Fordland goes without water after water main break
originally posted on November 30, 2016
FORDLAND, Mo. Fordland is spending a second day without water.
Schools there shut down, and people who live there have been without water going on 24 hours.
Crews trying to install a phone and internet line hit the city’s main water line.
In a matter of minutes 100,000 gallons of water in the tower, gone.
“We take it for granted when it’s there and then when it’s not it’s like oh boy,” said resident Gerry Culvertson.
The water loss, shut down schools, businesses, and left more than 400 people in Fordland without water.
“My wife and I we have six kids, no drinking water other than what we picked up at walmart, not being able to flush the toilets,” said Culvertson.
Contractors working for century link were trying to put in new internet lines, but when they started digging, they hit the city’s main water line.
“It’s more of an accidental thing than anything, the city has the liability to mark it within a certain stretch,” said contractor Ryan Loer.
But the mayor had another problem to deal with.
“When I showed up all i see is water pouring out of the hole,” said Mayor Donald Burks.
And the city didn’t have the right part to stop the leak.
“Water kept flowing so the more i was pumping, the more it leaked, so i had to shut the tower off which shut the whole town off,” said Mayor Burks.
It would be another 20 hours before city crews got the part and the water came back on. But city hall, the Red Cross handing out water just in case of water contamination or another leak, while some try to make the best of it.
Even though the water main is fixed, the town is still under a boil order until the water tests back clean.