"Water, water, everywhere, nor any drop to drink": that line from the "Rime of the Ancient Mariner" perfectly describes the problem faced by several Southeastern Louisiana communities and parishes.
Because of that problem impacting area water systems, state officials are urging people NOT to run water in their homes at all.
"Man, I want this thing to go away," Louisiana Homeland Security and Emergency Preparedness Director Jacques Thibodeaux said, referring to both the freezing temperatures and the water pressure problems plaguing areas hit hardest by the winter storm. "We saw drops in water pressure all in the Acadiana area and some of the bayou/river parishes. That's coming to New Orleans and the Northshore."
He says officials began seeing problems with water systems on Wednesday in the Lafayette and Thibodaux areas.
"We started to see the fire hydrants and the flanges of the fire hydrants crack the water systems, and that leads to leaks, and we saw drops in water pressure," Thibodeaux said. "Now, (it becomes) a very critical, critical issue where firefighting and freshwater is our absolute concern from this afternoon into Friday and to Sunday."
Thibodeaux told WWL's Tommy Tucker that the state fire marshal is working with his office to get firefighters the water they need to do their jobs.
"We are putting water systems in place to support all the municipalities and the parishes, and it may be something like our fire departments getting unprocessed water from fresh bodies of water and putting them in tanker trucks so we have the ability to fight fires," Thibodeaux said.
Now, Thibodeaux and other state leaders are asking people to use and consume bottled water when possible to help prevent any further drops in water pressure and other water system problems.
"This is not going away any time soon," Thibodeaux said. "It is a stubborn system, and we're fighting it, and I think we're achieving success."
