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TOLEDO. — Long lines formed at water distribution centres yesterday and store shelves were quickly emptied of bottled water after Ohio’s fourth-largest city told residents not to drink from its water supply that was fouled by toxins possibly from algae on Lake Erie.
The warning effectively cut off the water supply to 400 000 people in Toledo, most of its suburbs and a few areas in south-eastern Michigan.
Worried residents told not to drink, brush their teeth or wash dishes with the water emptied store shelves and waited hours for deliveries of bottled water from across Ohio as the governor declared a state of emergency.
Governor John Kasich pledged that state agencies were working to bring water and other supplies to areas around Toledo while also assisting hospitals and other businesses affected by the ban.
The state also was making plans to make more deliveries if the water problem lingered, he said. — AP
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