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Bottled water was brought to the Molena Fire Station by the American Red Cross Central/Midwest Chapter. Pictured are: Teri Totten (volunteer), Gaines Harmon (volunteer), and Sarah Wynn (disaster programs specialist for the ARC Central/Midwest Chapter). Photo courtesy of Teri Totten.
By Editor Becky Watts
MOLENA - The City of Molena was without water pressure from Friday morning through Sunday afternoon. City Clerk Cindy Darsey advised that the problem was identified on early on Friday morning and that the City worked feverishly until the problem was found and corrected.
Around 350 citizens or so were affected by this loss of water pressure. Some lost water pressure, and some lost water completely. There were many who went from place to place checking the lines to find out where the problem originated.
The leak was located on Sunday morning at a vacant house on Watson Road. Apparently, a big truck had run over the main line and broken the line. The water was running down into the woods, but not shooting up into the air so it was hard to identify.
“With all of the rain, it just looked like a puddle,” said Mrs. Darsey. The City of Molena is in contact with the owner of the company that possibly caused the damage and discussion is ongoing about reimbursement.
While citizens were without water, a great deal of work went on behind the scenes to assure that they had drinking water.
Pike County Fire Department’s Chief Rick O’Barr contacted Georgia Forestry about the problem, and Georgia Forestry brought in a tanker of over 5,000 gallons of drinking water so residents could bring containers and fill them up with drinking water.
Volunteers from the American Red Cross Central/Midwest Chapter brought 500 bottles of bottled water after EMA Director Jimmy Totten called and asked for assistance.
Bottled water and potable water were passed out to the residents of Molena by volunteer fire fighters at the Molena Fire Station from Friday night around 5 p.m. until 1 a.m. It was open again at 6 a.m. and stayed open throughout the day. And volunteers provided water for residents until 1 p.m. when the problem was corrected.
Chief O’Barr advised that Lt. Darrell Winkler, Kenny Harris, and Charles Morris and Mayor Brian Callaway and Councilman Damon Riggins helped hand out water throughout the weekend. Many volunteers including fire department volunteers and Chief O’Barr and Molena City Council members gave their time to check the lines to they could find the water line problem and get it fixed.
The City of Molena gave a big thank you to the citizens of Molena for being patient while they worked on the problem. Thank you also to the volunteer firefighters, the Mayor and council, and citizens came out to help find where the leak was.
A water sample was sent to the lab in compliance to the EPD regulations to ensure safety of the water for Molena citizens. Residents were advised to boil their water until the results came back. The sample came back today, and the boil water advisory has been lifted.