No Water in Kalaheo

The water has been off here in Kalaheo since yesterday afternoon. The Kauai Department of Water is providing non-potable water tanks for residents to use at these locations:

• at the Kalaheo neighborhood center
• opposite the Kukuiolono golf course entrance, at Papalina & Puu Road

Apparently this area is served by two wells and both are broken. There is no estimate how long it will take to restore service.

Latest details are posted here.

UPDATE (Thursday 5/29/14 AM): Still no water on third day - that's zero water. If we had any water pressure at any point the toilet tank would have filled to the shutoff and it has not.

This morning saw Department of Water truck working along the road just across the street. The word from neighbors is that there was a leaky valve apparently that someone reported when they saw water gushing out. So it seems that even though they have been trucking water to fill the holding tanks uphill only a little was reaching the most downhill homes here and most of it was being wasted. This would explain why we haven't seen even a drop.

The good news is that with people out to collect water and observe repairs, curious about what's being done to alleviate our shared problem, I've met more of the neighbors. It seems it takes something like this to get people out of the houses where you have a chance to commiserate.

Note to Department of Water: for safety please label the water tanks provided as potable or non-potable. From the updates, both types are being set out and since there has already been one correction as to location of which it would be reassuring to know without doubt whether it is safe to drink the water provided at a given location. Also, it would be good to have authoritative information on how to safely store and use potable water. Here's the CDC's advice for water storage and use ... it begins with washing containers with soap and (safe) water so if you didn't have that prepared ahead one is kind of stuck.

FINAL UPDATE (Thursday 5/29/14 AM): Water is back on after 48 hours! Pressure seems a little low but it's plenty. The Department of Water left a case of bottled water on the porch with a letter of apology. The letter states that they hope to have a plan and timeline for repair "by the end of this week".

I have never experienced long-term water outage before and I certainly learned how important fresh water is to comfortable everyday life and we totally take it for granted. Losing electricity is inconvenient, but I would gladly chose that over no running water.

Perhaps in a small way I can being to imagine how 780 million people live without access to fresh water. Unlike all these people I could drive in my car on paved roads to fetch water, get a shower at a friend's place, and borrow a washing machine, and still it was a big impact.