Tangier water crisis: Residents coping without water

The Eastern Shore and beyond is rallying to help Tangier Island, Virginia, residents as they face a lack of reliable running water.

After being without running water for almost a week after a main water line broke, Tangier residents are looking at days more before the line will be repaired.

While the island has some temporary fixes to help residents live day-to-day, they have also benefited from kindness of bottle water donations and money.

Tangier Mayor James "Ooker" Eskridge arrived in Onancock by boat Monday afternoon to pick up some of the donated bottled water people are sending to the island community to help out.

Tangier is about 3 miles long in the Chesapeake Bay and home to about 450 people, many of whom make their living catching fish, crabs and oysters, as their ancestors have since the 1700s.

The island's water comes from artesian wells, said Mark Crockett, who pilots the ferry boat Joyce Marie II that runs seasonally between Tangier and Onancock and which also carries contractors and others back and forth as needed on charter runs.

He arrived in Onancock, Virginia, on Monday, along with Eskridge's boat, to pick up water donations.

Help in the form of bottled water and money started coming once word got out about the island town's dilemma on Jan. 22, , including that it could take weeks to fix the broken line.

“We’ve had so much help — churches on the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Virginia and fire departments — and there was a little girl from up around Crisfield somewhere, she even used some of her money from her lemonade stand this summer to buy some water. It’s very encouraging," Eskridge said.

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Community rallies to help Tangier

Some of the help is coming from Tangier natives who now live elsewhere.

"Our good friend Becca is collecting water for Tangier. If you can help, please drop off bottled water or gallons at Mallards at the Wharf in Onancock today and tomorrow, that’s Sunday and Monday. Boat will arrive at 4 p.m. Monday to pick up. Thanks so much for helping those fine folks on Tangier," Mallards Restaurant posted on its Facebook page on Sunday.

Becca is Rebecca Eskridge Crutchley, Mayor Eskridge's niece, who lives in Onancock.

In addition to collecting water, she also posted a Paypal link where people can donate money towards buying water for Tangier residents. The money goes directly to the town.

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Another Tangier native, James "Nick" Dise, who is in the Navy stationed at Little Creek in Norfolk, set up an online fundraiser for bottled water purchases — and he was surprised at the outpouring that quickly resulted.

Dise's mother, aunt and uncle still live on Tangier.

After setting up a fundraiser on Facebook on Saturday, donations had reached more than $2,000 by the time he woke up Sunday morning, exceeding the $1,000 goal he had set originally.

"That was a shock. It just kept on growing," he said.

He drove to Cape Charles in his SUV on Sunday with one load of water, and drove another carload to Onancock on Monday.

Cape Charles Rescue is one of several drop sites set up for bottled water destined for Tangier.

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Members of Dise's church, Haygood United Methodist Church in Virginia Beach, donated lots of water to the cause, and his Navy coworkers also "are loading me up with a whole lot more water," he said, adding, "I've got a garage full of water still to transport."

"I'm very grateful for the outpouring for my hometown. It's humbling yet again to see what happens on the Eastern Shore and on Tangier. When there's a crisis, everything is put to the side; all differences go away and the process of helping each other begins. That's why I'm glad I can claim to be a Tangierman and I'm glad I can claim to be from the Eastern Shore."

Tangier residents are known for being self-reliant and resilient, as people who live on a tiny island in the middle of the Chesapeake Bay need to be.

Still, in this crisis, Tangier's residents welcome the help, Eskridge said.

More:WATCH: Tangier Island Mayor talks about water main break

More:PHOTOS: Community donates bottled water to Tangier Island residents

Residents coping without water

Virginia Williams of Onley was at the Onancock wharf Monday to greet the boats. She is from Tangier and her parents, Danny and Marsh McCready, still live there.

"They are coping fine; everybody's doing fine. We've had a lot of donations that have been given, a lot of help, and they are making it," said Williams, adding, "Helping each other — that's what the community is. They are very grateful for any help that is given, but they are coping, they are making do, they are helping each other; they're doing everything that they can for each other."

Williams said the strong faith of many Tangier residents is helping see them through this rough patch.

"They thank the Lord" for the help, she said.

Eskridge described a somewhat ingenious, although temporary, fix that is helping get running water to residents for the moment, but it's a somewhat precarious situation.

“We diverted water coming out of the new line. What we are doing is going across to part of the island through fire hoses,” Eskridge said.

"We’re not drinking the water, and if you do, you have to boil it, so the drinking water, it’s nice to have it. It’s good it’s coming," he said.

Still, the fire hoses are helping allow people to have water to shower and flush their toilets at least, he said.

“The water pressure has come up a lot — we have a pretty good flow of water now. The only thing is, we have a boil order on — we want people to boil the water until we get a new line in place,” Eskridge said.

The boil order for drinking water is because of it coming through the hoses, he said.

READ MORE: Tangier residents without running water after new line breaks

Tangier still faces short- and long-term problems

Still, the winter weather is not helping the situation and could threaten the MacGyvered fix that's now in place.

Eskridge made an earlier trip to Onancock on Monday to pick up straw, which will be used to insulate the fire hoses in order to hopefully keep the water flowing during a predicted cold snap this week, “because they are laid right out on the street and if it gets bitter cold, we are worried about them freezing,” he said.

Eskridge is running a boat for the Chesapeake Bay Foundation, bringing contractors to and from the mainland to do work at Port Isobel, just off Tangier.

On his second run of the day, in late afternoon, he brought back more water to the island, while Crockett loaded his boat down with both water and additional bales of straw.

A similar scenario took place in Crisfield, Maryland, where more water was loaded on boats headed to the island.

Still, until Tangier's water problem is fixed permanently, Dise summed up what many others have expressed.

"We've just got to take care of each other — that's what we are supposed to do," he said.

On Twitter @cvvaughnESN

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