The City of Oakdale had a tough weekend with no water. Mayor Gene Paul said the city lost water early Friday morning, March 3, between 1 and 2 a.m. when the system went down causing a motor to go out.
The mayor hit the phones looking for help. He said assistance came from Lt. Chris Oakes, the parish’s emergency management director under the Allen Parish Sheriff’s Office.
“Chris Oakes did an awesome job,” Paul said. “He told us what to do. We declared a state of emergency and people started responding. We got immediate assistance.”
Paul said they contacted Homeland Security, U.S. Congressman Mike Johnson and other agencies for assistance.
The city is presently involved in a $9 million upgrade on its water system, which is close to completion. When the project is completed, cut-off values will be installed across town allowing the city to turn off sections of the community where water issues occur instead of the entire town.
The mayor explained 18 values are being installed across town, and there are only five remaining. He said the wrong valve was installed with caused the issues leading to the water system shutting down. He said when the project began he told Meyer, Meyer – the engineering firm – and contractor to get all their supplies they would need for the project. The pumps have been ordered for over a year and are scheduled to arrive April 1. Finding parts to fix one of the older pumps was impossible.
Paul said they couldn’t shut down one section of the town nor find a part to fix the pump. He said it was like we’ve done 13 holes real good and we’re getting to the 18th hole. When the valve is scheduled to be installed, it is discovered it’s the wrong valve. That caused problems to the city’s water supply.
“The contractors and inspector is who I blame,” Paul said.
As plans began to be into place and water alerts went out to citizens, it was decided water bottled would be distributed on Saturday and Sunday to residents.
In the meantime, Paul said they were trying to find ways to make repairs to what the city had on hand. The city owned an old motor, which was approximately 15-plus years old. Cecil Turner, Lufkin Electric Inc., was helping the city. He decided to rebuild the motor to see if they could get it working to restore water services to the city’s 2,400 – plus customers. He said Turner worked approximately 22 to 24 hours on the motor. When Turner finished, Paul said it fire up like a new Cadillac. He said approximately six city workers worked throughout a day with Turner to get the motor working.
“If not for the Turner’s work and the dedication of those city employees, we would still be without water. He came early Friday morning and didn’t leave until Saturday. He was awesome. He would not leave us in a bind until he got the water back on,” Paul said. “Our people worked their butts off 24 hours to try to fix it.”
Paul said they had to build a hoist to get the motor, because the motor was so big. “It’s amazing what these guys did.”
The mayor said water was restored to the city late Saturday night. He said he has to thank everyone who came to help distribute water, bring water, etc. He said the Spring Creek Fire Department brought a truck to the prison. Volunteers brought water to the nursing home and hospital. Citizens picked up water at locations like the Oakdale Fire Department.
The boil advisory was lifted at 10 a.m. on Tuesday, March 7.
Chris Oakes’ discusses water outage
OBERLIN – The parish’s emergency management director Lt. Chris Oakes said he went to work after receiving the declaration that Oakdale was in a state of emergency. He spoke with the fire department, prison, nursing home and hospital staffs to see what resources they had and what they would need Friday afternoon. He also spoke with the rural water association and local fire departments in case a fire occurred and fire assistance would be needed while the city’s water was out.
Oakes worked to get a supply of bottled water and water buffaloes for the fire department, hospital and nursing home. He said the 1,200 tanks would sustain the hospital’s water system.
After discussing what the prison would need, he spoke to the fire department to ask if they could pump water to the prison’s high tower. It didn’t become necessary during the outage, but they were ready.
“We were really fortunate,” he said. It was the National Guard’s training weekend, and they came out in large numbers to help with water distribution, etc. This allowed them to keep bottled water flowing for residents.
During this crisis, they learned the hospital didn’t have the correct connection to be hooked up to a water source for emergency purposes. He said the hospital will be changing their connection. Oakes will also speak to the nursing homes in the parish and the hospital in Kinder to make sure they all have the necessary connection to be hooked up to a water source during an emergency situation.
“It’s bad when we have to have a crisis to learn something, but I’m thankful it wasn’t the whole parish. You are overwhelmed during a crisis,” he explained. “But this prepares you for the next crisis.” He said everything worked well and neighbors were there to help neighbors. He said it was a great job.