No water for 10 days in Wayne County community

WAYNE COUNTY, W.Va. (WSAZ) - Genoa Elementary School has never been shut down for more than a day for water outages.

The freezing temperatures during two weeks ago caused widespread leaks and burst pipes in Crum Public Service District’s system, and Wayne County Schools Superintendent Todd Alexander said Genoa Elementary will be shut down for the week.

“We were off Monday for the holidays, Tuesday was going to be the first day back from Christmas break, so it has really turned into an extended break” Alexander said. “We are missing some additional instruction time, so we certainly want to get that building back open.

Alexander said the PSD has been working around the clock to help get the water back on.

Wayne County school officials said another reason for the outages at Genoa Elementary and the surrounding community is the area is at the end of the lines for Crum PSD.

Hailey Lunsford hands her daughter one of her favorites, a Push Pop, but the water has been out going on two weeks, and candy-covered fingers are hard to clean.

“So I will have to take wipes and bottles of water to clean off her mouth and her hands about every hour,” Lunsford said. “As you can see, there is not water coming out. There is not even air or anything come through the lines. Whole pile of dishes haven’t been done since the day after Christmas.”

Hailey said she takes her daughter to shower at her grandmother’s house.

“My stepdad has to take a bucket of water that he gets at my grandma’s house and he has to put it in the back of the toilet, just so we are able to flush like twice a day,” Lunsford said.

Crum PSD’s Chief Field Operator, Jesse Allen, said they have been successful getting the water back on in the Crum area, but most of the outages are still in the Genoa and Hampton Ridge areas.

A pile of meters sits on the floor of his warehouse, and most of those are busted from the freezing temperatures.

Allen said leaks are a big issue and this is the first time he has seen this much damage to the system’s infrastructure.

Alexander said Genoa Elementary plans to open Monday. The school now has water, but the tank for the area needs time to fill up.

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