Residents in an eastern Arkansas town have been without water for the past two weeks after the state was hit by freezing temperatures, with power outages forcing residents to line up for bottled water or fill jugs. They are forced to take a shower in front of the truck that transports them. By state.
The power outage affected approximately 1,400 Helena-West Helena residents. It’s the second such event in a year for the Mississippi River town 82 miles southwest of Memphis, Tennessee. The town faced a similar crisis last summer, with water cutoffs in the same areas of the city in June.
Officials are rushing to repair leaks across the city and restore water to residents, but they face the long-term challenge of overhauling a system with decades-old infrastructure. That’s what it means.
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“The problems we are facing now have been building up for decades,” said the former state lawmaker and industrial park executive director selected by the mayor to help respond to the crisis. John Edwards said.
It is the latest U.S. community to face water shortages and other problems caused by aging infrastructure, as questions remain about how to pay for long-term repairs.
The outage affects one of two water systems in Helena and West Helena, which until 2006 were two separate cities. One of the wells feeding the system failed during recent winter weather due to pressure from leaks and dripping pipes.
Jonathan McDowell of the National Guard prepares jugs of water to distribute to people without running water on January 30, 2024 in Helena, Arkansas. (AP Photo/Karen Palfer Vogt)
“It’s hit or miss,” said Russell Hall, director of the Phillips County Emergency Management Agency. “Due to the effects of gravity and other factors, there may be a moderate amount of pressure in one house, and a slight pressure in another.”
The National Guard brought in water trucks to provide drinking water and 16 portable showers for residents to use. Every day, there is a constant line of people at distribution points to refill water for household use.
“It’s very hard to wake up in the morning and not be able to take a bath or a shower,” Mac Williams, 59, said as he picked up a bottle of water at the scene. “There are five, six, seven, eight people in the house.”
Gerald Jennings uses a yellow bucket to collect rainwater and boil it. He also uses it for bathing and flushing the toilet, just like everyone else.
“We have to take advantage of what nature has given us: the rain,” said the 58-year-old retiree, standing outside his home. “We were lucky that it was raining at this time of year.”
Lapres Staton, a 40-year-old hairdresser, was also at the water distribution site collecting water. Her home has running water, but due to the effects of the low pressure, it’s “a little yellow and a little discolored,” she said. She either boils the water or doesn’t use it at all.
She said she’s okay and hasn’t been affected as badly as others. She didn’t blame anyone for the problem.
“It’s no one’s fault,” she said. “If you own a car, she can’t keep it for 60 years without experiencing wear and tear. The pipes will experience wear.”
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders last week asked a state commission to facilitate a $100,000 emergency loan for the city to renovate two wells and replace a valve in its water system. The Arkansas Natural Resources Commission approved the second $100,000 loan the commission has issued to the city since last year’s crisis.
Sanders called the loan “part of my administration’s larger effort to help retrofit the city’s water system and prevent future system failures.”
Hall, the county’s emergency management director, said he doesn’t know when water will be restored. He said local residents have generally been understanding.
“I think people are definitely frustrated,” Hall said. “Three-quarters of 911 callers currently don’t have running water in their homes. They still have to go to work and still have to go about their daily lives.”
The big question facing the city is how much it will cost to fix the system over time and who will pay for it. Edwards said about $5 million will be needed to repair the broken well, repair the water station and other wells and keep the city safe from crisis again in the coming months.
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The city’s water outage comes as other towns are grappling with aging water infrastructure. Several other cities in Arkansas faced water shortages during the winter storm. And in the neighboring town of Mason, Tennessee, water was cut off for a week after subfreezing temperatures caused pipes to break and a neglected system to leak.
Residents in three rural areas along the Virginia border in far eastern Kentucky have also been without water for more than a week due to the frigid weather. Jackson, Mississippi’s capital, has been hit by multiple water problems in recent years, leaving people without safe running water for days or even weeks.
“What’s happening here can and will happen elsewhere,” said Edwards, director of the Industrial Park Supporting Water Crisis. “There are a lot of public facilities in this state that have aging issues, and I hope this will serve as a lesson for officials in other areas about what they can do to avoid finding themselves in this situation. .”
