FLORENCE, SC (WPDE) — Florence city officials said water service has been restored throughout the city after an unexpected problem with the surface water treatment plant forced it to be taken offline.

The problem caused low water pressure throughout the system, leaving thousands without water and with low pressure.

Florence City Council members held an emergency meeting Saturday morning to discuss the incident.

According to City Manager Scotty Davis, city staff did not follow standard procedures.

He said senior management should have been informed early about the system-wide water problem, but this did not happen.

According to the city government, flooding from Tropical Storm Debby caused the sewage treatment plant to receive water that contained “high levels of organic material.”

READ MORE: ‘Unexpected problem’ at Florence wastewater treatment plant causes low water pressure

Frankly, it was a failure of our staff, Scotty said.

The city council said it was aware of the impact the water supply outage had on the entire community and had taken measures to ensure that it would not happen again.

Councilwoman LaShanda NeSmith assured the public that all parties were working to prevent future problems and that emergency responders should have communicated better.

“The city staff, definitely not the council members. The city staff that oversees our water and other things are the ones that kind of messed up and basically didn’t inform everybody in a timely manner about what was going on,” Smith said.

The boil water advisory remains in effect until further notice. Authorities hope to lift the boil water advisory on Sunday.