JACKSON, miss. – There was no power, the temperature was in the 20’s and the roads were impassable when Vince Gordon lost water at his home in South Jackson in mid-February.
His family crouched down with a generator and the water supply they had bought to prepare for the winter storm. By the end of the week, the ice had melted. But when they checked the tap, nothing came out.
For much of the city, it stayed that way for three weeks. And although Jackson announced on Friday that most of the city’s water service has been restored, the crisis is not yet over.
At the Global Connection Learning Center, a daycare center serving 59 children, there is still tape over the sinks to ensure that children do not use them, as much of Jackson remains under boiling water warning. The team members wash the children’s hands and the dishes in the center with mineral water. Nancy Sylvester, the center’s director, takes bibs and quilts to her home in nearby Clinton to wash them.
At the height of the crisis, it is estimated that at least 40,000 residents in Jackson and neighboring Byram have lost their water service. Although residents are no longer melting snow or collecting rainwater in buckets to flush toilets, authorities have yet to prove that most of the city’s water is safe to drink. For many residents, frequenting the water supply has become part of their daily routine.
Life today is “just getting water and trying to make it work,” said southern Jackson resident Alonzo Mabry, who has been scouring the city for free bottled water for his 94-year-old mother, who is bedridden.
Authorities hope to start raising the boiling water warning next week, but the challenges remain. In the absence of a review of what Jackson Mayor Chokwe Lumumba called infrastructure similar to “peanut brittle”, and the hundreds of millions of dollars to make it a reality, the threat of the next disruption looms.
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Although previous cold waves have caused interruptions in the water supply, local residents say this year’s interruption is one of the worst in recent history. Danyelle Holmes, director of field for Poor People’s Campaign and a resident of Jackson, spent much of last month helping to distribute water in the city. She had seen commercials from international charities showing families and young children filling buckets and jars with water. Now it was happening at home.
Holmes is not surprised that the infrastructure in a city where some of the plumbing before the Great Depression “went sour”.
Jackson is a city with an estimated $ 2 billion infrastructure problem – the cost of delayed water and sewage overhauls – and an annual budget of $ 300 million. Twenty-five percent of Jackson residents live below the poverty line. The city’s average income is just under $ 39,000. Although it is the largest city in Mississippi, Jackson, where 82 percent of residents are black, has struggled. Decades of white flight have reduced the city’s economic base.
“All of this happened to individuals through no fault of their own, and yet they had to suffer,” she said.
For years, the city struggled to collect overdue water bills from residents, while local residents reported receiving astronomical bills of $ 1,000 or more. In 2014, voters passed an additional 1 percent sales tax to make improvements. This earned the city $ 13 million to $ 15 million a year for improvements, but it is still insufficient.
Jackson’s public works director, Charles Williams, said on Thursday that his top priority is ensuring that residents have drinking water again. But he also spent time lobbying for state funding that could help prevent future crises.
“We are not done yet,” he said.
The city’s most recent chapter in a long history of infrastructure problems began on February 15, when a winter storm hit Mississippi and much of the south.
In Jackson, critical machines froze at the city’s water station. There followed an abrupt drop in water pressure, further taxing the city’s water supply, as residents kept their taps dripping in an attempt to prevent the pipes from freezing. The gradual return of pressure as temperatures warmed up proved to be too much for the Jackson system to handle. About 100 confirmed water outages followed in the city, creating another setback in efforts to restore water supplies.
A coalition of grassroots groups formed a rapid response team to provide residents with water. Organizers also provided cash aid to residents who lost their jobs due to the storm or found it difficult to replace groceries that went bad when electricity was cut off.
Natt Offiah, an effort volunteer, monitored the group’s hotline. A woman who called several days for help was incredulous when she learned that the group was not part of a government-led response. Pipes had burst into her home and she was desperate for help to stay in a hotel. While the group worked to collect donations to house it, she told Offiah that she had never heard of a state or federal agency that used methods like the Cash App to deliver aid funds. She asked if they were a scam.
“I thought it was the government. Do you know if the state is doing anything? She asked Offiah.
Almost a week would pass before the National Guard arrived to distribute water.
“At the moment, we all do,” Offiah told her, recalling that “his mood has changed from anger to frustration and a little shock. The disappointment was pointed out by the state’s lack of response. “
Bailey Martin, a spokesman for the Mississippi governor’s office, Tate Reeves, said the governor had responded to several requests made by Hinds County, where Jackson is located, including water delivery. Reeves, a Republican, signed an executive order on February 23 to send the National Guard as soon as local authorities made the request, said Martin. The members arrived with four tank trucks the next day.
She added that Reeves “couldn’t be more proud” of the work that the National Guard and the state emergency management agency have done in the past 13 months.
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Before the recent storm, many residents say a deep freeze in 2018 was a warning shot. The icy temperatures caused a series of disruptions to the main network, leaving some residents without water during the week. The event also closed schools in the city for several days. Many campuses in the district did not have sufficient water pressure to flush or heat buildings.
That same month, the city council signaled its support for a possible litigation against a private company charged with updating the city’s water collection system, resulting in an eventual settlement in 2020. Jackson received about $ 60 million in funds, but high expenses remain. The past few weeks have further exposed the fragility of the city’s water system.
While the teams worked to restore service, Lumumba and the city’s legislative delegation began lobbying state officials for an adjournment. Lumumba wrote a letter to the state’s Republican leadership and the Congressional delegation, requesting $ 47 million in aid.
Another option, introduced by state deputy Chris Bell, D-Jackson, would allow the city to bring in another tax hike ahead of voters for repairs. But the legislation must pass the chambers and pass Reeves’ desk before it becomes law. As the end date of the April 4 legislative session approaches, it is unclear whether lawmakers will take action.
The city submitted a $ 16 million damage assessment in hopes of securing federal relief. Michelle Atoa, a spokesman for the mayor’s office, said the authorities anticipate sending an additional request when additional costs are determined.
Williams expressed hope on Thursday that funds from Covid-19’s latest aid package, recently signed by President Joe Biden, will reach Jackson and provide a start.
In the meantime, some residents, like Holmes, are not waiting for a solution to be drafted. The climate change that has pushed warmer summers and more severe winters in the region, she said, means that the city’s system will be hit again. She is already discussing with the organizers how to prepare for the next one.
“We can never say, ‘we will not see this day again,'” she said. “We know that the next time we go through this, it will be worse.”