Residents without water for several days

(Vinita-AP) -- The taps are running again in Vinita.

A malfunction of an electrical circuit breaker had left residents without water for hours Sunday and Monday.

Betty Baker is Vinita's water treatment plant supervisor. Baker says employees still don't know what happened.

Crews had worked until seven p-m Sunday to restore service, but the breaker shut off again about nine p-m. Residents were without water until Monday morning.

When the main breaker failed, the disruption caused the water pumps, filters, chlorine mechanisms and the flow device from Grand Lake to stop.

Vinita's 15-foot-deep reservoir holds a (M) million gallons of water. But the reservoir nearly emptied because of the pump problems.

The Vinita Fire Department says pumper trucks had enough reserve water to handle any home fires. But firefighters would have needed help from neighboring towns if there had been a major fire.