We Are Delivered

Week 7: In which civilization is restored…as best as can be expected

Before we left South Carolina, scene of our laundry excursion, we bought those handy containers of water which sported the convenient spouts. We drove home plotting and planning how we might continue the whole water ordeal with a little more enthusiasm and a lot less bitching. Five days later it was announced we no longer had to travel to the disaster relief sites for clean water and could drink, bathe and wash dishes with the stuff coming from the taps! So now, of course, I wondered if we could trust this braggy bit of news. Clean water restored a whole month before predicted? Well, the answer turned out to be yes and no.

Lead now appeared to be the skulking culprit throwing a boulder on top of the current good news. If your house was built after 1988, congratulations, it was most likely your water was just fine. My house was built in 1945. The city would provide lead-testing kits. We had no idea if our street-to-house pipes had ever been replaced after 1988, but we could go online and get a test kit, for which there was a overwhelming demand. Five weeks after the water came back, we were informed we could pick up our test kit at the library! But of course, we didn’t wait for the free city/county government-provided kit. We ordered a test online. We filter our water with a PUR filter, but just wanted to be sure we were receiving lead-free water from our plumbing system.. You don’t get to find out right away, so we only drank the water that was coming through our faucet-filtered tap in the kitchen.

It took only a couple of days for us to actually remember not to run any water first thing in the morning so that we could do the test. I finally attached a sticky note to the bathroom faucet to keep us from flushing or running any water until after the first water coming into our pipes had been collected. We filled the little test-tube looking container and off we sent it–it would be awhile before results were pronounced. In the meantime, our government came through with the free lead testing kit we could pick up at the local library. We picked it up in order to do the standard double testing protocol. The free test collection containers resemble those urine bottles we used to hand out to the bed-ridden male patients in the rehab hospital where I worked back in the day. I felt it was distasteful for the library to hand us such a thing, but maybe they are cheaper than test tubes. Regardless, the next water test will be collected on Thursday and I will, once again, leave a note for the man not to flush before filling the little urinal bottle with the appropriate liquid.

It’s nice though, to be able to shower at home and make a cup of tea with water we did not have to haul from a disaster relief facility. Our laundry is at a manageable level and I can dirty all the pots and pans I want for the purpose of cooking elaborate meals. A week after the water’s return, more restaurants re-opened and we could go out to grab a bite to eat. Some restaurants took longer than others because of loss of staff due to nearly 8 weeks of being closed. Some will have to rebuild or relocate their facility after it was demolished by the raging water. A drive along the river districts is depressing as so much was lost in this hurricane.

But we take heart. This is a resilient community and folks are helping out in whatever way they can. We are doing our best to support our favorite local restaurants and coffee shops as they recover from the disaster. Our lead tests will be reporting back soon with either a sigh of relief or a phone call to the plumber for an expensive re-piping from the city lines into our house. Cross fingers for us. We’d rather spend that money buying cool stuff from local artists and great meals from unbeatable eateries. Our Christmas should be somewhat normal. We have a shit-ton of containers of water in our basement in case any other wayward disasters come our way. A peaceful holiday is all we ask.

May yours be merry and bright and have clean water,

Cheryl

PS: My computer died, so I was not able to do the Wordle or write and post my blog. A quick trip to the emergency tech repair place confirmed the demise of my equipment and the subsequent need to purchase a new one. Meanwhile, I sneak onto my husband’s computer while he is busy messing about with water test kits or out playing disc golf. This has not been nearly as bad as not having clean water!