HELENA-WEST HELENA, Ark. — Residents of an eastern Arkansas city have been without running water for the past two weeks after the state was hit by freezing temperatures, and the outage forced them to wait in line for water bottled and fill it. bottles or shower in a truck brought by the State.
The blackout affecting about 1,400 Helena-West Helena residents is the second in the past year in the small city 52 miles (84 kilometers) southwest of Memphis, Tennessee, located along the Mississippi River.
The city faced a similar crisis last summer, when the same part of the city ran out of water in June.
Local officials are racing to fix leaks across the city and return water to residents, but they say they face the long-term challenge of overhauling a system with infrastructure that dates back decades.
“The problems we face now have been building up for decades,” said John Edwards, a former state legislator and executive director of an industrial park whom the mayor has tapped to help respond to the water crisis.
The outages are affecting one of Helena-West Helena’s two water systems, which were two separate cities until 2006. One of the wells serving the system failed during the winter weather that hit the state, under pressure from leaks and pipe drips.
“It’s unpredictable,” said Russell Hall, director of the Phillips County Office of Emergency Management. “One house may have half-decent pressure and another house may have a leak, depending on gravity and other things.”
George Jackson fills gallon jugs of water as other Phillips County employees distribute water to people without water on Tuesday, Jan. 30, 2024, in Helena, Arkansas. AP
The state National Guard brought in a water tanker to provide drinking water and a 16-stall portable shower was brought in for residents to use. Every day, water distribution sites have seen a constant line of people filling up water to use in their homes.
“It’s very difficult when you wake up in the morning and you can’t take a bath or shower,” said Mack Williams, 59, while picking up bottled water at a county distribution site. “You have five, six, seven, eight people in the house, it’s very difficult.”
Gerald Jennings has been using a yellow bucket to collect rainwater and boil it, then use it for bathing and flushing toilets. He said he knows of others who do the same.
Phillips County fills gallon jugs while other employees distribute water to people without water. AP
“I have to take advantage of what nature gave me, which was the rain,” said this 58-year-old retiree, in front of his house. “We were lucky that it was raining during this particular time.”
Laprece Stayton, a 40-year-old beautician, was collecting water at a distribution site. She said she had running water at her house, but that she had low pressure and it came out “a little yellow, a little discolored.” She is either boiling water or not using it at all.
She said it was okay because she feels like she’s not as affected as other people and she doesn’t blame any one person for the problems.
“It’s nobody’s fault,” he said. “If you have a car, you can’t keep it for 60 years without it wearing out. The pipes will wear out.”
Phillips County brought in a mobile shower unit. AP
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders last week urged a state commission to expedite a $100,000 emergency loan for the city to renovate two wells and replace valves in the city’s water system. Since then, the Arkansas Natural Resources Commission approved the panel’s second $100,000 loan to the city since last year’s crisis.
Sanders called the loan “part of my administration’s broader efforts to help the city renew its water system and prevent future system failures.”
Hall, the county’s Emergency Management director, said he doesn’t know when the water will be restored. He said citizens have generally understood the emergency water distribution process.
Jonathan McDowell of the National Guard helps Phillips County employees distribute water. AP
“I’m sure people are frustrated,” Hall said. “Three-quarters of my 911 operators do not have water in their home right now. “They have to come to work and get on with their daily lives.”
The biggest question facing the city is how much the long-term repair of its water system will cost and who will pay for it. Edwards said it would cost about $5 million to repair the broken well and make fixes to the water plant and other wells that would help prevent the city from falling into the same crisis in six months.
The city’s water outage comes as other cities face problems with their aging water infrastructure. Several other cities faced water shortages in Arkansas during the winter storm. And in neighboring Tennessee, the rural town of Mason was without water for a week after frigid temperatures burst pipes and caused leaks in its neglected system.
Residents of three rural communities in far eastern Kentucky, along the Virginia border, have also been without water for more than a week due to freezing weather.
“What’s happening here can and will happen in other places,” said Edwards, an industrial park director who helped during the water crisis. “We have a lot of utilities in this state that have aging problems, and I hope this is a warning about what officials in other communities can do to avoid finding themselves in this circumstance.”
Categories: Trending
Source: vtt.edu.vn