By: Tiara Anderson

The unthinkable happened October 24 and October 25 – the school district closed for two days due to a major water line break at 14 mile road and Drake in West Bloomfield.  Waking up really tired, checking on social media, and receiving numerous phone calls and texts from friends and family caught everyone off guard.

The break occurred October 23 around 5:30 pm and the resulting drop in pressure made the water a health hazard for many throughout Oakland County. The Great Lakes Water Authority (GLWA) said in a notice to customers that, “After the repair is complete, two rounds of water quality testing will need to occur per MDEQ’s guideline, putting our earliest estimate for lifting the the current boil water advisory at late Friday evening (October 27).”

Though the break had occurred at 5:30, alerts and the boil water advisory came a little later.  Senior Ashwin Thomas explained that he was unable to access water and he didn’t realize it until about an hour after the message was sent out.The drop in pressure meant that there was the possibility of bacteria in the water. Some said that it had a slightly foul smell, though it was said to be safe enough to bathe and take showers in.

The construction on the water line extended throughout the weekend prolonging the slight shortage of water availability in a few local grocery stores such as Walmart and Meijer. Senior Yutaka Benson arriving at nearby Meijer and noticed a sign stating that there wasn’t any more water available. “I saw that there wasn’t any water available and I decided to post it onto my Snapchat so people could see,” Benson said.

The water line was fixed about five days later on October 30t around  9:00 am. Later, after the boil water advisory was lifted, the water began to smell normal again. It was recommended to flush all faucets and water sources after the fact to rid of any bad water. Junior Myah Allen said that “I didn’t experience the water issue in the area that I live in. The water in the school still scares me, even though the school gave an okay to the water to be drinkable.”
Of course, staying home was not as much fun for students who were impacted by the water advisory.  Junior Kristin Jordan said “that there was no water coming out of any of the faucets and she was lucky to have plenty bottled water on hand.”