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By Kris R. Cash, APR
Twice in less than a month the members of Arkansas Rural Water Association jumped in their trucks and headed out to the aid of their rural water brothers and sisters in Louisiana and Mississippi. Arkansas Rural Water Association’s Executive Director, Dennis Sternberg, got on the phone immediately after Hurricane Katrina made landfall around Waveland, Mississippi on August 29, 2005. Pete Boone, Executive Director for Mississippi Rural Water Association, was mighty glad to hear from Sternberg. Boone relayed that power outages were widespread across the state and generators were in great need. “Say no more,” stated Sternberg, “Arkansas Rural Water is ready to roll.”
Sternberg and a group of ARWA staff: Terry Fortenberry, Circuit Rider; Bruce Anderson, Wastewater Trainer/Technician; and Josh Freeman, Circuit Rider vaulted into their trucks and moved out. “We slept in our trucks the first night and then the community provided us housing in their local church. Once we were headquartered in the church, the community provided us with excellent food which sure beat the MRE’s a.k.a. Meal’s Ready to Eat we were eating,” Sternberg recalled about the trip to Mississippi. “Once we arrived in Mississippi and delivered our generators, we stayed and provided assistance to systems in other areas including leak detection and valve and line location. We primarily worked in the Prentiss and Columbia area of Mississippi,” he stated. “At the same time, some of our staff went to help Louisiana Rural Water Association,” Sternberg recounted. Daniel Johnson, Circuit Rider and Charles Pitts, Wastewater Trainer/Technician joined Pat Credeur, LRWA Executive Director, and his staff at their Livingston Parish Command Center.
Shortly, after ARWA’s return to Arkansas, Hurricane Rita reared her ugly head in the Gulf of Mexico. After a few days, it became evident that that she was going to hit along the Louisiana / Texas border. She finally struck on September 24, 2005. Once again, Sternberg was on the phone. This time he was calling Credeur in Louisiana who indicated that mobile generators, manpower and equipment were definitely needed. Highway 63 Water Association and Grand Prairie Public Facilities Board volunteered their generators to Louisiana’s aid and ARWA brought their 24-foot Emergency Response Trailer full of equipment. Jeff Ford, ARWA’s Deputy Director joined Sternberg along with Fortenberry, Pitts and Freeman for the Louisiana assistance mission. “Upon delivering generators, we also assisted numerous water systems in evaluating their situations and provided them with much needed hands-on assistance along with motors, pumps, controls, line location, valve location, line repair, pump replacement, chlorinator repairs and countless of other activities,” Sternberg reiterated. In one place, Cameron Parish, we were short on generators. The system had a direct drive unit but it went under water when Rita’s storm surge plowed through the area. A couple of attempts had been made to get it running so the generator being used at the Hackberry transfer pump station site could be freed up to move further down the line to the Holly Beach transfer pump station.
He first tried to crank the unit and nothing happened. The guys who worked on it before said there was water in the engine. Ford said, “I actually think we just need to remove the distributor and completely dry it out. Plus, change the oil.” Next, he learned that the unit was hooked into a natural gas line that had probably been compromised during Rita’s assault. So, he did the next best thing. “Well, I had access to a 25 gallon propane tank and a fish fryer. It got me to thinking. Why not just pull the manual regulator off of the fish fryer, make a few adjustments, and hook it to the direct drive? So, the parish water operators, Mark Young, Gary Badon and I, did just that. What’d you know? It worked like a charm,” Ford recounted with a grin. “We let the unit run for 4 hours and realized it was going to stay online. We were then free to move the generator down to Holly Beach. It allowed us to flush the entire line to Johnson Bayou. I just chalk the whole thing up to rural ingenuity and a few years in the field,” Ford stated. Fortenberry who had also jumped right into the middle of the fray during both hurricanes recalled that communications were a major problem, “There was absolutely no cell phone or radio communications available in the early days after the storms. We lacked the ability to communicate with system operators and other co-workers on site.” “Maps of the water systems were lost or destroyed during the storms. If operators had not been present and knew their systems as well as they did it would have been impossible to provide assistance. Even with the operators knowing the location and layout of their system, it was still hard to locate, such things, as isolation valves because the landmarks were no longer there due to the storm debris piled on top of them,” Fortenberry said. “Construction and cleanup crews caused lots of damage after water systems were initially restored. This happened time and time again because the crews didn’t know where utility lines, meters, blow offs, hydrants, or sewer manholes were located. Debris was piled on top and around these things and when the clean up crews removed the debris these items were damaged causing more work for the already tired system operators,” Fortenberry said while shaking his head. “It was amazing.” “ARWA learned that fuel could be a major problem as well as communications in the effected areas. Lodging can also be a major problem for manpower and the assisting companies need to come prepared to house themselves if need be. For example, we installed a motor home air conditioner in our 24-foot Emergency Response Trailer to provide a cool place for the ARWA staff to sleep,” summarized Sternberg. He went on to summarize the experience, “The people of Mississippi and Louisiana were so appreciative of all the efforts from us. It is so rewarding to assist these people in their time of need. Arkansas Rural Water Association is ready to roll out the help again if ever the situation arises.” Related Stories -
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Rural
Water to the Rescue!
Sternberg
had lined up four generators from water and wastewater systems in his
area. Highway 63 Water Association-Rison, the City of Smackover Water
and Sewer, Grand Prairie Public Facilities Board and the City of Lonoke
all volunteered to send generators to Mississippi’s aid. 
Both
men assisted systems with assessments and provided leak detection, line
repair and wastewater assistance. 
Ford,
from Arkansas Rural Water, learned of the direct drive and asked, “May I
give it a shot to see if I can get it running? I’ve got a couple of
ideas.”