No water. High heat. Residents cope with unimaginable circumstances…
In the midst of a Texas summer that is regularly setting temperature records and will probably end up one of the state’s hottest ever, Odessa made national headlines when its main water line broke and left more than 165,000 residents without access to the vital resource.
Residents of Odessa, Texas, just west of Midland near the New Mexico border, already had enough to deal with as raging hot air caused temperatures to soar past the 100-degree mark. But the intense heat that envelops much of Texas got even tougher when thousands in this city lost water.
With this, Odessa was forced to close its hospitals, schools, and businesses because of the water shortage, while Medical Center Hospital canceled all surgeries.
The hospital has installed temporary “port-a-potties” in its halls because none of the bathrooms work. Since water is not running in the city of Odessa during this water shortage, the hospital is forced to do whatever it can to help people through the heatwave as more and more people get sick from the rising temperatures.
“I want to assure you that we’re utilizing every resource at our disposal to ensure that we get this community back to the way it was before this massive line break,” City Manager Michael Marrero said in a Facebook video. He and Public Works Director Thomas Kerr again urged residents to boil tap water to kill any bacteria before consuming it.
Resident Nikki Friday told The Associated Press that the city was providing bottled drinking water and that people with wells were offering neighbors water from hoses. She also said tanker trucks had been parked around town to fill buckets with water.
“Drinking water has not been an issue,” Friday said. “We just need water to return to our daily lives and within the community.”
The state, under Republican Governor Greg Abbott, sent in generators to power the hospital’s air conditioning system and fans. Hospitals are required by law to keep their temperatures at a certain level, so this is a top priority for the state.
The city has been making water deliveries on trucks to nursing homes, as well as setting up distribution centers at a central athletic arena. In addition, water tankers have been positioned around the city in case of fire for emergency services.
“It’s an aging infrastructure that we’re seeing. It’s a cast iron pipe, and so those are typically more susceptible to breaks than other new technologies like PVC pipe that’s going in the ground,” according to the city manager.
As residents are hopeful that the crisis is finally resolved, it’s worth noting the irony in billions of taxpayer dollars currently being sent to places like Ukraine – even as Americans in places like Odessa, Texas can’t even get drinkable water due to “ageing infrastructure”.
Source: AWM