Purcell water customers going on third day with no water, few answers

Dozens of people who get their water from the City of Purcell say they have had no water service for several days, and the city hasn’t given them many answers.

WASHINGTON, Okla. (KFOR) — Dozens of people who get their water from the City of Purcell say they have had no water service for several days, and the city hasn’t given them many answers.

Those customers say they have been without water service since at least Tuesday morning, and the city still can't give them an estimated time of when it will be restored.

According to a map posting on the City of Purcell’s website, the outage affects customers living in the western side of its water service area, including the towns of Washington and Woody Chapel, as well as unincorporated parts of McClain County.

Rain is not normally a welcome sight on July Fourth. But for Carolyn Kennedy, Thursday’s storms couldn’t have come on a more perfect day.

“With rain, my garden will maybe survive,” Kennedy said.

She and her daughter-in-law, Shannon Kennedy, live on neighboring properties near the town of Washington. They are among the many Purcell water customers who haven’t had service for days.

“We've had no water since, I think late Tuesday morning,” Shannon Kennedy said.

It makes it hard for them to do the essentials.

“We can't do dishes, we can't cook to clean our dishes, we can't shower,” she said. “We’re using buckets to fill up with [pool] water so we can put it in our toilets to flush our toilets.”

She says it’s been next to impossible to get any sort of ETA from the city on when her service may be restored.

“When you call down to the city for yourself, they don't answer the phone,” Shannon Kennedy said.

The city was closed for the July Fourth holiday. The only answers News 4 could get on Thursday came from a post made to the city’s website at 9 a.m.

“Crews have been out searching for leaks this morning, but have not located anything at this time,” the post said.

“Nobody’s been out here,” Shannon Kennedy said. “Nobody is concerned about all the citizens that don't have water.”

The Kennedys are not the only ones dealing with it.  

Dozens of commenters on the city’s Facebook page made it clear: they also have no service and are upset with how the city has been handing the situation

“More than 100 people don't have water,” Shannon Kennedy said. “And to that 100 people that don't have water, that's serious. So why is that not a concern to the county of McClain County and Purcell?”

This July Fourth,the Kennedys have no answers. Only rain—which might just have to come in handy.

“If it keeps raining I’ll go get a bar of soap and I’ll shower outside,” Carolyn Kennedy said.