It started innocuously enough: a press release from the city came out Wednesday, saying that Perkins Street would be closed from First Street A to Fourth Avenue.
At this time of year, it’s not uncommon to have a road closed due to a water main break. But Perkins is an arterial road, so it had my attention more than a statement about a road closure on a small, quiet residential street.
And the closure would be a block or two from my place. No big deal, it wasn’t right in front of my place.
Then we found out the water main break was on one of the big transmission lines in the city. A boil water order (we don’t get one of those very often) was in effect for all of Estevan south of the CP Rail tracks, and it would remain in effect for a few days.
Worst of all, from my perspective, no water for some properties south of Perkins Street. As it turned out, my condominium building was one of them. (Of greater significance, though, Hillcrest School was also impacted. Students at Hillcrest were out of school on Thursday).
It would take about 24 hours before the water was restored to my building. When you spend that much time without such a basic and essential service, you quickly realize how much you miss it.
I couldn’t have a shower Thursday morning. Thankfully, I didn’t have to cover a press conference or anything of the ilk Thursday. If I would have, people would have been social distancing away from me, trying to stay six feet away.
Water was restored Thursday afternoon, thanks to the efforts of the City of Estevan’s staff, who spent the night trying to locate the exact source of the water main break, and then went to work repairing it.
As you might remember, it was -30 C with the wind chill Wednesday night. There wasn’t an extreme cold warning out, but when it’s cold with a strong wind outside, it sure feels like extreme cold. You don’t need someone from Environment Canada telling you to stay indoors.
I don’t know about you, but when it’s -30 C outside, with or without the wind chill, I can think of a lot of things I’d rather be doing. I’d rather sit back in my recliner, sip a nice dark beer and read my book. At some point, it will be time to climb into my nice, warm bed.
I would have no interest in trying to find the exact location of a water break beneath the ground at 1 a.m.
Those who were at work that night certainly earned their keep.
You didn’t see many people taking to social media to grumble about the amount of time it took to restore water. The comments I saw were very appreciative of the efforts of city staff.
The boil water advisory ended Saturday for most in south Estevan, except for those who didn’t have water for 24 hours on Wednesday and Thursday. We still have to boil water if we want to use it for cooking, drinking, cleaning dishes or brushing our teeth.
Of course, it’s a relatively minor inconvenience. We have to boil water for a few days. I could still use the water for laundry, mopping the floors, showering and a host of other household tasks.
A friend of mine posted on Facebook on Thursday that so many communities in our country have had boil water advisories for years. Many people who are old enough to drive have had a boil water advisory their entire lives.
The Neskantaga First Nation in Ontario has had such a warning for 25 years. In this country, or any leading nation for that matter, it’s inexcusable.
And we were subject to a boil water order. We didn’t have a do not use order, which would be much worse.
Taking the dishes into the office to clean them a few times, or using bottled water instead of tap water to brush my teeth, doesn’t seem like such a bad proposition.
Most people in Estevan didn’t have a boil water order. For those that did, most were asked to boil water for 72 hours. In a few days, we’ll have other things to worry about, and the boil water order will seem like a distant memory.
And it’s not like most of us had to spend a night outside in the -30 C wind chill trying to get the water restored.
