't tell at this point."
O'Connor said she's never seen anything like this before.
"I have talked with several people who have worked here for decades," O'Connor said. "And they've never had anything like this happen."
On Thursday, O'Connor provided an update after crews checked the tower first thing in the morning. When asked what caused the crack, she said crews were still unsure.
"We don't know. That's a very good question. What we can tell at this point is that there is a crack near a seam, but we don't know what caused it," she said. "We will actually have an inspection this afternoon from our tank maintenance company, and they should be here sometime in the next hour or so. And so they'll do an interior and exterior inspection to see if we can tell."
She later said that an actual structural engineer with a tank maintenance company would come Friday to do their own inspection.
O'Conner said the tower has maintenance every two years. And it's always done on time. It was due again in a few months. Many residents were wondering if the tower was going to topple over.
"We don't think so, at this point," O'Connor said. "We feel like if it were going to, it would have already occurred."
To the residents, O'Conner said there are no immediate safety concerns.
"Water is safe to drink, safe to use," O'Connor said.
The tank is simply used as an emergency supply.
"Just if we need it. So, like last year when we had the tornadoes in January. We do have two water treatment plants here," she said. "And so we have holding tanks throughout the community so that if one goes down, we can start using water from here."
O'Conner said no one's water had been turned off. And this will not affect water bills. She also expects the business to reopen soon.
Faulkner said she'd have to work from home either way, but she's waiting for answers from the city.
"Will we be able to come back to work tomorrow? How long will this take? It's like they didn't even know," Faulkner said.
O'Conner said crews will be back first thing Thursday morning to check the tower.