'Water Mission' works to restore water to residents in Austin
AUSTIN, Texas - As nearly two weeks have passed from the Winter Storm, many in Austin still have no running water.
Residents say the simplest tasks, like washing the dishes, flushing the toilet, doing laundry, all have been taken for granted.
For some, they don't know when water is set to be turned back on.
Sergio Vela has now gone 14 days without running water, he says he gets updates from his apartment complex saying water will be restored "within 24 hours," but said that has been almost a week that they've been saying that.
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He rents hotel rooms for him and his fiancée to use in order to shower, but says he has no time frame on when his water is set to return.
For one group, they're trying to help. They spent the day restoring water to a group of mobile homes in North Austin.
"Water Mission" was restoring broken pipes and ruptured meters at the North Lamar Mobile Park.
"They were told it would be weeks and weeks, so there is a lot of relief," said John Peays, Director of Global Partnerships with Water Mission.
The organization brought in plumbers from several states to help with recovery efforts.
"We have plumbers who have come from Ohio, Pennsylvania, New York, Kansas and they have all come just to volunteer to help," he said.
Nicholas Ham included, traveling from Kansas to help those out here.
"The opportunity to get out here and help people get running water and help them out in this dire situation," Ham said.
He says seeing the impact they have, has been motivating.
"It makes me feel like I'm doing work that needs to be done and it is really, really uplifting," Ham said.
Adding much of the damage they are seeing has been busted pipes or ruptured meters, so to fix those repairs, only takes them less than an hour.
"Right now, it's only been about 10-15 minutes to repair those," he said. "But, depending on the location of where everything is at, if it's accessible or not, it could range to 30 minutes to an hour."
Peays said since they are a global organization, they're being called across the state to help. But, they will continue to help in whatever way they can.
"We're just going to be doing as much as we can," he said. "We know plumbers in Austin are working around the clock as well and we just want to be an addition and fill any gaps that exist."