D10 / SUNDAY, MAY 8, 2016 / THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS
The lives affected 46-year-old Deborah Clark’s grandson was born six weeks premature. Now, Jackson Ellington is 3 but still is having problems, which Clark said could be due to Flint’s contaminated water.
Every tooth in his head is rotted out.” The 3-year-old recently had to be put under anesthesia for five hours while a dentist removed most of his baby teeth. Clark said the dentist told Jackson’s family to have him tested for lead.
Lashai Barber, 22, does not have a water filter in the home she rents and needs to take a bus to get water a couple of times a week, but still pays her water bill. “Did it tonight,” she said on the night she filled out the survey.
Billy Joe Chambers, 53, goes through as many as 32 bottles a day because he does not bathe in Flint tap water. He usually picks up water four times a week and walks, unless a friend is available to take him.
Alice Zeeman, 62, needs to take a bus to and from her water pickup location and, though she has a water filter in her rental, still goes through “lots” of bottled water.
Ferd Hall, 42, and Amanda Thomas, 38, stopped drinking the water in July 2015. They refuse to take showers or bathe in it. Between them, they use about 60 cases of water a week.
It’s crazy. It’s like a Third World country.”
Honestly, I was kind of worried.” William Wiggins, 16, started noticing the rashes after playing basketball one day. There were black marks all over his back. A doctor said the marks were caused by contact with lead-contaminated water. He was prescribed a special cream for his condition.
Carlos Young, 41, challenges Gov. Rick Snyder to live in Flint for a year and drink that “toxic brew” every day. Young said he has gotten rashes from the water and his six young cousins have high levels of lead.
Robbie LaShawn Taylor-El, 53, says he stopped drinking Flint tap water when he “heard it was not safe.” Now, he does not even bathe in his tap water.
It’s depressing. I don’t think it’s ever going to change.” Fifteen-year-old Marzell Richmond’s family has lost all faith that the government will fulfill its promise to fix the water system in the city. His mother, Mary Sanders, had to buy special lotion for the family to combat “itchy and red patches.”
Robert Allen, 56, says he drank his Flint tap water until December and is now suffering from rashes and hair loss. He calls the water bills that come to his house “a criminal rip-off.”
Aniya Callaway, 12, says her family drives once a week to get bottled water and she drinks three bottles a day. She does, however, still bathe in the Flint tap water.
Jallise D. Wash-Lang is one in a family of six who uses more than six cases of water “or more” every day. “My daughters’ and my husband’s eczema no longer is controllable.”
I try not to cook because of the water.” Gloria Robinson, 63, has had struggles that began with skin issues. She now typically washes with bottled water but also boils Flint water.
Mijah Lang, 13, the daughter of Jallise D. Wash-Lang, said she drinks bottled water every day but uses Flint tap water to bathe and do dishes in the house her family rents.
Ashley McCloud, 22, does not have a water filter and still bathes in Flint tap water, but says she does not think she is having any health issues from the possibly lead-tainted water.
We’re suffering a blind disaster. If we would have had a tornado or hurricane, they would have rushed in to help us.” Diane Thornton, 48, is convinced the Flint water crisis persisted so long because it didn’t have the right optics.