WATKINS, Colo. - A mobile home community has been out of water for several days and there's no end in sight for the nearly 150 people who live there.
"People don't have water to brush your teeth, to cook, to go to bathroom, to shower, to flush the toilets. We're totally down. It's a crisis," said Judy Huff, general manager of the Galamb Mobile Home Park.
She started getting calls on Thursday from tenants noticing issues with their water. The maintenance team eventually discovered the pump that brings up well water had broken.
"We've got plenty of water underneath. The groundwater aquifer. We've got a little river underneath this park. It's not that, it's the fact that the pump just got tired," Huff said. "The pump from the well is 1,000 feet down. Not anybody can go down there. It has to be lifted up."
When park staff started making calls, they found business after business was closed for the Labor Day holiday weekend.
"They're just not here, and I understand that. So I don't blame anybody for that. But we need help," Huff said.
Her next set of calls were a little more dire.
"I called 911. They said, 'What's your emergency?' I said, 'My emergency is we don't have water.' [They said] 'Well, we don't cover that.' So then I called the fire department and they met me out the front of the park. I said, 'Can you give me some of your water?' [They said] 'The tanker was not potable, which means it's not drinkable,'" Huff said.
They believe the repairs will cost about $30,000. It's money they don't have at the moment after spending much of their emergency fund to fix damage done during severe storms this summer. Huff said her priority right now is to bring relief or a solution to her tenants as soon as possible.
For now, she's buying up packs and packs of bottled water for the families in the park. She's hoping someone with resources to connect the families with water while they wait for repairs, or a business willing to work over the weekend, will help.
"We have people, there's a doctor, we have a nurse, we have hairdressers, we have secretaries. We have bankers," Huff said. "There's the old adage of 'the trailer park people.' These aren't trailer park people. They are fabulous people."
If you are interested in helping out the Galamb Mobile Home Park, you can contact them by sending an email to: Bradleybriley66@outlook.com.
