This is day four of no water in the northwestern suburbs of Baltimore. If you think infrastructure investment is boring and unimportant you should try and shower in our shoes!
Saturday morning the water stopped. Saturday afternoon they finally found out why. A 36 inch water main broke. In the woods. UNDER a stream. Down a hill. Department of Public works only found it when geological monitors registered a dramatic rise in stream levels. This was only after three large tanks servicing over 100,000 people drained millions of gallons of water.
Fine. We think they found this and they'll fix it. Remaining optimistic we think that we will be without water today and tomorrow. AHAHAHAHA, foolish citizens! After all, we forgot that the City of Baltimore is in charge of our water supply. The same city that just lost their mayor to corruption, couldn't clear 3 feet of snow from the streets, and is out of money. So we wait. We wait for information. We wait for a time table for fixing the problem. We wait for water. We wait for Godot!
Monday comes. A trickle of water dribbles out of some people's faucets. Luckily the snow from our epic blizzard is still around so we collect the grey piles, melt them in our tubs, & try to flush our troubles down the drain. But wait, there's more! After missing a total of almost 2 weeks due to snow, the kids in all the local schools are off today as well! Of course, this decision was delayed letting some high school students get up at 6 am to get on a school bus to nowhere, but this is the existential universe we now inhabit!
Finally some press conferences! Eager for information we wade through the top local stories of death and violence to find out that.....they are still trying to figure out how to fix the problem. Yep, temporary small tube is attempting to fill the tanks in the interim which is like trying to fill up the new cruise ship the Oasis with a teaspoon. You can drive miles to a rec center to get water, but only l gallon per person in the house. Of course if you are elderly, you are just out of luck as well as out of water! We wait hoping to get information on when they expect things to get back to normal, and the answer is well maybe in two weeks! But they really don't want TO GIVE FALSE HOPE!
Of course as a Daily Kos member I pick up my trusty phone and try dialing for water! Silly I know especially when confronted with the lovely employee at the City Department of Public Works. Suffice to say that she didn't care if the entire suburbs descended into the seventh circle of hell and please get off the line. Not that the county employee was any better, especially when she said they only get information from the local news stations.
Well, it is Tuesday, still no school, no water, and no hope. I would cry, but I am reserving my tears to bath!