As a boil water order is lifted for parts of Owensboro, businesses and some residents are using some unique measures to avoid possible contamination.
You can still see contractors at the scene of Monday’s water main break. But across Owensboro people are seeing more portable toilets set up than usual.
“They need it to keep open,” says Mitzi Autry, who runs a portable toilet company in Owensboro. Her company has delivered hundreds of them since Monday.
“Started about 6:00 AM. From there, it’s been everyone from shelters, nursing homes, hospitals, businesses,” she recalled. “This is the greatest demand we’ve ever had at one time. She’s delivered to places that can’t close, even when her business lost water service earlier this week.
“We relied on friends with well water. Those take several gallons to wash each toilet down to sanitize it,” Autry says.
Portable toilets were set up outside banks, stores, government offices, and even apartment complexes for them to stay open and avoid potential contamination.
Wendell foster Campus is one of those places. CEO Eric Scharf says those along with donated water, helped keep them open. The donated water allowed residents to continue using their own toilets.
“We had three farmers who had offered and delivered 5,000 gallons of potable water that we could rig up and put in tanks that we could put in regular toilets. It helped us for the tenants to use their own toilets in their own cottages,” says Scharf.
Autry adds they expect to make deliveries through this weekend.
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(This story was originally published July 11, 2018)
