Four years later, you might think things have improved in the Michigan city.
But it also feels like a bizarre one in a city where many people are unlikely to ever drink another drop of tap water so long as they live.
But for the roughly 100,000 people who live here, the damage is done.
High levels of bacteria, industrial waste and sewage were found in the river repeatedly over the next 90 years.
Currently, 41.9% of Flint’s residents live in poverty.
Some Flint resident did receive Medicaid following the crisis, a common way for government to expand healthcare to families, usually following a natural disaster.
She received a five-year grant from the National Institutes of Health to study how to improve the health of Flint residents, ranging from substance abuse to trauma.
“What the water crisis did was bring to light all the other issues.” If all Flint residents received fully funded health insurance, say, through an act of Congress, the best recent example would be the James Zadroga Act, which established health benefits for people who responded to, worked or lived near Ground Zero on 9/11.
For Walters, and many like her, the routine since sky-high lead levels were found in Flint’s water remains the same.
Walters’ husband lives in Virginia.