Water, water . . . nowhere
By Suzanne Werre
BHG News
Sometimes lately Underwood’s Bobbie Maxwell feels like she’s living in "the olden days" when folks had to walk down to the creek to fill buckets of water so they could cook, take baths, wash clothes and do the other necessities of life. Kind of like Little House’s Laura Ingalls.
No, she hasn’t been trudging her way down to a creek every day, but she has gone without water a lot more than she would like, at least until recently, when the city hooked up an emergency hose from her back yard neighbor’s house leading to her family’s, so now they have water.
The Maxwells, as well as their neighbors, the Landenbergers, straight north of them and right across the street to the east, the Humphries, have not had water since March 7.
This winter, with Underwood’s seven water main breaks, that wouldn’t seem like such a big deal – a lot of people have gone without water for a day or two, or more. But they don’t not have water because of a water main break. They don’t have water because their pipes are frozen, and there appears to be nothing the city can do about it.
According to city auditor Diane Schell, the way the city used to be able to thaw pipes, by using a welder to heat and eventually thaw the pipes, doesn’t really work anymore.
