Birmingham Water Drive — Birmingham Fire Department supporting the water drive at Boutwell. Photo via Pat Byington for Bham Now

The City of Birmingham is hosting a bottled water drive in front of Boutwell Auditorium to help cities impacted by last week’s snow event.

The donated water will go toward relief efforts in the following cities:

Jackson, Mississippi

Reform, Alabama

Hamilton, Alabama

Each community has either lost their water system or partial system.

“When you lose your water supply which some of these cities have; when that happens, then you have no water to drink. You have no water to shower. No water to flush the toilet. Water is life. And that’s the reason we’re doing the drive,” said Don Lupo, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Citizens Assistance.

The Magic City is asking for residents to step up and donate bottled water and gallon water jugs.

“These people are in dire need. Even if the feds, the state and other entities step in and give them money to make repairs or whatever they need to do, they still need help now,” added Lupo.

The Details

Remember, City of Birmingham will ONLY collect bottled water and gallon water jugs at Boutwell Auditorium, 1930 Rev Abraham Woods Blvd. Here is the schedule:

Thursday & Friday Feb. 25-26 – 7:30 a.m. – 4 p.m.

Saturday, Feb. 27 – 7:30 a.m. – 3 p.m.

Anyone interested in signing up as a Winter Storm Volunteer at Boutwell, should visit Hands on Birmingham at https://bit.ly/37B6UWb.

“This is a way that we can be of help. We have tornadoes, hurricanes or whatever, that affect the Birmingham area. And people come to our rescue. It’s a way that we can come to people’s rescue, Lupo concluded.

Traffic note for Boutwell Area

Water drive — Photo via Pat Byington for Bham Now

From the city of Birmingham about the traffic around Boutwell:

Please be aware that traffic flowing west from Richard Arrington Jr. Boulevard to Short 20^th Street North will be reduced to one traffic lane to allow people to drop off water in front of Boutwell. There will be one, westbound lane for drop-offs and one, westbound lane for regular traffic. The eastbound traffic in this area should not be affected.