{"id":311469,"date":"2026-05-12T04:42:31","date_gmt":"2026-05-12T04:42:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/311469\/"},"modified":"2026-05-12T04:42:31","modified_gmt":"2026-05-12T04:42:31","slug":"gov-whitmer-declares-state-of-emergency-after-massive-water-main-break-in-oakland-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/311469\/","title":{"rendered":"Gov. Whitmer declares state of emergency after massive water main break in Oakland County"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"text | article-text\">AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (WILX) &#8211; Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has activated the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) and declared a state of emergency due to a massive water main break in Metro Detroit that could leave residents without water for as long as two weeks.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Whitmer activated the SEOC Sunday afternoon and declared a state of emergency in Oakland County.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Officials say a 42-inch waterline that serves the communities of Auburn Hills, Pontiac, Rochester Hills, Orion Township, Lake Orion, and Oakland Township ruptured, causing \u201ca widespread loss of water pressure and the possibility of loss of service for Lake Orion, Orion Township, and Auburn Hills.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">By declaring a state of emergency, the governor has authorized the use of all available state resources to assist local response and recovery operations in the affected county to ensure residents have access to water they need. <\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Officials with the Great Lakes Water Authority said Sunday afternoon they had isolated the water main break in Auburn Hills and crews were working to remove standing water from the site.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Once the water was removed, crews began removing and replacing the water main.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">GLWA officials said Monday they were \u201cmaking progress\u201d at the site and had removed the damaged section of pipe. The next step is for crews to complete the installation of the new pipe segment by welding steel joints to the existing pipe. This was expected to be completed late Monday night, officials said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"figure-img img-fluid mx-auto d-block\" alt=\"Water over the road after 42-inch water main breaks in Oakland County\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/05\/1778560951_552_LYS7MIB5J5HLZDULDXATQZQQ3A.jpg\" width=\"980\" height=\"735\" \/>Water over the road after 42-inch water main breaks in Oakland County(Great Lakes Water Authority)<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">The next step is to begin filling and disinfecting the water main, according to GLWA.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">GLWA officials say it is \u201cessential that the residents of Orion Township, the Village of Lake Orion, Rochester Hills, and Auburn Hills restrict their water usage to only what is necessary for hydration, food preparation and basic sanitation for the duration of the emergency.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Water trucks are available in numerous locations to help residents get water:<\/p>\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">\u26a0\ufe0f\ud83d\udca75\/10, UPDATE 3 &#8211; GLWA Water Trucks Available for Communities Impacted by Auburn Hills Water Main Break <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/DXMOwEuXw4\" rel=\"nofollow\">pic.twitter.com\/DXMOwEuXw4<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Great Lakes Water Authority (@glwatermi) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/glwatermi\/status\/2053511101539619046?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">May 10, 2026<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Crews initially discovered a leak at the site on May 6, but initial repair efforts were unsuccessful, according to Whitmer\u2019s office. It\u2019s not clear what caused the initial leak.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">This is a developing story. Stay with News 10 for the latest updates as they become available on-air and online.<\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Stream News 10 on your favorite devices! <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wilx.com\/2025\/12\/18\/how-stream-wilx-tv-10-watch-listen-anywhere\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Here\u2019s how to download the WILX app on Roku, Fire TV or Apple TV.<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"text | article-text\">Be the first to see the Mid-Michigan headlines you care about \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wilx.com\/page\/download-our-app\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">download the News 10 mobile app<\/a> and subscribe to our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wilx.com\/newsletter\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">News 10 newsletter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@wilxtv\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">YouTube page<\/a> to receive the latest local news and weather.<\/p>\n<p>Copyright 2026 WILX. All rights reserved.\n<\/p>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUBURN HILLS, Mich. (WILX) &#8211; Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has activated the State Emergency Operations Center (SEOC) and declared&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":311470,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[34],"tags":[58668,130534,166,36794,781,23,4553,143,145,144,109753,3131,3414,6750],"class_list":["post-311469","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-oakland","tag-auburn","tag-boil-water","tag-county","tag-hills","tag-lake","tag-local-news","tag-metro-detroit","tag-oakland","tag-oakland-headlines","tag-oakland-news","tag-orion","tag-pontiac","tag-rochester-hills","tag-state-of-emergency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311469","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=311469"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/311469\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/311470"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=311469"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=311469"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=311469"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}