BECKLEY, W.Va. — About a thousand water customers in Raleigh County continue to make do with no water service into their homes. Many lost water Christmas Day and haven’t seen the service restored since. John Zilinski heads up the Emergency Services in Raleigh County and said they are making progress in their repairs, but for those still without water, it’s not much consolation.
“They’re still looking at a few days to get water all the way down to the Whitesville area, but things are looking up and there’s progress being made,” he said.
The issues started over the Christmas holiday when a deep freeze caused numerous pipes to freeze and burst as they thawed out. The incident couldn’t have come at a worse time with businesses closed and some people out of town for the holiday many of those leaks went undetected. Broken pipes leaked thousands and thousands of gallons off water from the system. The leaks were so widespread they caused a collapse of the entire system’s pressure and made it impossible to refill tanks in rural public service districts which get water from Beckley Water.
“A lot of the leaks they are finding in the system are on the customers’ side. These leaks are having to be turned off. A lot of sprinkler systems were broken and busted and it seemed to have a chain reaction effect all across the system,” said Zilinski in an appearance on MetroNews Talkline.
Zilinski said for many of the homes which are just now getting service restored, they’re finding their pipes are also broken and need to be repaired. The discoveries continue to make the recovery painfully slow.
“As soon as water is being restored where people haven’t had water since Christmas, they’re just now getting water into their pipes and learning they have an issue,” he explained.
Crews from West Virginia American Water Company has been assisting Beckley Water to find those leaks and repair them where needed and cutting off water service when the issue is on the customer side of the meter.
As for those still out of water, pallets of bottled water as well as tankers are set up at volunteer fire departments across the county. Zilinski said for those who are unable to come to the fire hall to pick up water, the fire department is trying to deliver it where they can in their service territory.
“We’ve encouraged anybody who is disabled, in their house, shut in or elderly and can’t get out, all of these fire departments have been delivering water. Those folks are encouraged to call 9-1-1 and report the need,” Zilinski said.
Because of the lack of full restoration, Raleigh County Schools have been cancelled for the rest of the week. They still have not returned from the Christmas break.