D12 / SUNDAY, MAY 8, 2016 / THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS
The lives affected 25-year-old Eric Wilson’s son couldn’t breathe when he was born. The tiny boy was born three months premature and was resuscitated by a breathing machine. Taylor Matthias Williams, now 5 months old, was in the hospital for his first three months before being discharged. Taylor is home now, but still needs a heart monitor.
There was lead in him.” ERIC WILSON, CHILD’S FATHER
They’re saying he may or may not have developmental (problems). They won’t know until he’s grown.” TIANTHA WILLIAMS, CHILD’S MOTHER
Abel Delgado, 18, feels the Flint water crisis has affected his mental health. He continues to protest daily. “It’s not over. “We’re gonna keep fighting,” he said.
Janet E. Webb, 65, spoke through tears about the water crisis. “It’s my home. This is where I was born and raised at. … That’s all I know is Flint.”
Tim Robbins, 49, who is homeless, was drinking Flint water until November. He says he suffers from rashes and has had throat infections.
Barbara Johnson, 73, has a water filter and a purifying water pitcher in her home but still picks up water, as much as two cases a day.
The water wasn’t quite tasting right and it wasn’t looking right. I started going and purchasing water from the grocery store.”
I didn’t drink that city water since ’14. When they first started talking about those problems and draining the fire hydrants (in July 2014), that’s when I stopped.”
Then a Flint City Council member, Bryant Nolden believes that, if the proper dialogue had taken place three years ago, the city wouldn’t be in the midst of this water crisis. Nolden now is a Genesee County commissioner. He stopped using Flint tap water months before the alarm was sounded.
Jazmine Taylor, 28, has to walk three times a week to get his clean water, but still pays his water bill and thinks his bill is “way too high for bad water.”
“People can go mentally sick.” Cortney Golden, 28, says she doesn’t have water filters on her faucets because she is not confident they will make the water safe. She worries most for children who might be affected by drinking lead-tainted water.
Curtis Lee, 50, has to take a bus to and from his water pick-up location, and has to drink and bathe with the water he lugs.
Steven Ellison, 58, said he stopped drinking water from the tap nearly two years ago. Since water distribution began, he has been driving to a Flint fire station about once a week to pick up water. He has dry skin and rashes he believes are connected to the tap water.
Linda G. Rumph, 54, boils her water, then refrigerates it before she drinks it. Otherwise, she would be walking every day to get water instead of twice a week.
Priscilla Wheeler, 51, says she even uses bottle water to brush her teeth but still thinks she is suffering from rashes and other problems.
Wendell Kimble, 50, still pays about $200 per month for water he hasn’t drank since April 2015.
I’m hoping to get it back.”
John Fleming, 25, has to walk to get his water and has a simple outlook when it comes to his water bills: “I shouldn’t have to pay for water I can’t use.”
Sha’Nae Holmes, 24, says she is lucky because people come and get her once a week so she can get water to take home. And she uses “a lot” of water, she says.
Craig Brown, 71, installed PVC water lines in his home earlier this year. I thought I might as well put in plastic — that way, I’d be safe with the lead. Evidently, I’m not.” He was waiting to learn the results of a blood test for lead.