During the wild swings in temperature of the month of February, many rural communities managed to avoid too much damage to their water infrastructure. Midale, as it turns out, did not avoid that damage entirely, however. 

The town has been forced to shut off their water by what they are describing as a significant water main break. The shut-off first happened at about 9:30 this morning and has extended to the entire town.

"We have a water main break in town here," said administrative assistant Vanessa Lund. "Right now they're trying to isolate where the water main break. We had to shut the water off, hopefully for not too long but we really don't know for how long yet."

A resident first called the town at about 9:30 to say their water pressure was really low, and it wasn't long after that (about twenty minutes in fact) they were forced to shut the water off. While they're still trying to isolate the break, they knew it was serious in a hurry. 

"We gave them as much notice as we possibly could before we had to shut the water off," said Lund. "It is a very major break. Water was gushing." 

A boil-water advisory has not yet come down for Midale, but Lund said people should expect one soon. They won't know how long it's going to take to fix this break until they know more about it. 

"Be patient with us," she said. "We're doing the best we can and trying to fix everything as quickly as we possibly can. We know just as much as everybody else how much it sucks not to have water so we're trying our best."

The school has been shut down for the day and parents have been asked to come pick their children up. Lund added they would likely need to issue a boil water advisory before the morning was out.