The shaded area is under water restrictions for several days.

Well, here’s some great news for hundreds of thousands of residents of Prince George’s County. The Washington Suburban Sanitation Commission says that with its workers closing a “frozen” valve last night on a damaged 54-inch pipe that is undergoing emergency repairs, the anticipated days-long water outages will not come to pass.

“This greatly reduced the amount of pipeline that had to be shut down to make repairs to the failing 54-inch Forestville pipe,” WSSC announced in a statement today. “This means if customers continue to conserve, WSSC will be able to repair the failing pipe with no disruption in service.”

The water utility said yesterday that it needed to make immediate fixes to the pipe, a “pre-stressed concrete cylinder,” built from thin-seal plastic surrounded by concrete and steel wiring, that was losing its structural integrity. Numerous communities, including Morningside, Hillcrest Heights, Camp Springs, Forest Heights, Temple Hills, and Oxon Hill, made preparations to go as long as five days without running water. Joint Base Andrews, the headquarters of the U.S. Air Force’s 11th Air Wing—including Air Force One—prepared to reduce its operations to “mission-only” personnel. Meanwhile, restaurants and hotels throughout the affected area, especially at National Harbor in Oxon Hill, made preparations to close. The Gaylord National Resort and Convention Center had canceled reservations and conferences through the weekend.

Water use restrictions will remain in effect, likely through the end of the week. People are advised to to take short showers, flush toilets intermittently, and cease running dishwashers and washing machines, while outdoor water use is prohibited. But at least residents will not have to fear having their faucets run dry for three-to-five days.