Karen Gleason
Lack of drinkable water remains the county’s number one headache in the aftermath of the past week’s ferocious cold.
Val Verde County Judge Lewis G. Owens Jr., in a telephone interview with the 830 Times Friday, said he “hasn’t asked the state for anything but (COVID-19) vaccines and water.”
“We haven’t declared a disaster. We plan to declare it, in case we can get reimbursed for some things, but I’m not one to run around asking for help and then you have to sit there and wait, knowing it might not come,” Owens said.
“If we’ve got to go fix it, if we’ve got to go do it, if it takes spending money on diesel or gas or water, then we’ll go do it,” he added.
He said he is working with city leaders and Laughlin Air Force Base officials to bring in a C-17 aircraft loaded with drinking water for area residents.
Owens said during the past week, the county has provided fuel for city, county and state law enforcement vehicles, as well as for city fire department and maintenance vehicles. He said the county has also provided fuel for generators for local nursing homes.
“I’ve always said it and will continue to say it: I’m part of a great team. All I’ve heard from the county commissioners is ‘what do you need’? Everybody’s on board,” the county judge said.
As of Friday afternoon, Owens said he believed electricity had been restored to most residences and businesses in the county.
“A lot of the people that were texting me last night (Thursday) that did not have power, were in small sections of four to 18 homes in the middle of everybody else that had power,” Owens said.
“There was a pocket on Dennis Drive. There was a pocket on Jeffrey Drive. And up on Morin Street and one on Bowie Street. Everybody around them had power except for them. But as of today, everybody that had been calling me yesterday seems to have power today,” he said.
A check Saturday of the web site PowerOutage.US shows 0 percent outages in Val Verde County, with AEP Texas still reporting 1,868 customers without power over the company’s entire service area.
“I want to emphasize to everyone that this wasn’t the fault of AEP or anyone that works for them. This was ERCOT (the Electric Reliability Council of Texas). They were the ones pulling the strings,” he said.
On Friday, Owens said his primary concern was the lack of drinkable water for Val Verde County residents.
Owens said the county has given out 2,400 cases of water at the fairgrounds and has provided two pallets of water to Val Verde Regional Medical Center.
He said it is his understanding the city’s water will be tested on Monday, with the results of those tests anticipated on Wednesday.
“In reality, when can you start drinking the water? I don’t know, but I wouldn’t drink it before Thursday unless I boiled it first,” Owens said.
