Comment JACKSON, Miss. — Gov. Tate Reeves on Thursday deployed 600 National Guard troops to a bulk water distribution facility in Mississippi’s capital as workers scrambled to repair beleaguered facility pumps that have left many without reliable running water for weeks, with no end in sight. State officials opened seven bulk water distribution sites staffed from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. by National Guard troops, complementing the city spaces operated by fire stations, churches and non-profit organizations. Cities across the region also have trucks on the water to help Jackson. By afternoon, cars were lined up at state facilities, including the fairgrounds, where officials told reporters the sites would be supplied by 108 trucks for the next few days, enough water for the city’s 150,000 residents, plus 30,000 out-of-town workers. . “To everyone in the city: I know you’re dealing with a deeply unfair situation,” Reeves said, flanked by state officials and Jackson Mayor Chokwe Atar. Lumumba. “It’s disappointing, it’s wrong and it needs to be fixed.” He reported some progress: By Thursday, one of the plant’s two broken pumps had been replaced with an emergency rental pump, doubling the water pressure from the day before, Reeves said. The second pump was expected to be repaired early next week, though it was unclear when water would be restored to the entire city, he said. Reeves declared a state of emergency late Monday after flooding from the Pearl River worsened problems at one of the city’s two water treatment plants. The city has been under a boil water notice since late July because of what the state called quality issues, and the water plant has been plagued by problems in recent years, including staff shortages, failed environmental inspections, frost and fire. On Tuesday, President Biden approved a state emergency declaration and on Wednesday called Lumumba to discuss response efforts, including support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers. An aide said Biden expressed his desire to address the crisis and help rebuild Jackson’s water infrastructure. Lumumba said Vice President Harris also contacted him, while FEMA Administrator Dana Criswell spoke with Reeves and was scheduled to visit Jackson on Friday. FEMA officials and EPA experts were also on the ground coordinating with state teams, White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre said. “We are focusing our efforts on immediate needs to ensure safe drinking water is available for those who need it,” FEMA spokeswoman Jaclyn Rothenberg tweeted. Reeves, a Republican, and Lumumba, a Democrat, have both faced criticism for allowing the city’s infrastructure problems to fester, criticism reflected in scathing online comments from residents during Thursday’s live update. But Reeves rejected accusations of partisanship and the pair cited the need to work together. “My representation here is a symbol of the unity that is taking place, a symbol of the coalition working hand in hand to ensure that we keep the primary focus on the people of Jackson,” Lumumba said, noting that “as Gov. , there may come a time when certain other questions will arise.’ Speaking on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” before the briefing, Lumumba said the city had been warning of problems for three years, saying “it’s not a question of if the systems will fail, but when.” “It’s certainly been an accumulation of challenges and disinvestment over the years, over three decades. …” he said. “We’re glad to have the state on board. city to deal with,” since the fixes will cost about $2 billion. Historically, Jackson’s water problems have disproportionately affected the city’s low-income black communities, said LaTosha Brown and Cliff Albright, co-founders of the local advocacy group Black Voters Matter. “At the root of this crisis is systemic racism and the willful failure of local and state governments to redirect infrastructure funds that could have helped solve this issue years ago,” they said in a statement, noting that the city is about 83 percent Black. “This crisis is not an isolated event,” they wrote, referring to the water crisis in Flint, Mich., which led to criminal investigations, resignations of public officials and a $641 million class-action settlement this year. Councilman Aaron Banks, who has represented Jackson’s mostly black, low-income south side for six years, said has been disproportionately affected by water service outages, which he blamed not only on race but also on class. Banks visited the water plant Thursday and said he was encouraged to see federal experts coming in to help. “We are praying that one of the pumps that are working now doesn’t fail because there is no spare pump,” he said. “Right now there is a good flow. The thing is, you have very old equipment and that contributes to things breaking down, especially when the system is under so much stress.” He worried that rain forecast for the next few days could swell the Pearl River again and cause new flooding. Living in “Deep South Jackson,” he said, not a week has gone by in the past two years without some kind of water outage. Lately he has been showering at his mother’s house nearby, which has water from a well. “For us, unfortunately, it’s becoming the norm,” Banks said. The city’s water pressure and quality remained unreliable across the city Thursday, from the South Side to the tony Fondren neighborhood north of downtown and high-rise subsidized housing for the elderly and disabled. Jackson schools held classes online as of Tuesday, some restaurants were closed and portable restrooms appeared outside the Capitol and Jackson University. Across the city, nonprofit groups like the Mississippi Rapid Response Coalition, which is made up of more than 30 organizations in the state, have set up water distribution centers in the middle of affected neighborhoods. Hour-long lines at these centers sometimes stretch nearly a mile. Sarah Streep, executive director of the nonprofit Springboard to Opportunities, is trying to provide water to 700 families the group works with in federally subsidized housing. “There has been chaos,” he said. “There was different water pressure depending on where people were in the city. Scroll up and down all the communities we work in. There have been times when it has been clean, times when it has turned brown.” He said elderly residents had difficulty finding transportation to water distribution sites. And her team struggled to find in-state and out-of-state water suppliers. “Yesterday, the closest we could find was Memphis,” he said. The group ended up paying $2,000 for the water from Alabama, he said, and it was still uncertain how much would arrive Friday. Kali Akuno, co-founder and co-director of Cooperation Jackson, said grassroots organizations are struggling to meet the huge need. People began queuing at one of the group’s distribution points two hours before it was scheduled to open on Thursday morning. “This is unbearable,” said Veronica Jackson, a 39-year-old mother of two boys, ages 6 and 14. “We pay $2 a gallon for water, and that’s if you can find it.” But Jackson feels lucky. Her youngest son’s private school has remained open, and she can leave her 14-year-old at home to take Zoom lessons on his own while she works. He says it’s not ideal, but he has to keep working, in part to keep providing water. “I’ve been paying between $300 and $400 a month in water bills and you can’t even use the water half the time,” he said. Before Thursday, the governor and mayor held separate daily news conferences to update residents on the crisis, which Jessica Carter, organizing director of the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy, said underscores the heart of the problem they face. the people of Jackson. “The governor talks about unity and cohesion in all of his speeches,” Carter said. “But it seems they can’t even be in the same room.” Carter, who moved to Jackson three years ago, said the first thing everyone told her was not to drink the water without filtering it first. Now she’s worried about even using it to bathe her 2-year-old daughter. “I was very worried about giving my daughter a bath,” she said. “It’s bath time, she’s a child, she likes to put things in her mouth during bath time, so I have to be extra careful.”
title: “State And Federal Officials Are Responding To The Jackson Miss. Water Crisis Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-12-07” author: “Veronica Kaiser”
Comment JACKSON, Miss. — Gov. Tate Reeves on Thursday deployed 600 National Guard troops to a bulk water distribution facility in Mississippi’s capital as workers scrambled to repair beleaguered facility pumps that have left many without reliable running water for weeks, with no end in sight. State officials opened seven bulk water distribution sites staffed from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. by National Guard troops, complementing the city spaces operated by fire stations, churches and non-profit organizations. Cities across the region also have trucks on the water to help Jackson. By afternoon, cars were lined up at state facilities, including the fairgrounds, where officials told reporters the sites would be supplied by 108 trucks for the next few days, enough water for the city’s 150,000 residents, plus 30,000 out-of-town workers. . “To everyone in the city: I know you’re dealing with a deeply unfair situation,” Reeves said, flanked by state officials and Jackson Mayor Chokwe Atar. Lumumba. “It’s disappointing, it’s wrong and it needs to be fixed.” He reported some progress: By Thursday, one of the plant’s two broken pumps had been replaced with an emergency rental pump, doubling the water pressure from the day before, Reeves said. The second pump was expected to be repaired early next week, though it was unclear when water would be restored to the entire city, he said. Reeves declared a state of emergency late Monday after flooding from the Pearl River worsened problems at one of the city’s two water treatment plants. The city has been under a boil water notice since late July because of what the state called quality issues, and the water plant has been plagued by problems in recent years, including staff shortages, failed environmental inspections, frost and fire. On Tuesday, President Biden approved a state emergency declaration and on Wednesday called Lumumba to discuss response efforts, including support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers. An aide said Biden expressed his desire to address the crisis and help rebuild Jackson’s water infrastructure. Lumumba said Vice President Harris also contacted him, while FEMA Administrator Dana Criswell spoke with Reeves and was scheduled to visit Jackson on Friday. FEMA officials and EPA experts were also on the ground coordinating with state teams, White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre said. “We are focusing our efforts on immediate needs to ensure safe drinking water is available for those who need it,” FEMA spokeswoman Jaclyn Rothenberg tweeted. Reeves, a Republican, and Lumumba, a Democrat, have both faced criticism for allowing the city’s infrastructure problems to fester, criticism reflected in scathing online comments from residents during Thursday’s live update. But Reeves rejected accusations of partisanship and the pair cited the need to work together. “My representation here is a symbol of the unity that is taking place, a symbol of the coalition working hand in hand to ensure that we keep the primary focus on the people of Jackson,” Lumumba said, noting that “as Gov. , there may come a time when certain other questions will arise.’ Speaking on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” before the briefing, Lumumba said the city had been warning of problems for three years, saying “it’s not a question of if the systems will fail, but when.” “It’s certainly been an accumulation of challenges and disinvestment over the years, over three decades. …” he said. “We’re glad to have the state on board. city to deal with,” since the fixes will cost about $2 billion. Historically, Jackson’s water problems have disproportionately affected the city’s low-income black communities, said LaTosha Brown and Cliff Albright, co-founders of the local advocacy group Black Voters Matter. “At the root of this crisis is systemic racism and the willful failure of local and state governments to redirect infrastructure funds that could have helped solve this issue years ago,” they said in a statement, noting that the city is about 83 percent Black. “This crisis is not an isolated event,” they wrote, referring to the water crisis in Flint, Mich., which led to criminal investigations, resignations of public officials and a $641 million class-action settlement this year. Councilman Aaron Banks, who has represented Jackson’s mostly black, low-income south side for six years, said has been disproportionately affected by water service outages, which he blamed not only on race but also on class. Banks visited the water plant Thursday and said he was encouraged to see federal experts coming in to help. “We are praying that one of the pumps that are working now doesn’t fail because there is no spare pump,” he said. “Right now there is a good flow. The thing is, you have very old equipment and that contributes to things breaking down, especially when the system is under so much stress.” He worried that rain forecast for the next few days could swell the Pearl River again and cause new flooding. Living in “Deep South Jackson,” he said, not a week has gone by in the past two years without some kind of water outage. Lately he has been showering at his mother’s house nearby, which has water from a well. “For us, unfortunately, it’s becoming the norm,” Banks said. The city’s water pressure and quality remained unreliable across the city Thursday, from the South Side to the tony Fondren neighborhood north of downtown and high-rise subsidized housing for the elderly and disabled. Jackson schools held classes online as of Tuesday, some restaurants were closed and portable restrooms appeared outside the Capitol and Jackson University. Across the city, nonprofit groups like the Mississippi Rapid Response Coalition, which is made up of more than 30 organizations in the state, have set up water distribution centers in the middle of affected neighborhoods. Hour-long lines at these centers sometimes stretch nearly a mile. Sarah Streep, executive director of the nonprofit Springboard to Opportunities, is trying to provide water to 700 families the group works with in federally subsidized housing. “There has been chaos,” he said. “There was different water pressure depending on where people were in the city. Scroll up and down all the communities we work in. There have been times when it has been clean, times when it has turned brown.” He said elderly residents had difficulty finding transportation to water distribution sites. And her team struggled to find in-state and out-of-state water suppliers. “Yesterday, the closest we could find was Memphis,” he said. The group ended up paying $2,000 for the water from Alabama, he said, and it was still uncertain how much would arrive Friday. Kali Akuno, co-founder and co-director of Cooperation Jackson, said grassroots organizations are struggling to meet the huge need. People began queuing at one of the group’s distribution points two hours before it was scheduled to open on Thursday morning. “This is unbearable,” said Veronica Jackson, a 39-year-old mother of two boys, ages 6 and 14. “We pay $2 a gallon for water, and that’s if you can find it.” But Jackson feels lucky. Her youngest son’s private school has remained open, and she can leave her 14-year-old at home to take Zoom lessons on his own while she works. He says it’s not ideal, but he has to keep working, in part to keep providing water. “I’ve been paying between $300 and $400 a month in water bills and you can’t even use the water half the time,” he said. Before Thursday, the governor and mayor held separate daily news conferences to update residents on the crisis, which Jessica Carter, organizing director of the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy, said underscores the heart of the problem they face. the people of Jackson. “The governor talks about unity and cohesion in all of his speeches,” Carter said. “But it seems they can’t even be in the same room.” Carter, who moved to Jackson three years ago, said the first thing everyone told her was not to drink the water without filtering it first. Now she’s worried about even using it to bathe her 2-year-old daughter. “I was very worried about giving my daughter a bath,” she said. “It’s bath time, she’s a child, she likes to put things in her mouth during bath time, so I have to be extra careful.”
title: “State And Federal Officials Are Responding To The Jackson Miss. Water Crisis Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-10-22” author: “Angie Ohlsen”
Comment JACKSON, Miss. — Gov. Tate Reeves on Thursday deployed 600 National Guard troops to a bulk water distribution facility in Mississippi’s capital as workers scrambled to repair beleaguered facility pumps that have left many without reliable running water for weeks, with no end in sight. State officials opened seven bulk water distribution sites staffed from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. by National Guard troops, complementing the city spaces operated by fire stations, churches and non-profit organizations. Cities across the region also have trucks on the water to help Jackson. By afternoon, cars were lined up at state facilities, including the fairgrounds, where officials told reporters the sites would be supplied by 108 trucks for the next few days, enough water for the city’s 150,000 residents, plus 30,000 out-of-town workers. . “To everyone in the city: I know you’re dealing with a deeply unfair situation,” Reeves said, flanked by state officials and Jackson Mayor Chokwe Atar. Lumumba. “It’s disappointing, it’s wrong and it needs to be fixed.” He reported some progress: By Thursday, one of the plant’s two broken pumps had been replaced with an emergency rental pump, doubling the water pressure from the day before, Reeves said. The second pump was expected to be repaired early next week, though it was unclear when water would be restored to the entire city, he said. Reeves declared a state of emergency late Monday after flooding from the Pearl River worsened problems at one of the city’s two water treatment plants. The city has been under a boil water notice since late July because of what the state called quality issues, and the water plant has been plagued by problems in recent years, including staff shortages, failed environmental inspections, frost and fire. On Tuesday, President Biden approved a state emergency declaration and on Wednesday called Lumumba to discuss response efforts, including support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers. An aide said Biden expressed his desire to address the crisis and help rebuild Jackson’s water infrastructure. Lumumba said Vice President Harris also contacted him, while FEMA Administrator Dana Criswell spoke with Reeves and was scheduled to visit Jackson on Friday. FEMA officials and EPA experts were also on the ground coordinating with state teams, White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre said. “We are focusing our efforts on immediate needs to ensure safe drinking water is available for those who need it,” FEMA spokeswoman Jaclyn Rothenberg tweeted. Reeves, a Republican, and Lumumba, a Democrat, have both faced criticism for allowing the city’s infrastructure problems to fester, criticism reflected in scathing online comments from residents during Thursday’s live update. But Reeves rejected accusations of partisanship and the pair cited the need to work together. “My representation here is a symbol of the unity that is taking place, a symbol of the coalition working hand in hand to ensure that we keep the primary focus on the people of Jackson,” Lumumba said, noting that “as Gov. , there may come a time when certain other questions will arise.’ Speaking on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” before the briefing, Lumumba said the city had been warning of problems for three years, saying “it’s not a question of if the systems will fail, but when.” “It’s certainly been an accumulation of challenges and disinvestment over the years, over three decades. …” he said. “We’re glad to have the state on board. city to deal with,” since the fixes will cost about $2 billion. Historically, Jackson’s water problems have disproportionately affected the city’s low-income black communities, said LaTosha Brown and Cliff Albright, co-founders of the local advocacy group Black Voters Matter. “At the root of this crisis is systemic racism and the willful failure of local and state governments to redirect infrastructure funds that could have helped solve this issue years ago,” they said in a statement, noting that the city is about 83 percent Black. “This crisis is not an isolated event,” they wrote, referring to the water crisis in Flint, Mich., which led to criminal investigations, resignations of public officials and a $641 million class-action settlement this year. Councilman Aaron Banks, who has represented Jackson’s mostly black, low-income south side for six years, said has been disproportionately affected by water service outages, which he blamed not only on race but also on class. Banks visited the water plant Thursday and said he was encouraged to see federal experts coming in to help. “We are praying that one of the pumps that are working now doesn’t fail because there is no spare pump,” he said. “Right now there is a good flow. The thing is, you have very old equipment and that contributes to things breaking down, especially when the system is under so much stress.” He worried that rain forecast for the next few days could swell the Pearl River again and cause new flooding. Living in “Deep South Jackson,” he said, not a week has gone by in the past two years without some kind of water outage. Lately he has been showering at his mother’s house nearby, which has water from a well. “For us, unfortunately, it’s becoming the norm,” Banks said. The city’s water pressure and quality remained unreliable across the city Thursday, from the South Side to the tony Fondren neighborhood north of downtown and high-rise subsidized housing for the elderly and disabled. Jackson schools held classes online as of Tuesday, some restaurants were closed and portable restrooms appeared outside the Capitol and Jackson University. Across the city, nonprofit groups like the Mississippi Rapid Response Coalition, which is made up of more than 30 organizations in the state, have set up water distribution centers in the middle of affected neighborhoods. Hour-long lines at these centers sometimes stretch nearly a mile. Sarah Streep, executive director of the nonprofit Springboard to Opportunities, is trying to provide water to 700 families the group works with in federally subsidized housing. “There has been chaos,” he said. “There was different water pressure depending on where people were in the city. Scroll up and down all the communities we work in. There have been times when it has been clean, times when it has turned brown.” He said elderly residents had difficulty finding transportation to water distribution sites. And her team struggled to find in-state and out-of-state water suppliers. “Yesterday, the closest we could find was Memphis,” he said. The group ended up paying $2,000 for the water from Alabama, he said, and it was still uncertain how much would arrive Friday. Kali Akuno, co-founder and co-director of Cooperation Jackson, said grassroots organizations are struggling to meet the huge need. People began queuing at one of the group’s distribution points two hours before it was scheduled to open on Thursday morning. “This is unbearable,” said Veronica Jackson, a 39-year-old mother of two boys, ages 6 and 14. “We pay $2 a gallon for water, and that’s if you can find it.” But Jackson feels lucky. Her youngest son’s private school has remained open, and she can leave her 14-year-old at home to take Zoom lessons on his own while she works. He says it’s not ideal, but he has to keep working, in part to keep providing water. “I’ve been paying between $300 and $400 a month in water bills and you can’t even use the water half the time,” he said. Before Thursday, the governor and mayor held separate daily news conferences to update residents on the crisis, which Jessica Carter, organizing director of the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy, said underscores the heart of the problem they face. the people of Jackson. “The governor talks about unity and cohesion in all of his speeches,” Carter said. “But it seems they can’t even be in the same room.” Carter, who moved to Jackson three years ago, said the first thing everyone told her was not to drink the water without filtering it first. Now she’s worried about even using it to bathe her 2-year-old daughter. “I was very worried about giving my daughter a bath,” she said. “It’s bath time, she’s a child, she likes to put things in her mouth during bath time, so I have to be extra careful.”
title: “State And Federal Officials Are Responding To The Jackson Miss. Water Crisis Klmat” ShowToc: true date: “2022-11-02” author: “Mark Hackler”
Comment JACKSON, Miss. — Gov. Tate Reeves on Thursday deployed 600 National Guard troops to a bulk water distribution facility in Mississippi’s capital as workers scrambled to repair beleaguered facility pumps that have left many without reliable running water for weeks, with no end in sight. State officials opened seven bulk water distribution sites staffed from 9 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. by National Guard troops, complementing the city spaces operated by fire stations, churches and non-profit organizations. Cities across the region also have trucks on the water to help Jackson. By afternoon, cars were lined up at state facilities, including the fairgrounds, where officials told reporters the sites would be supplied by 108 trucks for the next few days, enough water for the city’s 150,000 residents, plus 30,000 out-of-town workers. . “To everyone in the city: I know you’re dealing with a deeply unfair situation,” Reeves said, flanked by state officials and Jackson Mayor Chokwe Atar. Lumumba. “It’s disappointing, it’s wrong and it needs to be fixed.” He reported some progress: By Thursday, one of the plant’s two broken pumps had been replaced with an emergency rental pump, doubling the water pressure from the day before, Reeves said. The second pump was expected to be repaired early next week, though it was unclear when water would be restored to the entire city, he said. Reeves declared a state of emergency late Monday after flooding from the Pearl River worsened problems at one of the city’s two water treatment plants. The city has been under a boil water notice since late July because of what the state called quality issues, and the water plant has been plagued by problems in recent years, including staff shortages, failed environmental inspections, frost and fire. On Tuesday, President Biden approved a state emergency declaration and on Wednesday called Lumumba to discuss response efforts, including support from the Federal Emergency Management Agency, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Army Corps of Engineers. An aide said Biden expressed his desire to address the crisis and help rebuild Jackson’s water infrastructure. Lumumba said Vice President Harris also contacted him, while FEMA Administrator Dana Criswell spoke with Reeves and was scheduled to visit Jackson on Friday. FEMA officials and EPA experts were also on the ground coordinating with state teams, White House press secretary Karin Jean-Pierre said. “We are focusing our efforts on immediate needs to ensure safe drinking water is available for those who need it,” FEMA spokeswoman Jaclyn Rothenberg tweeted. Reeves, a Republican, and Lumumba, a Democrat, have both faced criticism for allowing the city’s infrastructure problems to fester, criticism reflected in scathing online comments from residents during Thursday’s live update. But Reeves rejected accusations of partisanship and the pair cited the need to work together. “My representation here is a symbol of the unity that is taking place, a symbol of the coalition working hand in hand to ensure that we keep the primary focus on the people of Jackson,” Lumumba said, noting that “as Gov. , there may come a time when certain other questions will arise.’ Speaking on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe” before the briefing, Lumumba said the city had been warning of problems for three years, saying “it’s not a question of if the systems will fail, but when.” “It’s certainly been an accumulation of challenges and disinvestment over the years, over three decades. …” he said. “We’re glad to have the state on board. city to deal with,” since the fixes will cost about $2 billion. Historically, Jackson’s water problems have disproportionately affected the city’s low-income black communities, said LaTosha Brown and Cliff Albright, co-founders of the local advocacy group Black Voters Matter. “At the root of this crisis is systemic racism and the willful failure of local and state governments to redirect infrastructure funds that could have helped solve this issue years ago,” they said in a statement, noting that the city is about 83 percent Black. “This crisis is not an isolated event,” they wrote, referring to the water crisis in Flint, Mich., which led to criminal investigations, resignations of public officials and a $641 million class-action settlement this year. Councilman Aaron Banks, who has represented Jackson’s mostly black, low-income south side for six years, said has been disproportionately affected by water service outages, which he blamed not only on race but also on class. Banks visited the water plant Thursday and said he was encouraged to see federal experts coming in to help. “We are praying that one of the pumps that are working now doesn’t fail because there is no spare pump,” he said. “Right now there is a good flow. The thing is, you have very old equipment and that contributes to things breaking down, especially when the system is under so much stress.” He worried that rain forecast for the next few days could swell the Pearl River again and cause new flooding. Living in “Deep South Jackson,” he said, not a week has gone by in the past two years without some kind of water outage. Lately he has been showering at his mother’s house nearby, which has water from a well. “For us, unfortunately, it’s becoming the norm,” Banks said. The city’s water pressure and quality remained unreliable across the city Thursday, from the South Side to the tony Fondren neighborhood north of downtown and high-rise subsidized housing for the elderly and disabled. Jackson schools held classes online as of Tuesday, some restaurants were closed and portable restrooms appeared outside the Capitol and Jackson University. Across the city, nonprofit groups like the Mississippi Rapid Response Coalition, which is made up of more than 30 organizations in the state, have set up water distribution centers in the middle of affected neighborhoods. Hour-long lines at these centers sometimes stretch nearly a mile. Sarah Streep, executive director of the nonprofit Springboard to Opportunities, is trying to provide water to 700 families the group works with in federally subsidized housing. “There has been chaos,” he said. “There was different water pressure depending on where people were in the city. Scroll up and down all the communities we work in. There have been times when it has been clean, times when it has turned brown.” He said elderly residents had difficulty finding transportation to water distribution sites. And her team struggled to find in-state and out-of-state water suppliers. “Yesterday, the closest we could find was Memphis,” he said. The group ended up paying $2,000 for the water from Alabama, he said, and it was still uncertain how much would arrive Friday. Kali Akuno, co-founder and co-director of Cooperation Jackson, said grassroots organizations are struggling to meet the huge need. People began queuing at one of the group’s distribution points two hours before it was scheduled to open on Thursday morning. “This is unbearable,” said Veronica Jackson, a 39-year-old mother of two boys, ages 6 and 14. “We pay $2 a gallon for water, and that’s if you can find it.” But Jackson feels lucky. Her youngest son’s private school has remained open, and she can leave her 14-year-old at home to take Zoom lessons on his own while she works. He says it’s not ideal, but he has to keep working, in part to keep providing water. “I’ve been paying between $300 and $400 a month in water bills and you can’t even use the water half the time,” he said. Before Thursday, the governor and mayor held separate daily news conferences to update residents on the crisis, which Jessica Carter, organizing director of the Gulf Coast Center for Law and Policy, said underscores the heart of the problem they face. the people of Jackson. “The governor talks about unity and cohesion in all of his speeches,” Carter said. “But it seems they can’t even be in the same room.” Carter, who moved to Jackson three years ago, said the first thing everyone told her was not to drink the water without filtering it first. Now she’s worried about even using it to bathe her 2-year-old daughter. “I was very worried about giving my daughter a bath,” she said. “It’s bath time, she’s a child, she likes to put things in her mouth during bath time, so I have to be extra careful.”
