THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS / SUNDAY, MAY 8, 2016 / D9
The lives affected
Pierre Earl, 35, takes a bus to and from his water pick-up location and uses “at least 12 (bottles a day) because I cook with it.”
Robert Elias, 34, says he did not stop drinking his Flint tap water until January and still uses it for bathing. Lomalinda Morrison, 27, has been using about 80 bottles and 10 gallon jugs of water each week for her family to use for cooking and drinking.
Nanette Chisholm, 59, stopped drinking the water that flows from her Patterson Street home two years ago.
I get it wherever they are distributing it. I work six days a week, so finding time to actually get water is hard.”
The water didn’t smell right and it was the wrong color. I’m having gum problems, so I don’t know what’s going on.”
Sandra L. Holland-August, still showers in Flint water, but chooses to pick up water from a local fire station twice a week.
Stanley R. Harris, 49, still bathes in his tap water so he only gets enough free water to drink and cook with — about 10 bottles a day. Gianna Davis, 8, Malachi Hill, 12, Brayden Sharon, 7, and Rachel Sharon, 33, consider themselves middle class, and Rachel owns the home they live in. She says she had a recent miscarriage, and “my son got very sick.”
Seemingly out of nowhere, Nicholas Carr, 9, became violently ill. His stomach hurt and he was vomiting. His mother, Anika Anderson, blames it on Flint’s contaminated drinking water. Nicholas has had to miss school when ill. But, some days, he is forced to go to school when he’s sick.
Dunnell Jefferson, 42, says he sometimes takes the bus to get water, sometimes walks and sometimes will “bum a ride.” Still, he recycles.
Neosha Timmons, 23. “Most know Flint for being a city of survivors. It’s frustrating to have to wake up and resort to bottled water when you’re used to the tap. Everybody deserves clean water. … We need help.”
After being incarcerated for more than 5 years, Chris Jones, 25, came back to the city where he was born and raised not knowing he was landing in the middle of the Flint water crisis. I’m an ex-con, and I come home after five and a half years, and I come to tainted water to bathe in. I didn’t even know there was a crisis when I came home from prison. I was drinking water all the time. I’m bathing in it and brushing my teeth. I didn’t know what was going on.”
The doctors said it’s not a virus, it’s not the flu. It’s never happened before. I have had to send my son to school when he is sick, but I can’t miss another day of work.”
Lucretia Davis, 64, says she never drank Flint tap water but, because she has to walk to get bottled water, she still bathes in tap water and thinks her “skin is drier, hair has lost its glow and is falling out.”
Jennifer Singleton, 52, has a water filter in the home she rents and has to take a bus to pick up her water, so she only does so once a week.
Krista Brock, 41, says that, since she stopped drinking Flint tap water in September, she has had to take a bus or walk to pick up water. When asked about her opinion of her Flint water bill, she simply says: “Ludicrous.”
Carol Bassett, 54, only stopped drinking Flint tap water “last month” and uses baby wipes to clean herself.
Tammy Brewer, 54, picks up the water she needs from a fire station every day.
Eugene McMillan, 66, owns his home and has a water filter for drinking but still bathes in his tap water. He says he was paying $375 per month for his water.
Dance instructor Sheila Miller-Graham, 59, is unable to do the one thing that would help her recover after a long day of teaching students — bathe. Her bathroom sink used to be lined with beauty products. Now, the sink is lined with bottled water. The one thing I’ve always been able to count on was a hot bath — let me relax — I can’t have that any more because it’s city water. I’m not going to get in the water or have the steam going on my body knowing that there’s lead in there.”