THE GRAND RAPIDS PRESS / SUNDAY, MAY 8, 2016 / D13
The lives affected
Keriyana Ingram, 15, says her family uses their car to get bottled water three times a week, this after they stopped drinking Flint tap water in November.
Ray Thompson, 58, said he walks about a block and a half twice a week to a church to get cases of water. He doesn’t have a car and said he grabs the smaller cases of water and carries them on his back and shoulders.
Montez Johnson, 42, recently moved from housing where he did not pay water bills into a new place where he expects to be billed for the service. He stopped drinking city water about a year ago and goes through about eight bottles of water per day.
It’s convenient, but you gotta be careful carrying it — and don’t carry the big bottles, or you’ll hurt yourself.”
When I get my first water bill, I’m not paying it. I think every resident in Flint should think like that.”
Maniah Conezly, 13, says her family does not have a water filter, nor do they go to pick up water. She says she bathes in Flint tap water, and “it is giving me rashes.”
India Coble, 25, has to pick up water twice a week. She stopped drinking Flint tap water in January and says she has had rashes from using the water.
Opemipo Clement, 10, says his family has two water filters in the home they own, and they go once a week to get bottled water. He has tested positive for lead in his blood.
Yolanda Figueroa hurt her back last summer, before the state acknowledged there was lead in the water. The news made hauling cases of bottled water downright painful that fall when Gov. Rick Snyder confirmed tap water contained lead and residents were told to stop drinking it. The Flint native faults the Department of Environmental Quality, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Snyder for the water crisis. Wasir James, 10, says his family had a water filter, but “it is gone.” He says he usually bathes at relatives’ houses or “we heat bottled water until there is enough for a bath.”
LaRon Jupree, 12, says his family pays their water bills, but “they are too high (and we) should not be paying for something we cannot really use.”
Gabrielle Holmes-Scott, 34, and her 5-year-old daughter, Milan (below), stopped bathing in Flint water in December 2014. They travel to Gabrielle’s parents’ home in Beecher to bathe.
It’s changed my whole life. You have to live in it to actually know. They failed us in the beginning, and they’re failing us now.”
Brenda Harris, 63, says she stopped bathing in Flint tap water “as soon as it went to affecting my skin. ... (I had) skin rashes and hair loss, which made it thin and brittle.”
Tyra Hunter, 17, is succinct when it comes to her family’s water bill: “I believe that no one should have to pay for the water, because it is slowly killing us.”
We don’t know how long it’s gonna go on.” Jamal Younger, 46, drives a half-mile four times a week to get bottled water. His family uses a case daily.
Rayacon Gardner, 9, is training to be a boxer in the same program where Olympic gold medal boxer Claressa Shields learned her skills. He is living through the Flint water crisis.
Iyanna Webb, 16, uses bottled water in a bowl to “shower” while standing in the tub. She says she gets “rashes that burn” on the backs of her legs. “They feel like they are on fire,” she said.
Milly Arbor, 74, says her hair started falling out around the time the city began using the Flint River as its municipal water source. When my water was coming out brown, I used to just let it run and run (until it wasn’t brown anymore) because we weren’t given any notice that the water was bad.”
Contributing writers: Dominic Adams, John Counts, Brad Devereaux, Amanda Emery, Jiquanda Johnson and Molly Young.