AVOCA, Iowa (KMTV) — Small towns, like Avoca, that get regional water are under a boil order and are being asked to restrict their use. A drought has left the regional water wells low.
- At Foodland, the store manager was working to keep bottled water stocked on the shelves. She expects another shipment on Friday.
- At a meeting with the water board, local officials expressed frustration that their communities didn't have clean drinking water.
- Regional Water Rural Water Associationis working on a short-term plan to pipe water from Council Bluffs.
- Drinking water will be distributed at Avoca City Hall and Fire Station Thursday and Friday evenings between 5 and 7 p.m.
WATCH KATRINA'S STORY BELOW
BROADCAST TRANSCRIPT:
I’m Southwest Iowa Neighborhood Reporter Katrina Markel in Avoca. I’m here because regional water officials say a water crisis could last more than a week.
“We need to establish, like adults that the issue was made by over-promising and under-delivering,” said Heath Hansen.
Emotions boiling over as people in this part of the state learn restrictions will persist.
Neighbors on regional rural water in five southwest Iowa counties are affected by low water pressure and a boil order. Audubon County Supervisor Heath Hansen was among those demanding answers from the regional water board.
Hansen: “I have people calling me because their babies and old folks don’t have water.”
A problem caused by drought for the last five years said General Manager Tom Kallman during the Thursday meeting: “Southwest Iowa has been the victim, if you will, than a lot of the rest of the state.”
At Foodland in Avoca, manager Amy McCoy is trying to keep the shelves stocked with bottled water: “We got 25 cases of the bottled waters and then we’ve got another pallet of this comin’ in.”
Just like Hansen, McCoy is worried about elderly neighbors. She’s offering to deliver water personally to customers who need help.
Katrina: “You said it was scary?”
Amy: “Yeah, I mean, because what if we run out of water and nobody can have any — and then what are we going to do?”
Neighbors, she says, want answers.
Amy: “They’re kind of upset. They don’t know what’s going on yet.”
While the meeting down the road from the grocery store occasionally got heated, officials resolved to improve communication with each other and affected communities.
A short-term fix from Council Bluffs is on the way, but residents should expect to boil and restrict water usage for another week to ten days.
The regional water manager says, best case scenario, they should be able to start pumping water from Council Bluffs by Wednesday night. In Avoca, I’m your southwest Iowa neighborhood reporter, Katrina Markel.
